Undiscovered art

Have we found Gateshead’s answer to Norman Cornish? Brian Rankin believes that Charlie Rogers’ work is precisely that.

Rogers, who died in 2020, spent his life painting scenes on both sides of the Tyne. From the 1960s onwards, he quietly chronicled a time of great change. His work has the same eye for the everyday that we find in Cornish’s Spennymoor scenes, a world of chip shops and dog walkers where you can almost smell the baccy and best bitter.

Indeed, the two artists were close friends and, on occasion, even worked together. However, while Cornish’s work is well known and enjoys a deserved place in the region’s cultural scene, Rogers remains a largely unheralded figure. His legacy of thousands of images only emerged in the last couple of years and only now some of the highlights are appearing before a wider audience.

In July 2024, Newcastle’s Laing Gallery included one of Rogers’ works in its “Belonging” exhibition. It’s a painting of Bankwell Lane, Gateshead, a lost view towards the Tyne with the towers of Newcastle Cathedral and Castle forming a focal point on the horizon. Fittingly, it hangs just round the corner from a Cornish scene – and that’s far from the only connection between the two artists.

“A couple of years ago, nobody knew about this friendship. Even the Cornish family didn’t know,” said Brian. In his gallery, Come View my Art, on Sheriff’s Highway in Gateshead, there’s a display dedicated to the unique links between the two.

The story starts in the front parlour of the Rogers family home, barely quarter of a mile from Brian’s gallery. “You know how you have the front room, the posh one with the bay window that you only use on Christmas Day? That’s where all the really important art was hanging.

“There’s a street scene by Cornish, you can see St. Cuthbert’s church on Bensham Road but much of what we see in the painting is no longer there,” Brian said. “It was painted by Norman as a present for Charlie and alongside you see Charlie’s versions of the same scene.

“But there are two real showstoppers. Charlie used to go to Spennymoor and Norman used to drop into Gateshead. One time, Norman and [his wife] Sarah invited Charlie down to Spennymoor for his tea. We even know what they ate – sausage and chips! Then they went out sketching in the allotments and ended up in the old Hillingdon Pub, right next door in Whitworth Terrace. And here we see on this sheet: ‘The Hillingdon, Spennymoor, by me and Norman.’ They both drew it, and both signed it. I never saw that coming!

“Another one comes from the Stone Gallery, which was a hugely important gallery in Newcastle at the time. Cornish and Lowry were two of the big hitters and here we see another Cornish: ‘Charlie Rogers, looking at Lowry.’ If you look in the background, you can see a couple of the pictures. It’s just a sketch, but you can even see a hint of Lowry’s style. It took some time, but it turned out that these were from Lowry’s last exhibition at the Stone Gallery. It was called ‘Nine New Paintings’ and when we found a catalogue we could find the paintings that Cornish included in his sketch.”

Building on the legacy

The original works remain in the Rogers family home with his son, Charlie Jr. “That’s where they should be,” Brian insists.

But the legacy deserves to be better known and the next step is to try and share Rogers’ story with a far wider audience. At Come View my Art, already established as a hub for Gateshead’s creative community within a year of its opening, there’s a permanent display devoted to the work, accompanied by newspaper clippings (including a snap of Rogers, a keen footballer who once had a trial with Sunderland AFC, lining up with his team-mates).

That, in turn, has attracted the attention of the Friends of Saltwell Park and some local councillors. Now there are plans in motion to create a Rogers Art Trail around the park, telling the story of the paintings and helping to link past and present views of the town.

“We’ve done the map, we’ve got the locations and we’re working on it with the council,” Brian added. “The Friends of Saltwell Park think it’s fantastic. Can you imagine schoolkids going round with their iPads and exploring all that via the trail and the interactive bits? At the minute they just go to Shipley, do some sketches and go back to the schools.”

So much of Rogers’ work deals with scenes that have changed or disappeared within living memory so there’s great scope for local historians.

“You have to look at art close up and in the gallery people can come and see it, take their time. You can imagine what people in Gateshead, especially the older generation, think of this. We have people coming in talking about where they used to live, about what they used to do, where they used to go. It brings back so many memories.

“And that’s what we’re doing with Trevor Ermel, who was photographing the same scenes as Charlie was painting. We’ve got photos by Trevor showing some of the same places. There’s a lovely pair showing the end of Rectory Road. You can see St. Cuthbert’s church again, but everything is gone now. These are all streets where I played as a kid. It’s keeping history alive.”

A new focal point

Meanwhile, Brian hopes that Rogers’ work can help to put Gateshead in the spotlight. Spennymoor has made much of its Cornish connections, and the creative spirit has inspired an exciting mural festival.

Gateshead, meanwhile, is enjoying a cultural boom of its own. The Baltic Gallery, the Glasshouse music centre and the proposed new arena on the Quayside grab the headlines, the revival of Dunston Staiths adds another riverside attraction, while the Angel of the North is a modern icon of northeast England.

An art heritage trail would be a natural complement to all that and, potentially, another selling point for Tyneside’s burgeoning cultural offer.

“You could get an art tour going, with people doing the trail in the park, going to the Shipley, coming here. There’s a fantastic café round the corner for some lunch. They could go down to the Baltic or over to Newcastle for the Laing or the Biscuit Factory. Everybody loves coming to Newcastle anyway and if a tour operator gets it right, this could be a new thing on the list.

“With Charlie, we’ve got a perfect opportunity to have Gateshead recognised.”