The former Manchester home of painter LS Lowry has failed to sell at auction in London after falling short of the reserve price of �200,000.

The six-bedroomed Victorian house, where Lowry painted his famous matchstick men, will now go back under the hammer next week in Liverpool.

Lowry was born in Manchester in 1897 and lived in the house on Station Road, Swinton, Salford, for 40 years from 1908.

The house will now be auctioned in Liverpool

It was there that the artist perfected his inimitable technique of painting industrial scenes of city life in the early 20th Century.

Little in the house has changed and the attic studio where Lowry painted many of his famous landscapes still forms part of the house.

Another room, where Lowry's mother stayed while ill, is still as it was shown in one of his paintings.

It remains surrounded by the industrial scenes depicted in his distinctive works, except now there is also a �127m arts centre bearing his name a few miles down the road.

Public viewings

It is still hoped the artist's former home, which already has a red metal plaque marking its place in history, could become a shrine to the man as well as his art.

The present owners, Brian and Theresa Roberts, allow the public to view the interior of the house by appointment.

But Mr Roberts said he would rather it was opened permanently.

"We are sure the house could become a shrine to England's most distinctive artist, just as the Bront� sisters' house in Yorkshire has turned Howarth into a tourist attraction," he said.

After leaving his home in 1948, 10 years after the death of his mother, Lowry moved to nearby Mottram. He died in hospital in Glossop, Derbyshire, in 1976.