Victoria the art history detective - part 1

I was discussing  "favorite artists" with a few college mates today and the subject of L.S.Lowry, my personal fave came up, I really like his style. Espeicially the peice "going to the match" below. I liked it because it reminded me of living up north as a child in lancashire.

 

 I also saw an artwork of a fairground that he had done, I thought it would be cool to make a 3d environment in his style. When I got home tonight I decided  to look again at the fairground painting.

After I studied the painting in more detail I looked beyond the merry go round at the background and it looked familiar to me the more I looked at it. It reminded me of my childhood. I realised why, because I had been to the place in the painting, or I thought I had, I was determined to find out if it was the same place I had visited on June the 16th every year as a child, and more importantly to get some evidence.

This painting was discovered to be lowrys in 2007 know one new it was  lowrys work until then.At the following link  Lowry nobody knew about it states that

" LS Lowry's Thirties painting A Fairground is thought to show Beswick fair, held in Manchester each Christmas"

I just know that this is absolutley 100% not the case, this painting is of blackpool pleasure beach, I remember The location of the rides and buildings from real life. I am determined to prove this. Time to get some evidence.

here is my prediction of what is what in this painting, that I believe still exists to this very day in blackpool pleasure beach.


Blackpool pleasure beach was founded in 1896 according to this source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleasure_Beach_Blackpool 34 years before this painting was made, this link tells of early rides such as sir hiram maxims flying machine, noahs ark and the big dipper, which were all made before this date.

The first major attraction to open at Pleasure Beach was the "Hiram Maxim Captive Flying Machine" in 1904. The next attraction, a water ride similar to a Mill Chute was opened in 1905 under the name "The River Caves of the World." The same year the name "Blackpool Pleasure Beach" was founded. Outhwaite died in 1911, leaving the initial business to Bean, however the Outhwaite family still had ownership in shares of the park, and would occasionally have input into the park's growth. Over the next few years, the park developed, with frequent large scale investments including the Virginia Reel, Whip, Noah's Ark, Big Dipper and Dodgems.

 Sir hiram maxims captive flying machine still exists today at the pleasure beach, here are a few pictures of then and now.

 


I found some information about the flying machine on this website blackpool history

The years 1902 to 1905 saw the building of the present Promenade between the North and South Piers, a project that involved reclaiming some 22 acres from the sea.  About the same time, the foundations for the Pleasure Beach were laid as the first substantial features were erected in the sand dunes beyond South Shore, for many years the home of gypsies and fairground artists.  One of the very first rides, Sir Hiram Maxim’s Captive Flying machine (1904), remains today though in somewhat different guise, but over the years many additional attractions have been added to create the present forty acre fun park.

 Noahs ark

Here are some old postcards that show noahs ark and flying machine, located in the same place as in the lowry painting........ in fact the architectural outlines have not changed in a quarter of a century.
I was dissapointed when i googled blqackpool pleasure beach 1930 because I found out that some blackpool journo had already discovered it a week after the painting was found.

I was going to go furthur into this, but I discovered it had already been foundout, so what the point :(

heres the link, link to discovery

whoopee dooo,

its an important part of the areas history though............ i was enjoying discovering that, guess im not the only art history detective out there.