Bridge End Berwick upon Tweed 1938 oil on canvas
Skilfully placed patches of pure red paint - Lowry’s favourite colour - draw you into this composition. Many of the women wear scarlet bonnets, even the tiniest figures in the background. By organising such bright colour in this way Lowry has created a remarkably cheerful mood in the painting: and the little boy with spindly legs, stepping out so purposefully in the centre, lends humour to the scene. The Town Hall no longer looks so grim and is reduced to a ghostly presence in the upper left. The large building with a high pitched roof in the top right is an old granary in Eastern Lane close to the Maltings Arts Centre which opened in 1990.
Lowry possessed a keen eye for the incongruous. He cannot have failed to be amused by the inscription on the premises of William Cowe and sons: “Home of the original Berwick Cockles.” Berwick cockles are mild, peppermint flavoured sweets first sold in 1801.
And what of Berwick today?
This view has barely changed and Lowry would easily recognise it today ,
“Cockle Cowes” is still there and still making the sweets. The shop has remained the same for generations and Locals and visitors alike enjoy visiting the shop because of it’s ‘old world’ feel.
Bridge end is part of the lower part of Berwick at the end of Bridge street , which is arguably better that the high street.
L.S. Lowry (1887-1976), one of Britain’s best-loved painters, was especially fond of Berwick upon Tweed. He visited the town many times from the mid-1930’s until the summer before he died. He would stay in the Castle Hotel but he thought about buying a house on the Elizabethan walls. The Berwick Lowry Trail identifies the sites of many of his finest paintings and drawings of the town and allows you to follow in his footsteps.