diff --git a/Code/GraphMol/MolDraw2D/MolDraw2DSVG.h b/Code/GraphMol/MolDraw2D/MolDraw2DSVG.h
index 15fd975d3..b85829ca1 100644
--- a/Code/GraphMol/MolDraw2D/MolDraw2DSVG.h
+++ b/Code/GraphMol/MolDraw2D/MolDraw2DSVG.h
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 #define MOLDRAW2DSVG_H
 
 #include <iostream>
+#include <sstream>
 #include "MolDraw2D.h"
 
 // ****************************************************************************
@@ -25,8 +26,12 @@ namespace RDKit {
   class MolDraw2DSVG : public MolDraw2D {
 
   public :
+    // initialize to use a particular ostream
     MolDraw2DSVG( int width , int height , std::ostream &os ) : 
       MolDraw2D( width , height ) , d_os( os ) { initDrawing(); };
+    // initialize to use the internal stringstream
+    MolDraw2DSVG( int width , int height ) : 
+      MolDraw2D( width , height ) , d_os(d_ss) { initDrawing(); };
 
     // set font size in molecule coordinate units. That's probably Angstrom for
     // RDKit. It will turned into drawing units using scale_, which might be
@@ -50,8 +55,11 @@ namespace RDKit {
     void getStringSize( const std::string &label , float &label_width ,
                         float &label_height ) const;
 
+    // this only makes sense if the object was initialized without a stream
+    std::string getDrawingText() const {return d_ss.str(); };
   private :
     std::ostream &d_os;
+    std::stringstream d_ss;
 
     void drawChar( char c , const std::pair<float,float> &cds );
     void initDrawing();
diff --git a/Code/GraphMol/MolDraw2D/test1.cpp b/Code/GraphMol/MolDraw2D/test1.cpp
index be776141f..82143a55d 100644
--- a/Code/GraphMol/MolDraw2D/test1.cpp
+++ b/Code/GraphMol/MolDraw2D/test1.cpp
@@ -38,6 +38,21 @@ void test1(){
     outs.flush();
     delete m;
   }
+  {
+    // make sure this works with the stringstream too:
+    std::string smiles="CO[C@@H](O)C1=C(O[C@H](F)Cl)C=C1ONNC[NH3+]";
+    ROMol *m = SmilesToMol(smiles);
+    TEST_ASSERT(m);
+    RDDepict::compute2DCoords(*m);
+    WedgeMolBonds(*m,&(m->getConformer()));
+    MolDraw2DSVG drawer(300,300);
+    drawer.drawMolecule(*m);
+    drawer.finishDrawing();
+    std::string text = drawer.getDrawingText();
+    TEST_ASSERT(text.find("<svg:svg")!=std::string::npos);
+    TEST_ASSERT(text.find("</svg:svg>")!=std::string::npos);
+    delete m;
+  }
   {
     std::string smiles="Cc1c(C(=O)NCCO)[n+](=O)c2ccccc2n1[O-]";
     ROMol *m = SmilesToMol(smiles);
diff --git a/Code/JavaWrappers/MolDraw2D.i b/Code/JavaWrappers/MolDraw2D.i
index 7f79b7b4b..cd4666a20 100644
--- a/Code/JavaWrappers/MolDraw2D.i
+++ b/Code/JavaWrappers/MolDraw2D.i
@@ -40,6 +40,8 @@
 %template(INT_DRAWCOLOUR_MAP) std::map< int, RDKit::DrawColour >;
 %template(DrawColour) boost::tuple<float,float,float>;
 
+%ignore RDKit::MolDraw2DSVG::MolDraw2DSVG(int,int,std::ostream &);
+
 %include <GraphMol/MolDraw2D/MolDraw2D.h>
 %include <GraphMol/MolDraw2D/MolDraw2DSVG.h>