Teresa Grimes at the Tintype gallery

AN art gallery is closing after 10 years on the high street due to financial challenges.

Owner Teresa Grimes said Tintype in Essex Road had shut for the final time last week due to “a culmination of challenges” but the coronavirus pandemic “did not help”.

Ms Grimes, who lives in Highbury, said: “It’s a tough climate to make sales. We were more like a not-for-profit project space than a commercial space. The gallery became financially unsustainable so I took the decision to close.”

The gallery is known for its Essex Road programme – an annual film exhibition where eight films were played on a loop in the gallery window during the evenings of the winter months.

Artists were invited to make their submissions as moving-image homages to what they liked about Essex Road.

“It started as an experiment and worked really well,” said Ms Grimes.

“I used to sit in the gallery at my desk and look out the window and there was always something going on.

“Essex Road has so many interesting shops – we are next to the taxidermy shop Get Stuffed and opposite the famous fishmonger Steve Hatt. The street is getting smarter but I hope it never loses its special character.

“The thought of making eight films about Upper Street just wouldn’t be as interesting.”

Ms Grimes said she is “proud” of what Tintype has achieved in 10 years, adding: “I hope Tintype will be remembered as an outward facing, friendly gallery.

“I have had so many lovely emails from people in the last week.

“A lot of people have said ‘it is my favourite gallery, we will miss it, you put on adventurous shows’.”

She added: “Popular perception is of the art world floating about with masses of money.

“That is such a wrong impression. Artists that can live off their own work are very few and far between.

“But I am always surprised by the resilience of the contemporary art world.”

The Essex Road programme was funded by Arts Council England.