New Brighton Palais de Danse

The New Brighton Palais de Danse was the name given sometime in 1926 to the ballroom located within New Brighton Tower:

The Ballroom was one of the largest in the world, with a sprung floor and dance band stage. The orchestra had as many as 60 players. Big bands played at the Tower, including Bert Yates, Bill Gregson and Victor Sylvester. Other well known artists appeared at the Ballroom including Mae West in November 1945. Well over 1,000 couples could dance without undue crowding. It was decorated in white and gold, with the emblems of various Lancashire towns. The Ballroom had a balcony, with seats to watch the dancers below. Behind this was an open space, where couples used to learn the dance without interfering with the more proficient ones. History of Wallasey

The phrase Palais De Danse was a popular name given to many dance halls in England during the early 20th Century conjuring up images of cosmopolitan Europe.

The above photograph is one of the most famous dance halls called Palais De Dansein Berlin before the First World War and maybe the precursor to the others. Read more on Malcolm Lowry @ 19th Hole

Lowry refers to the New Brighton Palais de Danse in his novel Ultramarine when Dana recalls dancing there with his girl friend Janet Travena; "I shut my eyes and imagined that this was indeed Janet and I dancing at the New Brighton Palais De Danse. (Pg 106) and later Dana and Janet see "the two saxophonists of the Palais de Danse, Zez and Mas..." (Pg. 130). These recollections are probably drawn from Lowry's visits to the ballroom with Tess Evans in 1927. Lowry may even have originally met Tess at one of the dances at the ballroom as she lived in nearby Liscard.

Central Park, Liscard

Liscard Hall, Wirral and the surrounding parkland was home of Sir John Tobin, ship owner, merchant, African trader and one-time Mayor of Liverpool. On the death of his successor, son-in-law Harold Littledale in 1889, Wallasey Local Board bought the estate and opened it to the public on Whit Monday 1891.

Lowry refers to the park in his novel Ultramarine; "...in search of the tobacco pouch, the last birthday present you gave me, Janet...do you remember? It was in the Central Park, a year ago tomorrow, when we paused to watch the children playing on the swings, and then, 'Look, would that be any good to you dear? Many happy returns of the day..' " (Pg. 123). We must assume that this reference is based on an actual event   between Lowry and his girlfriend Tess Evans as the park is less than a mile from her former home at 26 Thirlmere Street (now Drive).

Winter Gardens Theatre, New Brighton

Albert Douglas, a member of the well-known theatrical family, came to Merseyside on business in 1907, and realising how little entertainment there was in Wallasey, decided to stop. With Mr H.E Jones as a partner, he leased the Conservative Hall in Atherton Street and renamed it Alexandra Hall.

In February 1908 the name was changed to the Winter Gardens, and palms were placed round the auditorium to justify the appellation. In 1909 a limited company was formed to purchase the building, and alterations on a major scale were commenced in March of that year. A 'Circle' was provided, and an entirely new stage measuring sixty feet by thirty-three feet was installed, with adequate new 'flies' and a modern electric lighting system. 

During the Great War the theatre remained open and in spite of many difficulties made a modest profit. In 1919 Albert Douglas became sole manager director, with his eldest son A.C Douglas as general manager. It was not unusual for London success to visit New Brighton before going on to Liverpool, and from 1919 onwards many famous stars appeared.

In 1924 the younger side of the management wanted to rebuild the theatre on modern lines, but this was vetoed by the older side. However, in 1929 all the directors agreed on rebuilding and work was commenced in February 1931. Read more on History of Wallasey

Lowry refers to the Winter Gardens in his novel Ultramarine when Dana reads in Janet's letter; "On Saturday I went to the Winter Gardens alone and saw - what do you think? So This Is London!...." (Pg. 169). There is no record of whether Lowry actually saw the play or whether Tess Evans saw the play either. To date, no record of the play being performed at the Winter Gardens in New Brighton has been discovered. We must assume Lowry was familiar with the theatre on his trips to New Brighton to meet Tess Evans especially as the theatre was near to the railway station.

26 Dornberg Road, New Brighton

The fictional name for the road where Janet Travena lives in Lowry's novel Ultramarine. The real address of Tess Evans, the model for Janet in the novel, was actually 26 Thirlmere Street, Liscard.

Lowry refers to the fictional address twice when mentioning Janet's letter to Dana when it arrives in Dairen from Singapore. (Pg 168 and 169)

There is a possibility that Lowry noted the name Dornberg for the fictional road while living in Blackheath in 1928 as there is no other road in the UK with that name. Lowry was cramming for his entry examination to Cambridge with the help of E.E.Kellett who lived at 5 Woodville Road. Dornberg Road is less than a mile from where E.E. Kellett once lived. The road is now a cul-de-sac but in the 1920s the road ran between Banchory Road and Old Dover Road.

Crosville Bus Stop

Lowry refers to the Crosville Motor Company Limited in his novel Ultramarine when Dana recalls his time with Janet; "His whole being was drowning in memories, the smells of Birkenhead and of Liverpool were again heavily about him, there was a coarse glitter in the cinema fronts, children stared at him strangely from the porches of public-houses. Janet would be waiting for him a the Crosville bus stop, with her red mackintosh and her umbrella, while silver straws of rain gently pattered on the green roof..."Where shall we go? The Hippodrome or the Argyle? ..... I've heard there's a good show on at the Scala -" (Pg. 27).

The Crosville Motor Company Limited was formed on 27 October 1906 in Chester, by George Crosland Taylor and his French business associate Georges de Ville, with the intention of building motor cars. The company name was an amalgam of 'Crosland' and 'de Ville'.

By 1909 Crosville had commenced its first bus service, between Chester and Ellesmere Port, and was to grow to incorporate bus services in Cheshire, Lancashire and north-east Wales, becoming one of the major names in the British bus industry.

Crosville expanded rapidly after WW1 including onto the Wirral. In October 1919 a service from New Ferry to Meols commenced, running via West Kirby and Hoylake. With Crosville now expanding outwards from Chester and into the Wirral, it was inevitable that conflict with some of the municipal operators would ensue. Licences to run from West Kirby to Wallasey village were granted in May 1920, but plans to extend the services to Seacombe ferry and New Brighton were opposed by Wallasey Corporation. Similar problems were encountered with Birkenhead Corporation, who steadfastly refused to allow the Company's vehicles into the town.

The above is important to note as to which bus stop Hilliot (Lowry) would have met Janet (Tess). If Janet (Tess) was coming from her home in 26 Thirlemere Street in Liscard then she could have taken a Wallasey Corporation bus from Liscard across Birkenhead Docks to Park Station, which was the terminus of Crosville buses in 1927 in Birkenhead. This would have been logical if Hilliot (Lowry) travelled to meet her either using the steam train from West Kirby Station, which terminated at Park Station in the 20's before electrification in the 30's; or he travelled by Crosville bus 108 from West Kirby. This would enabled them to  walk into Birkenhead town centre to visit the theatres. Another possibility is that Hilliot (Lowry) traveled to Liscard to meet Janet (Tess) as Crosville operated a service from West Kirby to the Queens Arms Hotel in Liscard.

Chlo-e (Song of the Swamp)

Chlo-e (Song of the Swamp) (1927) is a show tune with music by Charles N. Daniels, writing under the pseudonym of "Neil Morét," and lyrics by Gus Kahn. It is now regarded as a jazz standard.

The first recording of Chloe was made for Columbia in Los Angeles in September 1927 by singer Douglas Richardson, a vocalist with ties to Charles N. Daniels; it was followed by another Columbia by The Singing Sophomores made in November. The first instrumental recording of Chloe was made by the All-Star Orchestra for Victor, with a vocal chorus by Franklyn Baur, in December 1927. This is identified in the Victor ledgers as "the Fud and Farley Orchestra," indicating the participation of Fud Livingston and Max Farley, though Nat Shilkret probably led the band. Shilkret did record another arrangement of it for Victor with his Rhythm-Melodists in 1928.

However, the record that appears to have popularized Chloe is an elaborate version by the Paul Whiteman Concert Orchestra recorded in 1928 with vocals by Austin Young. This arrived along with a host of other 1928 recordings of the song. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to the song in Chapter 4 of Ultramarine - Dana and Janet see Mas and Zez two saxophonists from the Palais de Danse on the shore near New Brighton;  "We must get them to play Chloe - but no, they can't hear. It's against the wind". Later Dana recalls "even had Mas heard, it would have been all to no purpose, they would never have been able to dance to Janet's favourite tune - Chloe, the Song of the Swamp - for this is the last day. They are parting perhaps forever..." (Pg. 131).

Lowry's mention of the song is an example of him using a reference outside its proper time. The incident on the shore relates to a time in Lowry's love affair with Tess Evans before he sailed to the Far East in May 1927. The song had not been recorded at that stage. Lowry may have heard the song later while in America in 1929 - possibly the Paul Whiteman version as he was already familiar with the bandleader having seen him perform in Liverpool in 1926.

The inference in the saxophonists playing the song is that Lowry is referring to the instrumental version. However, the lyrics may have appealed to Lowry as Dana walks through "dismal swampland" of the red light district of Dairen "searching" for Janet with "empty arms outstretched, he's crying" .

Chloe! Chloe!

Someone's calling, no reply
Nightshade's falling, hear him sigh

Chloe! Chloe!

Empty spaces in his eyes
Empty arms outstretched, he's crying

Through the black of night
I've got to go where you are
If it's dark or bright
I've got to go where you are

I'll go through the dismal swampland
Searching for you
For if you are lost there
Let me be there, too

Through the smoke and flame
I've got to go where you are
For no ways can be too far
Where you are

Ain' no chains can bind you
If you live, I'll find you
Love is calling me
I've got to go where you are

My Sweet Hortense

Lowry refers to the popular song My Sweet Hortense in his first novel Ultramarine as Dana trawls his way through the red light district of Dairen; "A gramophone was going somewhere, playing My Sweet Hortense. The street was mainly unlighted, but there were dim lamps in some of the windows. Girls called to us as we passed by. (Pg.102)

The other day I met a jay his name was Hezekiah
I had to grin to hear him chin about his hearts desire
I said I bet your little pet is just a real vampire
He answered hey there pal she ain't that kinda gal.

Oh! oh! oh! my sweet Hortense She ain't good lookin' but she's got good sense
Before I kiss Hortense I always buy a nickles worth of peppermints
Rain makes flowers pretty I hear I hope it pours on her for a year
That would be immense Yer never met a gal like sweet Hortense
Oh! oh! oh! my sweet Hortense She ain't good lookin' but she's got good sense
Before I kiss Hortense I always buy a nickles worth of peppermints

And by the way I'd like to say he took 'er to the preacher
The preacher said come right ahead Im mighty glad to meet yer
He whispered Hez the good book says that you're a lucky creature
And when he kissed the bride we're even Hezie cried.

Oh! oh! oh! my sweet Hortense She ain't good lookin' but she's got good sense
Before I kiss Hortense I always buy a nickles worth of peppermints
She's got dandy teeth in her mouth one points north and the other points south
Say they're both immense Yer never met a gal like sweet Hortense
Oh! oh! oh! my sweet Hortense She ain't good lookin' but she's got good sense
Before I kiss Hortense I always buy a nickles worth of peppermints

The lyrics were written by Joe Young & Sam Lewis with music by Walter Donaldson

Victor Vorzanger's Famous Broadway Band, Stanley C. Holt's Quintette, Jack Hylton, Fred Douglas, The Vocalion Dance Orchestra, Fred Whitehouse amongst countless others recorded the song. Therefore it is impossible to determine what version Lowry was referring to in Ultramarine.

Lowry was probably using the song to ironic effect as the song is playing as her enters the brothel - "I said I bet your little pet is just a real vampire. He answered hey there pal she ain't that kinda gal." - suits the juxtaposition of vamp (Olga the prostitute) to Janet (Dana's love).

26 Thirlmere Street

The home of Lowry's youthful love Tess Evans (Janet Travena in Ultramarine) in Liscard, Wirral. Renamed Thirlmere Road in 1962/63. Tess lived their with her father Will and mother Eleanor and possibly two siblings. She must have moved out of the house before she was old enough to appear on the electoral roll. Her mother lived there until at least 1949. She sent 2 letters from this address to Lowry circa 1927/28 (Huntington Library Conrad Aiken Archive AIK 2585/2586). 

There are three specific references to the house in Lowry's first novel Ultramarine; Janet's letter to Dana is addressed 26 Dornberg Road, New Brighton, Cheshire, England. (Pg 168); the address is repeated again and (Pg. 169) and "Oh Dana, the sun is shining ever so brightly and the grass in the cricket field looks wonderful after the rain..." (Pg.169) - the rear of 26 Thirlmere Road looks over New Brighton Cricket Club which she would have seen if her bedroom was at the rear of the house. Lowry may have thought that the road was in New Brighton - it is near the boundary between Liscard and New Brighton. Since 1974, the area is in the Wirral Metropolitan Borough and not in the county of Cheshire. The change of name to Dornberg may have been suggested by a road close to where Lowry stayed during his time in Blackheath in 1928.

Note: 26 Thirlmere Street is the pebble dashed house in the above photos.

John Addington Symonds In Black and White Etchings

John Addington Symonds (1840 - 1893) was an English poet and literary critic. Although he married and had a family, he was an early advocate of male love (homosexuality), which he believed could include pederastic as well as egalitarian relationships. He referred to it as l'amour de l'impossible (love of the impossible). A cultural historian, he was known for his work on the Renaissance, as well as numerous biographies about writers and artists. He also wrote much poetry inspired by his homosexual affairs. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry quotes the lines of Symonds's opening section called 'The Choirster' from the long poem 'In Black and White - Winter Etchings' contained in the collection Vagabunduli Libellus 1884; "Snow on the high pitched minster roof and spire; snow on the boughs of leafless linden trees; snow on the silent streets and squares that freeze. Under night's wing, down drooping nigh and nigher." (Pg. 117) and  "Inside the church within the shadowy choir dim burn the lamps like lights on vaporous seas. Drowsed are the voices of droned litanies. Blurred as in dreams the voice of priest and friar, Cold have numbed sense to slumber here!" (Pg. 117); and later; "Cold have numbed sense to slumber here! Then hark, one swift soprano, soaring like a lark, beats around arch and aisle, echoing dark with exquisite aspiration; throbs that soul of fire, higher, higher yearning with sharp anguish of untold desire." (Pg.118). Lowry slightly changes the wording of the last quote from the original poem. The poem is probably inspired by Symonds's love for Willie Dyer, a chorister at Bristol Cathedral.

Francesco Petrarca

Lowry may have been drawn to Vagabunduli Libellus as the preface says; " it is a little book of a wanderer; and is dedicated to a wanderer - Vago Cuidam, a phrase borrowed from one of Petrarch's familiar letters." (Preface). The wanderer referred to by  Petrarch is John of Ravenna.  Ravennese in Petrarch's letters, lived at the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century. A young Ravennese born about 1347, who in 1364 went to live with Petrarch as secretary . In 1367 he set out to see the world and make a name for himself, returned in a state of destitution, but, growing restless again, left his employer for, good in 1368 . He is not mentioned again in Petrarch's correspondence, unless a letter " to a certain wanderer " (vago cuidam), congratulating him on his arrival at Rome in 1373.  Ravennese's wanderings echo Dana's in Ultramarine and Lowry's reported intentions when he set sail for the Far East in 1927.

Lowry must have been aware that 'The Choirster' was about a gay love affair as Symond's sexuality was well known. This raises some questions as to why he transposed the lines into Ultramarine as Dana struggles with his love for Janet Travena in Chapter 3.

Apulieus's The Golden Ass

Guillaume Seignac The Awakening of Psyche

Lowry refers to Apulieus's The Golden Ass in Chapter 3 of Ultramarine during a long internal dialogue by Dana Hilliot as he muses after his drunken drift through the red light district of Dairen; I shall read for the last time, the hundred and first, reading the story, of Apulieus.." (Pg. 112). This may be an allusion to the tale of Cupid and Psyche within the story as Dana is struggling with his desire for Olga the prostitute and being faithful to Janet Travena - his lover from back home. He calls upon "Janet Rohtraut. Beauty Rohtraut, listen to me." Dana maybe comparing Janet's beauty to Psyche's. 

Janet Rohtraut (Beauty Rohtraut)

Rohtraut by Rudolf Schiestl 

"Janet Rohtraut. Beauty Rohtraut, listen to me." Lowry refers to Rohtraut in Chapter 3 of Ultramarine during a long internal dialogue by Dana Hilliot as he muses after his drunken drift through the red light district of Dairen. Hilliot appeals to his lover Janet Travena by alluding to George Meredith's The Ballad of Beauty Rohtraut (1850), a translation from the German of Moricke Morike's " Schon-Rohtraut". The poem represents the gradually growing desire of a youth to be near the maiden ending in the fulfilment of the dream. The allusion is one of many in Lowry's works to desire, nympholepsy, sirens and muses.


BEAUTY ROHTRAUT (From Moricke)

What is the name of King Ringang's daughter?
Rohtraut, Beauty Rohtraut!
And what does she do the livelong day,
Since she dare not knit and spin alway?
O hunting and fishing is ever her play!
And, heigh! that her huntsman I might be!
I'd hunt and fish right merrily!
Be silent, heart!

And it chanced that, after this some time, -
Rohtraut, Beauty Rohtraut, -
The boy in the Castle has gained access,
And a horse he has got and a huntsman's dress,
To hunt and to fish with the merry Princess;
And, O! that a king's son I might be!
Beauty Rohtraut I love so tenderly.
Hush! hush! my heart.

Under a grey old oak they sat,
Beauty, Beauty Rohtraut!
She laughs: 'Why look you so slyly at me?
If you have heart enough, come, kiss me.'
Cried the breathless boy, 'kiss thee?'
But he thinks, kind fortune has favoured my youth;
And thrice he has kissed Beauty Rohtraut's mouth.
Down! down! mad heart.

Then slowly and silently they rode home, -
Rohtraut, Beauty Rohtraut!
The boy was lost in his delight:
'And, wert thou Empress this very night,
I would not heed or feel the blight;
Ye thousand leaves of the wild wood wist
How Beauty Rohtraut's mouth I kiss'd.
Hush! hush! wild heart.'

Wie heißt König Ringangs Töchterlein?
   Rohtraut, Schön-Rohtraut.
Was tut sie denn den ganzen Tag,
Da sie wohl nicht spinnen und nähen mag?
   Tut fischen und jagen.
O dass ich doch ihr Jäger wär'!
   Fischen und jagen freute mich sehr.
- Schweig stille, mein Herze!

Und über eine kleine Weil,
   Rohtraut, Schön-Rohtraut,
So dient der Knab auf Ringangs Schloss
In Jägertracht und hat ein Ross,
   mit Rohtraut zu jagen.
O dass ich doch ein Königssohn wär!
Rohtraut, Schön-Rohtraut lieb ich so sehr.
- Schweig stille, mein Herze!

Einsmals sie ruhten am Eichenbaum,
   Da lacht Schön-Rohtraut:
Was siehst mich an so wunniglich?
Wenn du das Herz hast, küsse mich!
   Ach! erschrak der Knabe!
Doch denket er: mir ists vergunnt,
Und küsset Schön-Rohtraut auf den Mund.
- Schweig stille, mein Herze!

Darauf sie ritten schweigend heim,
   Rohtraut, Schön-Rohtraut;
Es jauchzt der Knab in seinem Sinn:
Und würdst du heute Kaiserin,
   Mich sollts nicht kränken:
Ihr tausend Blätter im Walde wisst,
Ich hab Schön-Rohtrauts Mund geküsst!
- Schweig stille, mein Herze!