Visit Homes of Football
"One of two 'musts' in Ambleside" Rough Guide To Britain
Here is a permanent display and collection of Stuart Clarke's work in the English Lake District, at Ambleside. It has been here 8 years and houses all his football and non-football photography, some of which is on display. From May 2006 visitors can expect to see a programme of Clarke exhibitions in the lower gallery, for which there will be a small charge. Stuart is in situ approx once a week (call if you wish to meet him). The Lake District boasts the most extraordinary landscape.
How to find us
How to get here
Ambleside can be reached by road and bus and Windermere has a train station. Nearest airports are Manchester & Newcastle Upon Tyne.
Some history
1888 Photography was a competitive business, and the four Mason brothers who ran the gallery on the corner of Lake Road, where The Homes of Football is now, were particularly well known for their expertise in sporting photography, especially of Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling. Lovell was a brilliant ice skater. This proved a useful sporting skill during the spectacularly cold winters of the 1890s, when Windermere became a massive skating rink, attracting thousands by train from all over the north of England. Lovell, was able to skate with ease amongst the crowds with his photographic equipment and capture many memorable images.
The walls of the Mason Gallery were hung closely with Percy Masons paintings together with the other Masons' photography. Years later, in 1955, when Masons had become The Art Gallery and was owned by the Standring family, a new writer of Lake District walking guides, Alfred Wainwright, called in with his publisher and asked if there was any display space available where he might promote his first book by exhibiting some of the illustrations. The book was 'The Eastern Fells' and retailed at 12/6d. The original drawings were duly put on display and much admired, and the Ambleside Art Gallery was proud to be among the first to recognize his unique skills and to help make Wainwright's walking books into classic best-sellers.
The Mason Gallery's link with photographic art and the great outdoors continues to this day as The Homes of Football and now Football Photography & The World, both under Stuart Clarke.
