John Grimshaw and Leeds

I have always been fascinated by "Then & Now's", comparing old paintings and postcards with the same urban view today. On a visit up north to see our daughter I came across the Leeds born victorian painter John Atkinson Grimshaw {1836-1893} who specialised in atmospheric nocturnal scenes full of moonlight. Two of his paintings in the Leeds City Art Gallery are readily identifiable today. The first is "Leeds Bridge" painted in 1880 is identifiable today, comfortably from the riverside rooms of the charming Malmaison Hotel. Standing on the bridge the Leeds Parish Church is visible in the distance with warehouses on either side.

The second painting "Park Row Leeds" painted in 1882 is more confusing until, with the help of the Local History Dept at Leeds Library, one learns that the spired church in the distance was demolished and replaced by "Permanent House" in 1936 for the Leeds Permanent Building Society and, now, the Radisson Hotel. In the painting the eclectic gothic revival building on the right, the Leeds Old Bank, has been replaced by the The NatWest and Santander banks. On the left was a museum.  

This is my first unassisted blog and I await, with certain trepidation, my daughter's comments, she has put this blog together for her "nerdy" father.