Sailors’ Bethel, Horatio Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, seen from the east. The building was a nonconformist sailors’ chapel that replaced an earlier one on Manor Chare. It was designed by Thomas Oliver Junior, cost £2,000 and was opened on 12 April 1877. The Sunday School to the rear was added in 1900. It became a Danish Church after the Second World War but closed in 1949. The building was restored to use as offices in 1991.
The Bethel was painted by L. S. Lowry in 1965 and the original is in the collection of the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle.
“This picture shows the chapel on the corner of Horatio Street, near City Road in Newcastle. L.S. Lowry took several long painting holidays in the North East in the 1960s. Lowry has used his characteristic style, which he developed to suit the industrial and city subjects he generally painted. The blank, whitish background was used to set off the mass of hurrying figures and the heavily outlined architecture. According to the artist, he generally invented the figures in his pictures.”