Town Centre

Town Centre (1966) utilizes an upright, portrait format, and is like a portrait of a city, any city in the industrial north of England, with its clock tower dominating the scene, its crowds, and in the background, factory chimneys smoking. There are few cars to be seen, and what vehicles there are seem to be lorries rather than private conveyances. Apart from the clock tower, the buildings are relatively low key, not vast and domineering, though one cupola and spire combination emerges among the chimneys. The main element here is the crowd - the busy figures halted in conversation or hurrying to a rendezvous, spilling off the pavements and taking over the open spaces. The atmosphere is not 1966, but more like 1926. Lowry admitted he preferred to paint the past - his own past, in fact. The 1920s was the period he'd been happiest. He said: 'My interest in people is rooted there. I like the shapes of the caps. I like the working class bowler hats, the big boots and shawls'.

A.L.