Long Millgate, Manchester, 1820

Paul Braddon 1864 - 1937

Summary

A street of old houses seen at a slight angle, receding to the right. This is a view of Old Millgate, Manchester, painted well after it had ceased to look like this (a note on the back of the painting records that the houses were demolished in 1872). Each house has a different height and construction-type to the others, giving the street a higgledy-piggledy charm. The nearer houses have steep gables, and are half timbered, with mullioned windows. One has some shallow steps leading to its front door. Another is the premises of a rag and scrap metal dealer. A lower, even ricketier wooden-framed house, with a protruding first floor, is squeezed in the middle, next to a tall Georgian town house. The street has several passers by, most wearing dark hats. Three men carry a sedan chair. The light is low, and it is perhaps evening, as birds are flying above the roofs.