Bartimaeus

I was first introduced to the works of L S Lowry more than fifty years ago by my grandmother.  Visiting the galleries bearing his name has been on my to-do list since they first opened over twenty years ago. It was on my list of possibles ten years ago when we had our anniversary holiday in S for Salford and Sale, but somehow we didn’t get there.

So this morning we set off on foot for The Lowry.  The direct route there was dominated by big roads, but we cut through some back streets via some parkland and an interesting church. 

Art criticism is not my strong point, so I will simply recommend a visit.  I was pleased to see a number of the iconic paintings Lowry is known for alongside others that showed more depth to his work and insight in to his character.

We walked back by a different route, starting by crossing the modern swing-bridge over the Manchester Ship Canal.  While we were crossing, a boat driving under it caught our attention.  We later saw it overtake us as it passed under the modern lift-bridge upstream.

We were on the towpath of the Bridgewater Canal later when we reached the locks that lead down to the Ship Canal.  I was surprised to see a boat about to come out of the locks and stopped to watch.  It was the same boat we’d seen earlier – and now we could see it was called L S Lowry.

The crew executed a slick turn out of the lock by deploying a pre-knotted rope on to a bollard by the lock gate.  The boat pivoted gracefully missing the opposite bank with a few feet to spare.  We could now hear the party going on inside.  The boat matched our pace as we walked back in to town – at one point we were greeted by one of the revellers on board.  As we neared the basin we realised this was the sister boat to Emmeline Pankhurst we had noticed on the way in yesterday.

I assumed they would moor up there, but they continued on.  When we got back to Bartimaeus we were surprised to find that we had gone to The Lowry and L S Lowry had come to us.

The revellers soon disembarked and the boat reversed away to join its famous sister.