Derrick Lea ….. the man who drew Manchester

Today I have been reunited with Mr. Derrek Lea who drew Manchester in the 1950s and 60s.

St. Ann's Square, Manchester, circa 1950s-60s

His images include many of our iconic buildings as well as Chorlton where he lived and out into the leafy suburbs.

Piccadilly, Manchester, circa 1950s-60s

His work is instantly recognisable and crops up across social media, and yet most of his pictures are not attributed, and that is a great shame.

I first came across a collection of his Chorlton and Didsbury scenes which had had been marketed as picture postcards, and a few more from a calendar and while Mr. Lea was credited I could find little about him.

From the style and the clothes and cars I guessed most were drawn into the 1950s and into the next decade, but apart from a reference in a directory to an address in Chorlton he remained an elusive fellow.

Not that it stopped me reproducing his pictures on the blog and while I credited him no one came forward to tell me more about this remarkable artist.

Until a few weeks ago when the wife of his son contacted me with "Hi Andrew - you have written a blog about my father-in-law … Derrick Lea.   His son has tried to contact you. I thought it was wonderful that someone had looked and researched the life of Derrick and I knew it would be amazing for you to actually meet Derrick's son".

Mr. Derrick Lea, undated

And it was, because Jon Lea not only filled me in on his dad’s life, but shared three albums of Derrick’s work.  They spanned his war time service with the RAF in Africa, his stay in various Manchester hospitals and of course those prints of the city.

Piccadilly, Manchester, circa 1960s

He was a prolific artist working in water colours, line drawings and prints which are accompanied with letters, official notes and his own observations and comments.

It was a smashing hour and half in which the conversation ranged over his dad’s early life, his work as a commercial artist and the question of how best to preserve the collection.

And Jon followed it up yesterday by sending over a wide selection of scanned copies of the pictures.

In return with Jon’s permission the images will be posted on the blog, and unlike some artists I have featured, Mr. Lea went out and drew and painted his pictures in situ which makes them a wonderful historic record and unique in that they are not based on photographs and so add to our knowledge.

John Rylands Library, Manchester, circa 1950s-60s

The difficulty then became what pictures to use for the first of the series.  I know I should have asked Jon and Hazel and for future stories I will approach them, but today I just chose four that resonate with me.

Leaving me just to thank Jon and Hazel for making the effort to contact me and then to share this wonderful collection.

Pictures; St Ann’s Square, Piccadilly and the John Rylands Library, circa 1950s-60

Next; Mr. Lea's life