St. Simon's Church
Signed Print

Lowry’s father Robert Lowry, was the motivator for this image, having suggested to his son that St. Simon’s Church was a subject worth studying. Perhaps his inspiration to paint St. Simon’s Church also came from the fact the church was scheduled for demolition and the image of the building seems to capture a resolute solidity against the doomed future. Dark and brooding against the Manchester sky, St. Simon’s church enters Lowry’s world, like many of his architectural motifs, full of presence and symbolism. Although Robert Lowry took little interest in his son’s artwork it was his advice to capture the last days of the church. Apparently, Lowry returned to the site a month later, but the building had been torn down. Lowry was no stranger to demolition, having been a ‘firewatcher’ during the Blitz, Lowry spent periods of the Blitz on the roofs of Debenhams and Lewis’s watching the destruction first-hand, which subsequently had a radical influence on his art.