Shaftesbury House, Cambridge

Shaftesbury House, 4 Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge was a hotel in the 1920s. The former hotel is now called Lutheran Church House and occupied by the German Lutheran Church.

Lowry refers to a visit to the hotel during his time at the The Leys in a letter to Carol Brown dated 2nd June 1926 to see whether he could find somewhere for Carol Brown to stay on a proposed visit to Cambridge:

"So I rallyed round some - and eventually ran to earth a sort of Look-at-our-tennis-court-nice-bathroom place, with a thin manageress with positively no teeth at all: bearing the intriguing title of 'Shaftsbury House' in (what is not altogether unexpected) Shaftesbury Road - There are trees in Shaftesbury Road. Willow trees? I am not sure. Anyhow trees. And a man in white painting gates green.

Well at any rate, I popped into this place and saw the manageress and the tennis court and a bedroom and a full set of magazines.

And some washing spread over the tennis court to dry - which gave quite an expressionist effect." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 38)

Lowry's use of the term expressionist is worthy of note demonstrating his knowledge of modernist movement  as early as 1926 when he was 15 years old.

Westcott House, Cambridge

Westcott House is a Church of England theological college based in Jesus Lane located in the centre of the university city of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.  Its main activity is training people for ordained ministry in Anglican churches. Westcott House is a founder member of the Cambridge Theological Federation.

Lowry refers to the college in his novel Ultramarine; "Cambridge, Eng. where I remained ten years as a fellow of Westcott House." Pg. 93. This is part of Dana's fantasy of his life story which he is telling Popplereuter on their drunken drift around Tsjang-tsjang (Dairen). Lowry did not attend the college which he mentions probably as an ironic joke given his own drunken time at college in Cambridge.

Central Cinema, Hobson Street, Cambridge

The Central Cinema opened in Hobson Street in 1921.  The first talkie Broadway Melody in Cambridge was screened at cinema in 1929. It was rebuilt in 1930 to give the current building probably after a fire. The cinema closed in 1972 and became a bingo hall.

Lowry refers to the cinema in Ultramarine when Dana recalls the cinema when the crowd in the Dairen cinema start protesting; "I thought, my God, one might as well be back in the Central Cinema, Hobson Street, Cambridge! The whole bloody business a retrogression, anyway. A small boy chased by the Furies. Good God, good God."

We must assume that Lowry frequented the cinema while at Cambridge University. Perhaps the crowd of sailors that "clapped and stamped, roared and spat and belched." (Pg.99) reminded him of undergraduates in Cambridge. ( The Cinema of Malcolm Lowry A Scholarly Edition of Lowry's "Tender Is the Night" Malcolm Lowry, Miguel Mota, Paul Tiessen Pg. 8)

Experiment Magazine 1928–31

Lowry participated in 2 magazines whilst at Cambridge - Venture and Experiment. He had 2 short stories published by Experiment - 'Port Swettenham', pp. 22 - 26 No 5 and 'Punctum Indifferens Skibet Gaar Videre', pp. 62-75 No 7.

The magazine was edited by William Empson, Jacob Bronowski, Hugh Sykes and Humphrey Jennings, published in Cambridge from November 1928 - Spring 1931. The publisher for: Nos. 1-2 was Cambridge University Press; Nos. 4-7 were published by G. F. Noxon, Trinity College, Cambridge/G. F. Noxton, 68a St. Andrew's Street, Cambridge. There were only seven editions which came out on a Quarterly-Irregular basis priced one Shilling and sixpence. Read more about edition on Modernist Magazine Project.

I did come across a very good article in Jacket 20 by Kate Price on Experiment:

We are concerned with all the intellectual interests of undergraduates. We do not confine ourselves to the work of English students, nor are we at pains to be littered with the Illustrious Dead and Dying. Our claim has been one of uncompromising independence: therefore not a line in these pages has been written by any but degreeless students or young graduates. It has been our object to gather all and none but the not yet too ripe fruits of art, science and philosophy in the university. We did not wish so much that our articles should be sober and guarded as that they should be stimulating and lively and take a strong line. We were prepared in fact to give ourselves away. But we knew that Cambridge is painfully well-balanced just now (a sign, perhaps, of anxiety neurosis) and so we were prepared also to find, as the reader will find, rather too guarded and sensible a daring. Perhaps we will ripen into extravagance. [Experiment Number 1, November 1928]


The concern of Experiment with ‘all the interests of undergraduates’ was not simply a matter of having literary-minded mathematicians on the editorial team, nor one of including poetry produced by students reading Natural Sciences or Economics. Even taking Experiment as a literary magazine with an inspired eye on contemporary science, the ‘scientific’ content appears somewhat thin on the ground. The occasional article on biochemistry or biology, some hopeful remarks about the development of aesthetic science and Empson’s relativity poems are about the size of it. A distinctly literary and cinematic avant-garde emerges, giving the impression of an exclusively aesthetic kind of experimentation. Read full article here

Red Cow, Cambridge

A pub at 1 Corn Exchange Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire. In 1851 and earlier, the address was given as Butcher Row. At 5 Guildhall Street in the 1871 & 1881 census. At Guildhall Street & 1 Corn Exchange Street at different times. Arthur Jn. Quick was the landlord during Lowry's time at Cambridge University. In 2002 the pub was renamed to just the Cow.

Lowry refers to the pub in Chapter 4 of his novel Ultramarine when Dana Hilliot is recalling his time in Cambridge; "- and later the two undergraduates fighting outside 'The Red Cow'." (Pg. 130).