Shop Front Stories
OBJECT: Bridge House Painting - Kurt Schwitters
LOCATION: Bridge House
Our first object for the trail is this painting of the Bridge House by Kurt Schwitters. But what hidden story does this reveal? Well, the Bridge House is one of the oldest buildings in Ambleside, and it has long had ties to business. It was built by the Braithwaites, the richest family in the area in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. They built their fortune through the local wool trade and agriculture. Ambleside received its Market Charter in 1650 due to the family’s influence in the area, and the Bridge House is the only building from their estate that still stands today. The house has mainly been used commercially since the early 1800s, even after it was given to the National Trust in 1928 by the people of Ambleside. In the 1940s, the Trust leased the Bridge House to Margaret Thomson, and later her daughter and son-in-law Mr and Mrs Osman, and the family used it as an antique and gift shop. But where does the link with this painting fit in and who was Kurt Schwitters?
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Kurt Schwitters was a German artist who arrived in Ambleside in 1945. He specialised in collage and graphic design, but was best known for his ‘Merz’ installations and assemblages.
After the Nazi party rose to power in 1933, Schwitters found that his work had been declared as ‘Entartete Kunst’, meaning degenerate art, by the new regime in Germany. Kurt and his son Ernst fled to Norway in 1937, then to Britain in 1940. He was imprisoned in internment camps until 1941 and struggled to rebuild his career in London afterwards. In 1945, Schwitters arrived in Ambleside with his partner Edith Thomas. During his time here, he created lots of collages, landscapes, and portraits. He needed somewhere to sell these works and the Bridge House was the perfect location. So, during the 1940s when it was Margaret Thomson’s shop, you would have found a selection of Schwitters’ paintings here. Maybe you would have even found this one of the Bridge House, which he painted the year he arrived here, in 1945.
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From the Bridge House continue along Rydal Road, past the Apple Pie café. When you reach the traffic lights, keep on the same pavement and travel down Compston Road past The Climbers Shop on the corner. Walk along this road until you come to a building with purple windows and door. This is our next trail point. The walking time is approximately four-five minutes.