Who was LS Lowry? 12 facts about Going to the Match as King Charles visits Manchester

The Manchester City fan's painting was bought at auction for £7.8 million in 2022

Going to the Match, by English artist LS Lowry. AFP

On a trip to northern England King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla will view one of the world’s most famous paintings, LS Lowry’s Going to the Match, in Bolton.

Earlier, they also visited the surveillance centre at Government Communications Headquarters — commonly known as GCHQ — in Manchester, where they met spy agency bosses and schoolchildren working on projects.

The royal couple also dropped in at the huge Kellogg’s factory in the area, where they talked about food poverty programmes and environmentally-friendly initiatives.

LS Lowry's Going to the Match

1. LS Lowry’s Going to the Match was inspired by Bolton Wanderers Football Club’s Burnden Park ground.
2. It is now on display at Bolton Town Hall, Greater Manchester
3. It was bought at auction for £7.8 million ($9.6 million) in 2022, with a donation from The Law Family Charitable Foundation
4. The donation helped keep the painting in the Greater Manchester area
5. Lowry’s style has become well-loved and famous far beyond just the art world
6. Lowry was born in Stretford, Lancashire in 1887, and died in 1976 in Glossop, Derbyshire
7. Many of his work portrays local industrial scenes
8. Going to the Match is one of his most immediately recognisable works
9. He was never a full-time artist and for four decades had a day job as a rent collector
10. He trained at Salford School of Art and Municipal College of Art, studying under the French impressionist Adolphe Valette
11. He supported Manchester City Football Club
12. Other celebrated works include Coming from the Mill, Going to Work, Industrial Landscape and Man Lying on a Wall

What is GCHQ Manchester?

1. Northern England branch of the surveillance and monitoring centre in Cheltenham — the ring-shaped building that officials, for years, denied was a surveillance centre
2. Responsibilities include disrupting threats to the UK
3. Walls and windows have enhanced security features to protect against outside threats
4. Based in Heron House, central Manchester, it opened in 2019

Why visit the Kellogg’s factory?

1. Largest cereal factory in Europe and the biggest Corn Flake centre in the world
2. Royal couple saw food poverty and eco initiatives that the company is supporting
3. Kellogg’s is a major supplier to FareShare Greater Manchester, which tackles food poverty and childhood hunger
4. Kellogg’s is also working on sustainable packaging and energy use
5. Kellogg’s first earned a royal charter during the reign of King George VI

King Charles III visits north-west England - in pictures