Britain At Play

Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A. (1887-1976)
Britain at Play, c.1974-6
Offset lithograph on wove paper, after the original oil painting from 1943 of the same title (Collection: The Usher Museum, Lincoln)
Signed ‘L.S Lowry’ lower right in pencil 
Stamped by The Fine Art Trade Guild and numbered from the edition of 850
Published by Mainstone Print Publications
Printed by Beric Press Ltd.
Size: 17.5 x 23.5 in. (44.5 x 59.5 cm.)

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This scene depicts Angel Meadows in Manchester, an area renowned for being the most dangerous slum of the Industrial Revolution during the Victorian era. In 1849, a journalist described it as "The lowest, most filthy, most unhealthy, and most wicked locality in Manchester…It is full of cellars and inhabited by prostitutes, their bullies, thieves, cadgers, vagrants, tramps and, in the very worst sties of filth and darkness, by those unhappy wretches the 'low Irish.”  The most infamous section of Angel Meadows was the burial ground of St Michael’s Church – featured in central background of the present work – which was the location of mass graves containing upwards of 40,000 paupers. 
Friedrich Engels, socialist philosopher and author, described Angel Meadows as ‘Hell upon Earth”, remarking upon the “filth, ruin, and uninhabitableness, the defiance of all considerations of cleanliness, ventilation, and health which characterise the construction of this single district, containing at least twenty to thirty thousand inhabitants.”  Almost one hundred years later, in stark contrast, Lowry chose to depict this area as one of leisure and enjoyment. Instead of his usual subject-matter – figures trudging to or from work – these milling crowds are enjoying a rare day off, enjoying a holiday with their families and loved ones. 
Parks were, for many years, centres for community activity, drawing vast numbers of people at weekends and public holidays. The sketches for the swings which Lowry have included in the park in the background are in the collection of the Lowry Collection, Salford. This landscape also includes elements based on Peel Park, Salford, a location Lowry depicted on several occasions over his career. By bringing together aspects of different towns, Lowry creates an imaginary composite scene of a non-specific location, one which is able to represent the Northwest of England more generally, rather than a singular town. Many English towns in Lowry’s native region of Manchester evoked a similar attitude due to their collective connections to the milling industry.
The original Britain at Play painting was first exhibited at the Lefevre Gallery in 1943, then subsequently at the Contemporary Arts Society (1960), The Royal Academy of Arts (1976) and the Artists International Association (1986). Today it hangs in the Usher Museum, Lincoln.