Wardour Street, London

Wardour Street is a street in Soho, London. It is a one-way street south to north from Leicester Square, up through Chinatown, across Shaftesbury Avenue to Oxford Street. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to the street in his novel Under The Volcano; "He had not played one, and Hugh could play almost any kind of guitar, for four or five years, and his numerous instruments declined with his books in basements or attics in London or Paris, in Wardour Street night-clubs or behind the bar of the Marquis of Granby or the old Astoria in Greek Street, long since become a convent and his bill still unpaid there, in pawnshops in Tithebarn Street or the Tottenham Court Road...." (Pg. 158 )

The most famous night clubs in Wardour Street in the 1920s and 1930s were Chez Victor and the Cosmopolitan - there is no documentary evidence that Lowry visited either club.

Chez Victor was a very fashionable 1920s restaurant/night-club in Grafton Street (above Grafton Galleries). It was popularised by the then Prince of Wales and is best remembered as the place where Lesley Hutchinson (Hutch) serenaded Edwina Mountbatten and other rich socialites. It was owned by Victor Perosino. The club was raided in 1929 or 1930 and Perosino was deported – there are several versions of this tale which I can go into if you want. In the 1930s Chez Victor at 45 Wardour Street opened – I presume there is a connection.This appears to have been more of a restaurant – but was equally fashionable – I think it was still there at least to the late sixties. Chez Victor appears in most reminiscences of inter-war West End society. It was one of the key venues for the “Mayfair” set. Elvira Barney

Tottenham Court Road, London

Tottenham Court Road is a major road in central London, running from St Giles Circus (the junction of Oxford Street and Charing Cross Road) north to Euston Road, near the border of the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, a distance of about three-quarters of a mile. It has for many years been a one-way street: all three lanes are northbound only, the equivalent southbound traffic using the parallel Gower Street. It is generally regarded as marking the boundary between Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, linking Somers Town with Soho at either end. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry makes reference to the road in the 1940 Under The Volcano; Peering at nothing with a telescope, save the Tottenham Court Road, counting the waves.." (Pg. 75).

Lowry makes reference to the road in Chapter 2 of his novel Under The Volcano; "very good on the bridge of a British Q-ship — peering at the Tottenham Court Road through a telescope, only figuratively speaking of course, day in and day out, counting the waves...." (Pg. 64) and again in Chapter 6;  "What about the way you treated poor old Bolowski,the music publisher, remember his shabby little shop in Old Compton Street, off the Tottenham Court Road?" (Pg. 157) and "He had not played one, and Hugh could play almost any kind of guitar, for four or fiveyears, and his numerous instruments declined with his books in basements or attics in Londonor Paris, in Wardour Street night-clubs or behind the bar of the Marquis of Granby or the oldAstoria in Greek Street, long since become a convent and his bill still unpaid there, in pawnshops in Tithebarn Street or the Tottenham Court Road....." (Pg. 158)

Lowry also refers to the road in a letter to Jan Gabrial; "“My darlingest Janl…I write this about half an hour after leaving you, eating a steak pie with your half crown in a thieves’ kitchen. It is only to say that I love you and that I shall never love anybody else. Outside, the fiends of Tottenham Court Road are howling in the blackness, imprisoned in the crewless winds.There is comfort in just speaking your name…” (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 36)

New Compton Street, London.

New Compton Street was named after Henry Compton who raised funds for a local parish church, eventually dedicated as St Anne's Church in 1686. Once linked to Old Compton Street via Little Compton Street which has been lost at Charing Cross Road at its junction with Old Compton Street.

Lowry refers to the street in Chapter 6 of his novel Under The Volcano; "Hugh had started writing songs at school and before he was seventeen, at about the same time he lost his innocence, also after several attempts, two numbers of his were accepted by the Jewish firm of Lazarus Bolowski and Sons in New Compton Street, London. (Pg. 157) and "Whatever prompted the ungenerous act did not prevent his somehow finding his way that night to New Compton Street and Bolowski's shabby little shop. Closed now and dark: but Hugh could almost be certain those were his songs in the window." (Pg. 172)

As Chris Ackerley points out; "An address mildly inconsistent" (Malcolm Lowry Project) as Lowry later refers to the shop being at New Compton Street.  Lowry may have known New Compton Street due to Worton David Ltd, the publishers of one of his songs, being based at No. 6. (See photograph of building on Collage)

Victoria Docks, London

The Royal Victoria Dock is the largest of three docks in the Royal Docks of east London, now part of the redeveloped Docklands. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry arrived back at the Victoria Dock, London on 26th September 1927 after his voyage to the Far East aboard the Blue Funnel ship Pyrrhus.

Lowry refers to his return to England in 1927 in Chapter 6 of his novel Under The Volcano; "Hugh hadn't waited to discover whether the journalist who came aboard at Silvertown liked to play his songs in his spare time. He'd almost thrown him bodily off the ship." (Pg.172). Hugh's memory is probably based on Lowry's own experiences of returning to London after his Far East Voyage in 1927 when he arrived at Victoria Docks in Silvertown.

Silvertown, London

Royal Docks 1935

Silvertown is an industrialised district on the north bank of the Thames in the London Borough of Newham. It was named after Samuel Winkworth Silver's former rubber factory which opened in 1852. In the early 20th Century the area lay between the Thames and the Royal Docks, then the largest and one of the busiest dock groups in the world.

Lowry refers to the district in Chapter 6 of his novel Under The Volcano; "Hugh hadn't waited to discover whether the journalist who came aboard at Silvertown liked to play his songs in his spare time. He'd almost thrown him bodily off the ship." (Pg.172). Hugh's memory is probably based on Lowry's own experiences of returning to London after his Far East Voyage in 1927 when he arrived at Victoria Docks in Silvertown to be interviewed by a journalist from the Daily Mail .

Fitzroy Tavern, Charlotte Street, London

The Fitzroy Tavern is a public house situated at 16 Charlotte Street in the Fitzrovia district of central London, England, to which it gives its name. It is currently owned by the Samuel Smith Brewery. It became famous during a period spanning the 1920s to the mid 1950s as a meeting place for many of London's artists, intellectuals and bohemians such as Dylan Thomas, Augustus John, and George Orwell. It is named either directly or indirectly after the Fitzroy family, Dukes of Grafton, who owned much of the land on which Fitzrovia was built. Read more on Wikipedia.

The tavern was manged by in the early years of the 20th century, Judah Morris Kleinfeld, a [Savile Row]? tailor and naturalised British citizen originally from Polish Russia, decided that he wanted to become a pub licensee, and started the work of persuading the brewery that owned the Hundred Marks, Hoare & Co., that he was the man for the job. the  History of Fitzroy Tavern

Lowry refers to the Fitzroy in Chapter 6 of his novel Under The Volcano; "No, the idea was to camp outside a pub down a back alley, and that not any pub, but the Fitzroy Tavern in Charlotte Street, chock full of starving artists drinking themselves to death simply because their souls pined away, each night between eight and ten, for lack of just such a thing as a hot dog. That  was the place to go!" (Pg. 156) and "And--not even the hot-dog man was the answer; even though by Christmas time,obviously, he had been doing a roaring trade outside the Fitzroy." (Pg. 156)

Lowry frequented the Fitzroy Tavern during his time in London between 1931 and 1933. (See Gordon Bowker Pursued By Furies Pgs. 140-41). Lowry refers to a brawl at the tavern in a letter to Conrad Aiken dated Summer/Autumn 1932; "I would have written you before this only I got beaten up in an Ulyssean brawl near Kleinfelds' in Charlotte street the first night of my arrival..." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 81). The fight occurred while Lowry was staying with John Davenport in London when they started a fight with a group of Welsh miners. (Bowker Pg. 118). Paul Ferris records that Lowry met Dylan Thomas at the Fitzroy in July 1933 on Thomas's second ever visit to London (Dylan Thomas Pg. 166).

Oxford Street, London

Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London. The street was formerly part of the London-Oxford road which began at Newgate, City of London, and was known as the Oxford Road.

Lowry refers to the street in Chapter 6 of his novel Under The Volcano; "Nor yet the poor little hot-dog man. That bitter December night he had met him trudging down Oxford Street with his new wagon—the first hotdog wagon in London,and he had been pushing it around for a whole month without selling a single hot dog." (Pg. 156).

Old Compton Street, London

Old Compton Street runs east-west through Soho in the West End of London off Charing Cross Road to the west of Tottenham Court Road. Once the centre of the music-publishing industry. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to the street in in Chapter 6 of his novel Under The Volcano; "What about the way you treated poor old Bolowski, the music publisher, remember his shabby little shop in Old Compton Street, off the Tottenham Court Road? (Pg. 155)

As Chris Ackerley points out; "An address mildly inconsistent" (Malcolm Lowry Project) as Lowry later refers to the shop being at New Compton Street.  Lowry may have known New Compton Street due to Worton David Ltd, the publishers of one of his songs, being based at No. 6. (See photograph of building on Collage)

Queen's Park Railway Station

Lowry refers to this station in his novel Ultramarine; "At a quarter to eight, descending from his train at Queen's Park, where, to please her mother, he has once seen Janet safely into a tin church for a prayer meeting. the one figure now drifts slowly under the grainy sky past Morgan Roberts' Oesteopathy and Manipulative Treatment and the children's playground on the left into Brighton Road again."

There has never been a station with that name on the Wirral. This is a rare instance in the novel when Lowry doesn't use real places on the Wirral or Liverpool. Given the topography of of the above - the station would be in the vicinity of Egremont/Seacombe. The nearest station would have been Seacombe at the junction of Church Road/Borough Road on the former Wirral Railway lines. There is also a possibility  that Lowry for some reason had the Queen Park Station in Kilburn in mind. Lowry does make reference to Kilburn Empire in his novel Under The Volcano and he may have been familiar with the station.

B. Feldman & Co.

Formed in 1896 by Albert James Feldman (1874-1945). The firm were based at 125/127/129 Shaftsbury Avenue, London.  Feldman thrived by taking up the English rights to such American songs as Alexander’s Ragtime Band and during WW1 he had a huge hit with  It’s A Long Way To Tipperary.  In 1925 he bought up  Herman Darewski Co, and in 1953 the company was acquired by Francis, Day & Hunter.

Feldman published one of Lowry's songs I've Said Goodbye To Shanghai which he co-wrote with Ronald Hill.

Worton David Ltd.

Worton David Ltd. was the company which published one of Lowry's songs 'Three Little Dog-gone Mice' that he co-wrote with Ronald Hill. Worton David Ltd was based at 6 New Compton Street, London.

H. Worton David was born in 1873 and died 1940. He was one of the few financially successful songwriters, astute enough to create his own music publishing company, H. Worton David wrote such classics as Wilkie Bard’s I Want To Sing In Opera (with Bert Lee, 1910); Clarice Mayne’s Nursie Nursie (with Bert Lee, 1911); Ella Retford’s They’re All Single At The Seaside (with C.W. Murphy, 1911); Florrie Forde’s Hello, Hello, Who’s Your Lady Friend? (with Harry Fragson and Bert Lee, 1913); and her Hold Your Hand Out, Naughty Boy (with C.W. Murphy, 1914). He also wrote Are We Downhearted? No! (with Lawrence Wright, 1914); Heart Of A Rose (with Lawrence Wright as “Horatio Nicholls”, 1918); That Old Fashioned Mother Of Mine (with Lawrence Wright as “Horatio Nicholls”, 1919); Playthings (with Lawrence Wright as “Horatio Nicholls”, 1918); and A Rose In A Garden Of Weeds (with R.B. Saxe, 1926).

David teamed up with Fred Godfrey for a large number of songs, mostly in 1914 and 1915, often in partnership with fellow writer/publisher Lawrence Wright, and again in the mid-1920s. Their biggest hit undoubtedly was It Takes An Irish Heart To Sing An Irish Song (1914), which Florrie Forde sang with great success. Read more here

He maybe the model for Bolowski, the music publisher in Lowry's novel Under The Volcano whose office is in Old Compton Street in the novel.

Bermondsey Music Hall

Lowry refers to a music hall in Bermondsey in his novel Ultramarine; "'This reminds me of the Bermondsey Music 'All Bill.' 'No boy, you can't beat it'." (Pg.99).

There were 6 music halls in Bermondsey:

1853-1878 Old Rose Music Hall
1861-1893 Jolly Tanners Music Hall
1862-1871 Crown And Anchor Music Hall
1867-1878 First Surrey Light Horse Music Hall
1867-1919 Star Music Hall
1874-1875 Red Lion Music Hall

The one which Lowry is referring is most likely - the most famous and long-lasting. Originally part of the Star and Garter pub, the Star Music Hall opened in 1867 in Abbey Road, Bermondsey, London. The original seating capacity was for 1,395, with 364 in the orchestra stalls, 233 in the balcony and 224 in the gallery. It was altered in 1883 to the designs of architects Smith & Stock. The proscenium was 24 feet wide, the stage 20 feet deep and there were two dressing rooms, one for men, the other for women. Some films were shown as part of the programme from 1908. By November 1919 it was not licensed as a music hall or theatre and had been renamed Star Kinema.

In 1920, the Star Cinema is listed as being operated by Vitagraph Theatres Ltd. Equipped for sound films in 1930, single screen and seating for 590, it was advertising pictures and variety. The Star Cinema was closed during World War II, probably due to the German bombing raids on the nearby London Docks. The building went to other uses and was demolished in 1963.

Lowry could not have possibly attended the music hall. He may be recalling an unidentified catchphrase of a performer or a song as Dana is thinking of a performance at an unnamed theatre in Liverpool.

Victoria Railway Station, London

Victoria station also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex. It is named after nearby Victoria Street. The mainline station's most important longer-distance destinations include Brighton, Hove, Worthing, Eastbourne, Canterbury and Dover. In 1898 the LB&SCR decided to demolish its station and replace it with an enlarged red-brick Renaissance-style building. Since widening of the station was prevented by the existing LCDR station and the Buckingham Palace Road, increased capacity was achieved by lengthening the platforms and building crossovers, to allow two trains to use each platform simultaneously. Work was completed in 1908, and included the rebuilding of The Grosvenor Hotel at the same time. (Read more on Wikipedia)

Jan Gabrial arrived at the station on the 22nd September 1933 from Paris with the intention of meeting Lowry; "Malcolm not only failed to meet the channel ferry but even to return to London." (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 22) and "Malcolm ..contended, not too convincingly, that we'd managed to miss each other...at Victoria Station." (Pg. 23).

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).