The Lowry

The Lowry is a performing-arts and gallery centre on Pier 8 at Salford Quays, Salford, Greater Manchester, England. Opened in 2000, the angular building of steel and glass, with its shimmering metal cladding, sits on the waterfront beside the Lowry Footbridge and the Imperial War Museum North across the Manchester Ship Canal. It is named after the painter LS Lowry, who is best known for his scenes of industrial northern England, and it holds the largest public collection of his works. The Lowry galleries, which are free to enter, display paintings and drawings of the matchstick-figure crowds, mills and streets that he made famous, alongside changing exhibitions of contemporary art. The complex also contains two main theatres and a studio, which stage touring musicals, plays, ballet, opera, comedy and family shows, and there are restaurants, bars and a shop. Galleries are open daily from about 11:00 to 17:00, and theatres open for performances, with tickets from about £15 (~$20). A visit to the galleries takes one to two hours. Many visitors combine an afternoon in the galleries with an evening show. Weekday daytimes are quietest, while weekends and performance evenings are busiest. The centre is a ten-minute walk from the MediaCityUK Metrolink stop, and the trip from Piccadilly takes about twenty minutes. Salford Quays offers waterside walks, and the building and the footbridge are favourite subjects for photographers, particularly at sunset when the cladding reflects the water. Photography is generally allowed in public areas but is restricted inside theatres during performances.