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“Every photograph tells its own story. And make no mistake, Clarke is a master story-teller with a poet’s eye and wit, a genuine feel for the old game and the ability to capture its moods.”
Jeff Connor, North-West Evening-Mail 1991
“When Stuart Clarke takes his camera to a football ground it’s to record something far more valuable than mere superstars. Through his lens they become bit-part players, often not even that, in the broader picture. Those legendary feet worth x-million pounds are but a fleeting sideshow compared with the riches he sees.”
John Woodcock, Yorkshire Post 1992
“Slightly out of sync with the family trade (er, quantity surveying actually) Clarke went to Central London poly to study photography and film. To achieve the supreme technical quality he requires of himself, he will use only the kind of slow colour transparency film that would cause most of us to get camera-shake taking pictures on the beach if a cloud obscured the sun; on a wet night in November, this often means he is taking pictures at shutter speeds of a quarter of a second and longer.”
Jonathan Margolis, The Sunday Times, 1995.
“Like Cartier-Bresson, Clarke restricts himself to using standard focal length lens that most approximates the human’s eye view… nothing distorted by fancy optics. History’s judgement may be that Clarke’s photography, in its vast, still only half-completed archive, should be considered a national treasure.”
Jonathan Margolis, The Sunday Times, 1995.
“I think of all these images, which are enough to make the most hard-hearted factualist drum up a line of poetry, when I survey the beauty and grime and glory captured in these photographs by Stuart Clarke. They represent the myriad charms of the contemporary game, from the industrial backdrop of old Huddersfield, to the vast modernism of the new Ibrox, from the quaint pot-and-kettle backroom of Doncaster, to the teeming fanfare of a Championship decider. There is rioting modernism in these pictures together with slower-rhythmed songs of old. But the home of football remains a constant: sight, sound, smell, colour.”
Graham Spiers, Scotland On Sunday, 1996
“Little can dampen Clarke’s faith in a game that he still regards as a force for good – fulfilling our need for fantasy and a sense of belonging in a society where opportunities for mass gatherings and displays of intense feeling are comparatively rare.”
Chris Arnot, The Guardian, 1998
“With its cafes, gift shops and outdoor centres, Ambleside, on the banks of Lake Windermere, is a Blackpool for teachers rather than a home of football. Everyone wears boots, mind, but they are for walking not playing. And yet just off Ambleside’s main street is probably the most comprehensive, and certainly the most startling, exhibition of footballing photographs in the country.”
Tim Rich, The Newcastle Journal 1998
“For visitors who are committed football fans, one of the major attractions of The Homes of Football will be the fact that you can buy prints, posters and postcards of Stuart Clarke’s work – a nice change from all those tacky and over-priced items available at more mainstream outlets for soccer memorabilia.”
Manchester Evening News 1998.
“You have showed the real face of the game. Amusing and poignant, a homage to the beautiful game and the fans, even my football-hating girlfriend loved the place. Thank you.”
Steve Edge, football fan, 1999
“See it. Artists and photographers have captured the beat of the action, the sweep of the stadia, the whorl of football crowds in the past but only in separation or in pinpricks. Never before have these been brought so together, so consistently as Clarke’s. His eloquent lens tells, always compassionately, about an experience so regularly shared, so seldom vocalised by all of us who watch, play or simply live in the vicinity of football.”
Jonathan Northcroft, Scotland on Sunday 1996
“Stuart Clarke has brought to life the international game of football with a series of outstanding, innovative and often witty photographs...”
Bryan Robson, then manager of Middlesbrough 1996
“The exhibition really is paradise for any lover of football.The feelings I had were not dissimilar to walking into an empty stadium; soaking up the atmosphere and letting your imagination wander – you really do lose yourself in the surroundings.”
Mike Foster, Secretary, The FA Premier League, 1998
“Few people pop into the National gallery before a Saturday football fixture or reset their videos from Match of The Day so they can catch the Late Review. It seems that the worlds of art and football are mutually alien, divided along class lines, each mistrusting and resenting the other and each promoting knowledge and enjoyment of their interest to the exclusion of the casual supporter. It is a brave man who attempts to united these two cultures...”
The Sunday Times 1995
“These are like pictures from another world. In Blood Red Road End, Barnsley, the painted brick wall topped by shards of glass is like a Rothko; its companion piece Yellow Brick Road is as luminous as a Matisse from Morocco. The colour prints shine as if lit from within, and a burger stall outside Highbury looks as if it’s part of an avant-garde stage-set, lit by Caravaggio.”
Phil Johnston, The Independent 1998
“Anyone with a love of football will see their own feelings reflected in these glorious snapshots of time & mood.”
Alan Green, BBC Radio 5 Live, 1996
“A unique and wonderful collection of football scenes. Stuart Clarke puts a new perspective on the game.”
John Motson, BBC TV Commentator 1996
“If Nick Hornby gave the fan a voice in the Nineties, Clarke has given the fan a face.”
The Times Magazine 1999
“The Homes of Football is a real must for any football fan. It is an excellent collection of outstanding photographs which truly capture the passion of the game. There are shots from grounds up and down the country over a number of seasons - from the mightiest Premier Division stadiums to non-league minnows. Raw emotion is very much on display in this unique collection. They reveal the joy of promotion and the sadness of final games at old familiar grounds. It really is a gem.”
Right Hon Tony Blair, The Prime Minister 1997
“Clarke has clearly shown that the home of a supporter’s club is as essential to the entertainment value as the quality of a theatre is to its actors and audience.”
Gordon Taylor, Chief Executive, Professional Footballers Association, 1991
“A beautiful work.”
John Peel, BBC broadcaster 1999
“The photographs are fabulous - so vibrant and powerful.”
National Portrait Gallery 1997
“Arguably the best collection of football photography ever assembled in the UK.”
BBC TV 2001
“Arguably the best collection of football photography ever assembled in the UK.”
BBC TV 2001
“Awesome collection.”
Hewey Bay, Queensland, Australia, 18 Oct 09
“Like a kid in a sweet shop I could have stayed all day but the wife’s waiting outside.”
Ray Calderbank, Littleborough, Lancs, 20 Oct 2009
“Truly fantastic exhibition of football in its most purest form. A true pleasure and a priviledge.”
Pam, 20 Oct 2009
“Best football place I have ever been to and will stay that way forever. Awesome.”
Cameron. 21 Oct 2009
“Time stands still – happy memories never fade and the exhibition captures it all – ‘life is good’.”
Jackie , Bury St.Edmunds, 21 Oct 2009
“Memories flood back of visits to Villa Park in the 1960’s. Wonderful.”
Richard Farmer, Oxford. 12 Aug 2009
“Beautiful, breathtaking.”
Helene, Merseyside. 9 Aug 2009
“Not interested in football at all, but still recognised the skill and artistry in this exhibition – great!”
Philippa, Hull. 6 Aug 2009
“Amazing!! One of the best and moving exhibitions of art that we have seen.”
Belinda & Dennis, Lichfield. 4 Aug 2009
We’re usually open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. almost every day of the year. However, we will be closed much of the Spring on weekdays for refurbishment. Please do call ahead to check our current opening times.
Homes of Football, 100 Lake Rd, Ambleside, LA22 0DB, United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 (0) 15394 34440
A591 Kendal-Windermere-AMBLESIDE-Grasmere-Keswick. Connecting with A66 / M6.
Regular trains 7 days a week from Manchester/Airport, Oxenholme to Windermere. Bus link last 4 miles to Ambleside.
Buses from every direction park up almost right outside our door. Including National Express.
The nearest airports are Manchester & Newcastle Upon Tyne
Access for wheelchairs is limited, but our staff will be more than happy to help you. Do feel free to call ahead to let us know how we can help you.
To fully enjoy everything the gallery has to offer, we generally recommend around half an hour for your visit. Admission is free, but if you enjoy your visit, donations are always very welcome.
In 1888 Photography was a competitive business, and the four Mason brothers who ran the gallery on the corner of Lake Road, where The Homes of Football is now, were particularly well known for their expertise in sporting photography, especially of Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling.
Lovell was a brilliant ice skater. This proved a useful sporting skill during the spectacularly cold winters of the 1890s, when Windermere became a massive skating rink, attracting thousands by train from all over the north of England. Lovell, was able to skate with ease amongst the crowds with his photographic equipment and capture many memorable images.
The walls of the Mason Gallery were hung closely with Percy Masons paintings together with the other Masons' photography.
Years later, in 1955, when Masons had become The Art Gallery and was owned by the Standring family, a new writer of Lake District walking guides, Alfred Wainwright, called in with his publisher and asked if there was any display space available where he might promote his first book by exhibiting some of the illustrations.
The book was 'The Eastern Fells' and retailed at 12/6d. The original drawings were duly put on display and much admired, and the Ambleside Art Gallery was proud to be among the first to recognize his unique skills and to help make Wainwright's walking books into classic best-sellers.
The Mason Gallery's link with photographic art and the great outdoors continues to this day as The Homes of Football and now Football Photography & The World, both under Stuart Clarke.
