The Goldstone Wrap

Here is a beautiful painting of the Goldstone Ground by the renowned artist Fred Yates:

All the idiosyncrasies of the stadium are captured in a larger-than-life fashion, such as the advertising hoardings, the stands that don’t cover all the spectators, down to the corrugated metal walls that survived into the 1990s.

According to Wikipedia:

Fred Yates was born in Urmston, Lancashire, England in 1922. He began his working life as an insurance clerk but this career was cut short by the Second World War.

After the war Yates took up painting on his return to Manchester – initially as a painter and decorator. It was whilst working in Manchester, and training to become a teacher, that Yates began painting – much in the vein of L. S. Lowry; although he strove for recognition in his own right, and achieved this in his later years.

The supremely vivid ‘Saturday Afternoon’ was used on promotional material, and was on display, at ‘Brighton & Hove Albion – 99 Years of Entertainment and Passion’, an exhibition at Hove Museum and Art Gallery from September to November 2000.

It was also on show at Brighton & Hove Museum’s ‘Paintings Unwrapped’ exhibition from December 2008 to April 2009.

Regretfully, Yates died of a heart attack in July 2008. To find out more about his life and work, visit The Fred Yates Society.