Art in Westbrook

Following Darlington’s burgeoning prosperity in industry and commerce came an increase in interest in the Arts and this aspect of Victorian life is reflected in the street’s Victorian residents.

Picture: Old Mill by Samuel Elton

Samuel Elton 1827-1886

The first Head of the Darlington School of Art at the Mechanics Institute was Samuel Elton whose house, the present no 21 was built for him in 1865. His pictures are in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and in the Bowes Museum.

Picture: View on the River Tees by Samuel Elton

Edgar Elton

Edgar Elton succeeded his father as the second head of the Darlington School of Art. He lived first in the paternal home then later in No 15.

Picture: Samuel Elton

Victor William Garribaldi Hobson

Another artist whose choice of career must surely have been influenced by the talented artists up the street was Victor William Garribaldi Hobson. Born in 1865, in Brookside, round the corner from Westbrook Villas in one of the many S&D Railway Houses in Darlington, He moved in the same year with his father and mother to their newly built home in what is now 11 Westbrook Villas.

For more on Victor Hobson see Biographies

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Hobson, who was acclaimed by his contempories as a genius and won many prizes was in my view was a much more talented artist than the Eltons. Sadly he died very young of consumption so few of his works are known. There are pictures by him in Darlington Arts Centre, Manchester City Art Gallery and a particularly fine one, Rigg Mill, Whitby can be seen on the second floor in Bowes Museum. This painting, previously out on loan, was in good condition but the varnish was discoloured. This has been cleaned off by the Museum and the restored painting looks magnificent.It can be seen in the room next to the silver swan in Bowes Museum. The oil painting of him by his friend John Lee (shown above) can
be seen in Darlington Art Centre.

Picture: Rigg Mill, Whitby by Hobson.

Picture: Old Man by Hobson

Georgina Mary Green

Georgina Mary Green was a Victorian artist who lived in No 12 Westbrook Villas from around 1906 until her death on 16 Jan 1922. She was born in Rock Ferry, Birkenhead, Cheshire on 27 Nov 1848 and came from a middle class family whose family owned Green's’s Bank in Wakefield. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art at University College in the University of London soon after it was founded with money left by Felix Slade, a wealthy art collector from Yorkshire. According to the 1881 Census the family lived in West Row, St John’s, Wakefield, and Georgina’s profession was recorded as artist (painter). On May 17 1882 at St John’s Church in Wakefield she married Joseph Stockton King, a mariner whose family lived in York, by whom she had 3 sons in 1884, 1886, and 1888. She removed the family from Hull to Barnard Castle to be near Barnard Castle County School, attended by her three sons. Later the family moved to Darlington so her two younger sons, Kenneth and Donald could be apprenticed in the North Road Railway Shops. Picture:Burnham Beeches by Georgina Mary Green