The Loovre

When I first moved to Kirkby Lonsdale, twenty-odd years ago, there was a Victorian Fair every September. People would dress up and there would be all sorts of events on in the town.

Over the years, the council started to charge more for admission to the fair, less people dressed up and the events morphed into stalls selling food, none of it noticeably Victorian. Basically, capitalism sucked the life out of a community event.

I was chatting to the landlord of the Royal Hotel, this evening, and he said people still ring up asking to book rooms during the Victorian Fair, even though it hasn't been on for years. But there have been efforts to replace it and this year we had The Big Weekend.

I took Dan and Abi along, this afternoon, after lunch. As we walked down into town from the Booths car park, I promised them both some spending money. The fire station was open and it looked as though you could take a look at the fire engine and there was a collectors' fair on at The Institute but once we got down into Kirkby there was nothing except some stalls in the market square selling food.

Then I remembered that my friend Ev Sinclair had mentioned that some of her work would be on display at Kirkby Lonsdale's new gallery, The Loovre, which has been fashioned from the erstwhile ladies' toilet*.

It's been done very nicely, a smallish square room, full of pictures and sculpture. Both the kids loved looking at the pictures and the lady inside talked to us about each of the artists in turn. There was someone in there when we arrived and then more people came in as we left. (There's a lesson to be learnt here, much like the success of Tate Modern compared with the damp squib of the Millenium Dome!)

*Fear not, Kirkby is not full of ladies crossing their legs after one cup too many in one of the tea rooms; the gents has been converted into two unisex toilets.