LIKE the BEN, I am a great admirer of L S Lowry's paintings, especially Going To The Match. When I first saw it in the '50s, I loved it but did not connect it with Burnden Park, which was nothing like the picture shows, even in the 1950s.
The picture could only possibly be of the Great Lever End, except the stand there had a roof, but, on the picture, it is open to the sky. The scene to the right is pure fiction. In reality, there were, and still are, rows of terraced properties and, unusually for Bolton at the time, no mill chimney stacks in that part of the town. On match days, the area of the picture where people are walking would have been full of cars and coaches. Pedestrians had to dodge between them. Why are they going to the Great Lever End? Some of us preferred the Railway Embankment End with more space and a better view. They do not look or dress like '50s people. Hats went out of fashion in the '50s -- especially with ex-Servicemen. Where are the children? Parents took their kids to matches. Others went in groups. No one took dogs. Many wore scarves etc in the club colours. Even fat people attended matches. Where are the Police, Police horses, programme sellers, ice cream vans, other vendors, the children who queued for players' autographs, the BEN vehicle which printed the green Final with the day's match results available to us as we left the match?
What are the two lines across the foot of the picture? Are they the road? If so, where is the traffic? I agree, a painter is allowed artistic licence, but this just is not Burnden Park. The picture does not reflect the atmosphere and anticipation of people attending a 1950s' match -- the hurly-burly comradeship, expectancy, sense of humour, joy of living of the occasion. They cannot be shown in a picture. I am sure in the BEN archives there is a more realistic picture. Ask Les Gent.
Nothing I say lessens my regard for Lowry. I can recommend a visit to the Lowry Centre. We should be proud of Lowry, but also proud of Burnden Park as it was in the '50s.
George K Brown
Barncroft Road
Farnworth
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