Lowry’s old home... complete with paint marks on floor!
THE former home of LS Lowry is up for sale... and it still has traces of the artist’s paintwork.
Best known for his matchstick men and women, Lowry was one of Britain’s most-celebrated painters – but he lived an unassuming life in the Mottram home from 1948 until his death in 1976.
It was here where he was at his most prolific, producing several of his most important works in the house.
The solid stone Tameside home is now up for sale for £325,000.
Its current owners say they are reluctantly leaving their family home, which features a prominent blue plaque, but will not be disappointed to no longer have tourists knocking on their door.
Chris Byrd and wife Alice, both 33, live in the property with daughter Maggie.
Mr Byrd said: “It’s quite interesting, we get people knocking on the door every now and again asking to come in and have a look. I think they’re half expecting it to be a museum inside.”
“One of the most interesting things, however, is that where our dining room is now was where Lowry had his studio and if you pull up the carpet you can still see flecks of oil paint.
“And when we were redecorating the lounge we took down the wallpaper and behind it there were outlines from where he had put his paintings up.
“If you look at old photographs of him in the house you can see it’s exactly how it was.”
Spread across three levels, the house in Stalybridge Road has two large living rooms, a toilet and a kitchen on the ground floor.
The basement has been converted into a cinema room and on the top two floor are the four bedrooms, a family bathroom and an en-suite. There is also a spacious garden. Lowry produced some of his most famous works at the house, including Agricultural Fair, which depicts huge crowds flocking to a fair in Mottram, and the controversial The Contraption and The Cripples – both studies of human affliction.
And it was during his time in Mottram that Lowry’s reputation as an artist spread beyond Manchester.
Shortly before his death, there was an exhibition of his works at the Royal Academy, which broke all records for a 20th Century artist.
The blue plaque reads: “The paintings of Lowry documented the lives of ordinary people in the industrial communities of the North West.”
Photgraphs of Lowry at the home – which also doubled as a studio – were taken by photographer Clive Arrowsmith during the 1960s and are on display at the Lowry gallery in Salford until tomorrow.