LS LOWRY is famed for painting matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs. And he painted kids on the corner of the street that were sparking clogs.
But now we know he also painted curiously curved chimneys in Durham City.
Unfortunately we don’t own one, more’s the pity, but Michael Richardson has just acquired a copy of one for his fabulous Gilesgate Archive.
“It was described as an ‘Unusual Chimney, County Durham, c.1965’,” says Michael. “I knew when I saw it that it was 173 Gilesgate showing ‘Salkeld’s Chimney’ which was on the south side at the bottom of Gilesgate Bank in Durham City.”
Several generations of Salkelds lived in the house, starting with Ralph Salkeld (above), who was born in 1846. He became an apprentice printer with the Echo's sister paper, the Durham County Advertiser, and by 1873, he had become its managing director.
The Salkelds may not have known they possessed a curved chimney, which must have been built by an ingenious DIYer to solve a problem of how to attach a new fireplace to an existing chimney which isn’t directly above it, because it didn’t become visible until about 1963 when the buildings around it were demolished.
Michael, of course, has a picture of the chimney (above) – which was much talked about in Durham in its day – although it was soon taken down as part of the same demolition. Today, there is no sign it ever existed (see the view as it looks today below).
This is the first known evidence of Lowry – the most popular painter of the 20th Century – being in Durham City, and Michael wonders how many more sketches there might be.
Although Lowry is most keenly linked to his native north west – there are 300 of his industrial paintings in a gallery in Salford – he was also a big fan of the Durham and Northumberland coast.
Lowry (above) started visiting the North East in the mid 1930s and carried on until his death in 1976, aged 88. Indeed, from 1960, he stayed every year in the Seaburn Hotel (now the Grand) on Sunderland’s seafront, preferring Room 104, if possible. He liked cold roast beef, and sketched on napkins which he gave away to passers-by.
The River Wear painted by LS Lowry in 1961
He painted scenes from Berwick (which has a Lowry trail) to Boro, and also he painted empty seascapes.
St Hilda's, the historic centre of old Middlesbrough, as sketched by LS Lowry. The church has gone, but the town hall and clocktower at the far end still cling to existence - Lowry would have liked their decay
He explained his attraction to the North East when he wrote: “I am very fond of the sea, how wonderful it is and yet how terrible it is. I often think about what would happen if the sea changed its mind and didn’t turn the tide and it came on and on. That would be the end of it all.”
He was also friendly with the Spennymoor artist, Norman Cornish, although they were very different painters: Lowry was an outside observer of his communities whereas Cornish was immersed within his. Lowry owned a Cornish painting of a Durham coalmine, they shared an agent in Newcastle and when Lowry had an exhibition on Tyneside in 1964, Cornish sketched a picture of his friend to appear alongside the review in the Advertiser’s sister paper, The Northern Echo (below).
But until now, there wasn’t any evidence that Lowry had left the coast and ventured in land to Durham.
“I would like to ask readers if they know of any other sketches by Lowry of the city?” asks Michael.
Email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk, or go to Michael’s Facebook group (search “Durham City (Photo) History Group” on Facebook), where Michael displays many items from his Gilesgate Archive.
Dockside, the Sunderland staithes painted by Lowry in 1962
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