South Hill Park Gardens

South Hill Park Gardens is a street in the Hampstead district of London. It is within the London Borough of Camden, and some of its houses overlook Hampstead Heath

South Hill Park was developed in 1878, when the street was laid out on land belonging to South End Farm owned by the dean and chapter of Westminster. The new Victorian houses were built with their better rooms facing the road rather than looking out over the wild Heath. The road forms a loop at its upper end, and originally the central area was a public garden. Later as the development gained in popularity, this garden was built upon and the new development was called South Hill Park Gardens, leading to the anomaly of a residential street with a different name on each side of the road. During the Second World War a V2 bomb destroyed several of the old Victorian houses. The hole left by the V2 on the west side of the road lay empty and forgotten for many years.

In the Autumn of 1933, Lowry went to live with Hugh Sykes Davies at South Hill Park Gardens . Sykes Davies had been approved by Arthur Lowry to act as a "guardian" so that Lowry could stay in London after his problems in Devon during the Summer of 1933. (Gordon Bowker Pursued By Furies Pg. 165). Sykes Davies was living with Betty May at the time - Sykes Davies told Gordon Bowker; "There was one other person present ...connected rather with me than with him. She had a tendency to drink rather a lot, too - one of Epstein's old models." (Gordon Bowker Malcolm Lowry Remembered Pg. 68). Lowry told Jan Gabrial that he Sykes Davies and Betty May had "enlisted him as caretaker, though who was to care for whom may well have been the matter under discussion in Leicester." (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 34). Jan's reference is to Lowry's meeting with his father to sanction the "guardianship" of Sykes Davies. 

Jan Gabrial visited and briefly stayed at the flat in South Hill Park Gardens; "Later we had supper with Hugh Sykes Davies and Betty May.... We are invited back for dinner tomorrow together with an ex-lover of hers, Edgell Rickword...." (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 33); Jan and Lowry stayed at South Hill Park Gardens in early November 1933 while Sykes Davis and Betty May where away; "I had a bath and we finished the third of four bottle, then having borrowed one of Betty's gowns, I crawled into bed beside Malc." (Pg.35);

John Edgell Rickword

John Edgell Rickword, MC (1898-1982) was an English poet, critic, journalist and literary editor. He became one of the leading communist intellectuals active in the 1930s.


He was born in Colchester, Essex. He served as an officer in the British Army in World War I, having joined the Artists' Rifles in 1916, being awarded a Military Cross. He was a published war poet, and collected his early verse in Behind the Eyes (1921).He went up to the University of Oxford in 1919, staying only four terms reading French literature, and leaving when he married. He then took up literary work in London. He reviewed for the Times Literary Supplement, which led to his celebrated review of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land. Read more on Wikipedia

Jan Gabrial refers to her and Lowry meeting Rickword at Hugh Sykes Davies and Betty May's flat at Southill Gardens in a diary entry dated Sunday, October 29th 1933; "We are invited back for dinner tomorrow together with an ex-lover of hers (Betty May), Edgell Rickword. I wish Malcolm could be as relaxed as Hugh about these overlapping relationships." (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 33).

Betty May

In the Autumn of 1933, Lowry went to live with Hugh Sykes Davis at South Hill Park Gardens in Hampstead, London. Sykes Davies had been approved by Arthur Lowry to act as a "guardian" so that Lowry could stay in London after his problems in Devon during the Summer of 1933. (Gordon Bowker Pursued By Furies Pg. 165). Sykes Davies was living with Betty May at the time - Sykes Davies told Gordon Bowker; "There was one other person present ...connected rather with me than with him. She had a tendency to drink rather a lot, too - one of Epstein's old models" (Gordon Bowker Malcolm Lowry Remembered Pg. 68).

Born in the East End of London, Betty May became the model and muse to the bohemian elite of London. She sat for Augustus John, Jacob Kramer and caught the attention of Jacob Epstein at the Café Royal where they were all "regulars".She was known as the Tiger Woman - because of her party trick: putting a saucer of brandy on her back, on all fours. Boundary Gallery

Betty May by Epstein 1919

Tiger Woman My Life by Betty May; A beast of a book - literally, because it is very hard to find and also because its value derives from its connection to the Great Beast himself, Aleister Crowley. Briefly, Betty May was born in in Canning Town, (around Tidal Basin) London where she endured an extremely rough childhood. She became an artist's model, moved in decidedly bohemian circles and migrated to Paris where she hung out with the Apaches (motorised robbers mostly). She was known among the Apaches as 'The Tiger-Woman.' Five feet tall and of a witchy appearance she was not a woman to cross, at one point she threatened to murder Crowley. She was married three times, her second husband divorced her because of her overuse of cocaine; having cleaned up she married again for love. Her third husband Raoul Loveday whom she had met at the Harlequin club in London was a young Oxford graduate and keen Egyptologist. Together they made a fateful journey to Crowley's retreat Thelema Abbey in Cefalu, Sicily.


Betty May writes that she detested Crowley but it appears that Loveday was captivated by his personality. Loveday died at Thelema after an illness in slightly mysterious cicumstances. Betty May surmises it was after drinking tainted water at a nearby monastery but the rumour (completely false) was that he expired after drinking cat's blood in a magick ceremony. The newspaper went mad in England and America with headlines such as 'Varsity Lad's Death. Enticed to 'Abbey'. Dreadful ordeal of a young wife...' This is where Crowley's reputation as the Great Beast was made. Betty May, obviously no innocent, was cast as the 'Young English bride' 'Girl-wife' 'Parlour Puss' and Loveday as her 'boy-husband.'  Bookride

Betty May's life was still affected by Crowley while Lowry was living at South Hill Park Gardens.(Read more here)

Jan Gabrial refers to her and Lowry meeting Betty May several times in the Autumn of 1933;  in her diary on Sunday, October 29th 1933 she wrote; "Later we had supper with Hugh Sykes Davies and Betty May, the famous "Tiger Woman". She was a favourite of Jacob Epstein's  and is said to have known everyone, even Ernest Dowson and Oscar Wilde, though this seems impossible. But she is fascinating, warm, friendly, and very very attractive, as well as a wizard cook. We are invited back for dinner tomorrow together with an ex-lover of hers, Edgell Rickword. I wish Malcolm could be as relaxed as Hugh about these overlapping relationships." (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 33); Jan and Lowry stayed at South Hill Park Gardens in early November 1933 while Sykes Davis and Betty May where away; "I had a bath and we finished the third of four bottle, then having borrowed one of Betty's gowns, I crawled into bed beside Malc." (Pg.35); "Betty May returned, radiant, just as we were setting off for the Palladium and an indifferent show" (Pg. 35). Jan also related how she and Lowry went to the Marquis of Granby and The Plough pubs with Betty May and Edgell Rickword after Kleinfled's (Fitzroy Tavern). Betty then took them to Smokey Joe's, "a non-alcoholic speakeasy-cum-lesbain pub" (Pg. 36).