The former home of the artist LS Lowry will go up for auction today at half its original asking price.

The six-bedroomed Victorian house, where the painter perfected his famous industrial landscapes, failed to fetch its reserve price of �200,000 at auction in London last week.

Now the owners of the property in Salford, Greater Manchester, hope someone will buy it for �100,000 at Liverpool's Haydock Park and turn it into a visitor centre.

Lowry, who died in 1976, lived in the house in Station Road, Swinton, for 40 years from 1908.

The house will now be auctioned in Liverpool

He painted much of his industrial matchstick-men sketches there and a red metal plaque now marks its place in history.

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.

Its owners, Brian and Theresa Roberts, already allow visitors to look around the house, but now hope someone will make it a permanent shrine devoted to the man and his art.

Their spokesman said: "We are reducing the reserve price in the hope that it will get a new buyer who will see the vision of the house being turned into a visitor centre become a reality."

Lowry left the house in 1948 - 10 years after the death of his mother, and moved to nearby Mottram. He died in hospital in Glossop, Derbyshire.