Match-Stick Men vs. Modern Property Developers: Manchester's L.S. Lowry Dispute
L.S. Lowry is probably Manchester's most famous painter, a high accolade in a fairly small pool of painting talent. His stick-men and women move around vacant functional spaces as if they were component parts of the machines that made Manchester's pre-war wealth. They sell for millions.
But are developers about to destroy one of the key locations depicted by Lowry as part of their attempt to remake the city?
Campaigners have raised concerns about the fate of the Irk Place steps, painted by Lowry in 1928. Friends of Angel Meadow suggested that the steps, which link the street to the old parochial burial ground, will be demolished as part of Far East Consortium's latest phase of the £1B-plus Northern Gateway redevelopment. The burial ground itself features in a yet more significant Lowry painting, Britain at Play.
The heritage statement from FEC accompanying the application said that Plot 3 was flanked by two sets of stone steps, one of which has been bricked up, with the accessible steps known as the 'Lowry Steps', referencing the Salford-born painter.
However, the statement by the applicants concluded by dismissing the Lowry association.
"Collectively the four plots within the development site do not embody any notable, positive communal associations as a contributor to the social and economic life of Manchester city centre. The green space and its enclosing neighbourhood were the subject of numerous studies and reports of their poverty and squalor by C19th writers, including Engels, while L.S.Lowry depicted a vibrant working-class community in the inter-war period. There is only limited surviving physical evidence of either period, thus the existing development site is considered to be of low communal value," the document said.
The Angel Meadow planning application is for four residential buildings (a 22-storey building, a 17-storey building, a 40-storey building, and a part-12, part nine-storey building) to form 756 apartments.
Bisnow approached Far East Consortium, which declined to comment.
The Irk Place painting was sold in 2010 by a local collector in a £5M sale.
