Birmingham, England

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England.


Lowry, Jan Gabrial and Tom Forman stayed overnight in the city after being forced to land at Castle Bromwich Aerodrome en route from Heston to RAF Hooton Park as part of their trip to North Wales in September/October 1933. Jan recalled the stay when she was interviewed by Gordon Bowker; "Finally we landed in Birmingham. Birmingham and Bismark, North Dakota, I think, will go down in my memory as the two most God-awful places that I have ever been to in my life. We had steak and kidney pie, which was cold and which I threw up as soon as I got to my room, and it was an utterly disastrous town and gloomy." (Gordon Bowker Malcolm Lowry Remembered Pg. 94)

Parson's Nose Snowden, North Wales

Lowry, Jan Gabrial and Tom Forman stayed at the Gorphwysfa Hotel at Pen-y-Pas in early October 1933 arriving on the 1st. Lowry, Jan Gabrial and Forman walked up Snowden from here via the Pyg Track. Later Lowry and Forman went rock-climbing. (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg.27-28).

Lowry refers to the climb in his novel Under The Volcano when Hugh Firmin recalls a visit to Snowdon in Chapter 6; “Climbed the Parson’s Nose,” one had written, in the visitors’ book at the little Welsh rock-climbing hotel, “in twenty minutes. Found the rocks very easy.” ” Came down the Parson’s Nose,” some immortal wag had added a day later, “in twenty seconds. Found the rocks very hard.” (Pg. 185). Chris Ackerley notes that "according to a manuscript note [UBC 30-10, ts 22], the detail in Chapter VIII about pity and terror is derived from "the same man responsible for the classic about finding the rocks of the Parson's Nose very hard", i.e., I.A. Richards (Malcolm Lowry Project 181.3).

Hugh also recalls; "At the top of Parson's Nose you could walk home to tea over the hills if you wished, just as the actor in the Passion Play can get off his cross and go home to his hotel for a Pilsener." (Pg. 185). This reference to the crucifixion may relate to Lowry's theme of relating love to the crucifixion - Lowry maybe recalling that he had argued with Jan Gabrial before walking on Snowdon. Hugh continues seeing the climb as symbolic of life; "Yet in life ascending or descending you were perpetually involved with mists, the cold and the overhangs, the treacherous rope and the slippery belay; only, while the rope slipped there was sometimes time to laugh. None the less, I am afraid..." (Pg. 185). Chris Akerley notes the significance of Lowry's reference to the Passion Play as follows:


The Oberammergau Passion Play, given once every ten years in the upper Bavarian village of Oberammergau, forty-five miles southwest of Munich, was first performed in 1634, to fulfill a vow made by the villagers during an outbreak of plague the previous year. The format has been revised many times (recently, to eliminate the notorious anti-Semitic references), but in eighteen acts, with numerous tableaux and musical embellishments, it tells the story from Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem until the Resurrection. The image occurs in Dark as the Grave [94]:

There was his youth. No wonder he did not want to go down in the lift! It was like a station of the cross, in the unfinished Oberammergau of his life, shadowy understudy even in that, it was much if he'd left his cross here, while he went off and got drunk on Pilsener one night and then had done something else, and forgotten the part he was playing. (Malcolm Lowry Project 181.5).

Snowdon, North Wales

Snowdon is the highest mountain in Wales, at an altitude of 1,085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level, and the highest point in the British Isles outside Scotland. It is located in Snowdonia National Park (Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri) in Gwynedd.The name Snowdon is from the Old English for "snow hill", while the Welsh name – Yr Wyddfa – means "the tumulus", which may refer to the cairn thrown over the legendary giant Rhitta Gawr after his defeat by King Arthur. As well as other figures from Arthurian legend, the mountain is linked to a legendary afanc (water monster) and the Tylwyth Teg (fairies).


Lowry, Jan Gabrial and Tom Forman stayed at the Gorphwysfa Hotel at Pen-y-Pas in early October 1933 arriving on the 1st. Lowry, Jan Gabrial and Forman walked up Snowden from here via the Pyg Track .Later Lowry and Forman went rock-climbing. (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg.27-28).


Lowry refers to climbing Snowdon in his novel Under The Volcano when Hugh Firmin recalls a visit to Snowdon in Chapter 6 when he climbed the mountain via the Parson's Nose.

Pyg Track, Snowden, North Wales

The "Pyg Track", or "Pig Track" (both spellings may be encountered) is a track leading to the summit of Snowdon which leads from Pen-y-Pass. The track climbs over Bwlch y Moch on the eastern flanks of Crib Goch, before traversing that ridge's lower slopes. Above Glaslyn, it is joined by the Miners' Track for the zigzag climb to Bwlch Glas between Snowdon and Garnedd Ugain.

Lowry, Jan Gabrial and Tom Forman walked up the track to the summit of Snowdon from the Gorphwysfa Hotel on the morning of Sunday 1st October 1933.

Pen-y-Pass, North Wales

Pen-y-Pass is a mountain pass in Snowdonia, Gwynedd, north-west Wales. It is a popular location from which to walk up Snowdon, as three of the popular routes (the Miners Track, the Pyg Track and the ascent via Crib Goch) can be started here. Situated at the high point of the Llanberis Pass at an altitude of 360 metres (1,180 ft), the road here was built in the 1830s to allow ore from the mines on Snowdon to be transported to Llanberis.


Lowry, Jan Gabrial and Tom Forman stayed at the Gorphwysfa Hotel at Pen-y-Pas in early October 1933 arriving on the 1st. Lowry, Jan Gabrial and Forman walked up Snowden from here.Later Lowry and Forman went rock-climbing. (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg.27-28).

Gorphwysfa Hotel, Pen-y-Pas, North Wales

The Gorphwysfa Hotel was a former coaching inn located at the head of Llanberis Pass. The inn became a popular climbing centre with its heyday in the early part of the 20th century. The hotel became the Pen-y-Pas Youth Hostel in 1971. The guestbook on display in the hostel has entries for 1913/14 from G M Trevelyan (eminent historian and first president of YHA), Aldous Huxley (the author) and George Mallory ( ill-fated Everest climber).

Lowry, Jan Gabrial and Tom Forman stayed at the hotel in early October 1933 arriving on the 1st. Forman knew about the hotel from a mountaineering trip the previous year. (Godron Bowker Pursued By Furies Pg. 166). Jan wrote in her diary; "...the Gorphwysfa Hotel at Pen-y-Pas (which by the way - in surroundings remote and stern - could have served as the setting for the House of Usher)" and later "Our accommodations are primitive and damned cold." (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 27).

Lowry, Jan Gabrial and Forman walked up Snowden from here. Arthur Lowry visited Lowry at the hotel to discuss fiances sometime in mid-October 1932. (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 28-29). Jan's states they stayed in Wales until Sunday, October 15th when Lowry went to home to Inglewood and Jan went to London.

Lowry later referred to the hotel in Under The Volcano after discovering a comment in the hotel's visitors' book; “Climbed the Parson’s Nose,” one had written, in the visitors’ book at the little Welsh rock-climbing hotel, “in twenty minutes. Found the rocks very easy.” ” Came down the Parson’s Nose,” some immortal wag had added a day later, “in twenty seconds. Found the rocks very hard.” (Pg. 185).

Portmeirion, North Wales

Portmeirion is a popular tourist village in Gwynedd, North Wales. It was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 in the style of an Italian village. He incorporated fragments of demolished buildings, including works by a number of other architects. Portmeirion's architectural bricolage and deliberately fanciful nostalgia have been noted as an influence on the development of postmodernism in architecture in the late 20th century.

Lowry, Jan Gabrial and Tom Forman stayed at the hotel on a visit to North Wales between 29th - 30th September 1933 after flying from Heston to RAF Hooton Park; "Even before we left the airport Malc had started to drink in earnest and when the car arrived to take us to Portmeirion - nearly a four hour drive - he was alternately loquacious and ugly and maudlin and driveling. The hotel is lovely. Everything else is merde". (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg.26).

The main building of the hotel was built around 1850 (extended by Clough Williams-Ellis in 1926 & 1930) was the original mansion of Aber Iâ.and first described by Richard Richards in 1861 as "one of the most picturesque of all the summer residences to be found on the sea-coast of Wales.” When Clough discovered it in 1925 he was faced with dereliction and an overgrown wilderness. "I obviously had to use the old house on the sea's edge for something and, if I wanted a village, it would have to have an economic basis and the obvious thing seemed to be tourism. It was at Easter 1926, after less than a year's preparation, that the original old house, little altered, opened somewhat tentatively as an unlicensed hotel."

Lowry and Jan Gabrial walked around the grounds of the village on Saturday 30th September; "M and I took a short walk, then I wrote letters." (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg.27).


At some point in October 1933, Lowry and Jan Gabrial may have returned to the hotel, "However, when we settled for a time at Portmeirion Malc played a more positive role in discussing what I was writing."((Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg.28).

RAF Hooton Park

RAF Hooton Park, on the Wirral Peninsula, Cheshire, was a Royal Air Force station originally built for the Royal Flying Corps in 1917 as a training aerodrome for pilots in World War I. During the early/mid 1930s, it was one of the two airfields (with Liverpool Speke) handling scheduled services for the Merseyside region. Hooton Park was home to No. 610 (County of Chester) Squadron and, post World War II, to No. 611 (West Lancashire) and No. 663 (AOP) Squadron.

On 28th September 1933, Lowry and Jan Gabrial landed at the aerodrome with Tom Forman, a friend of Lowry's from Cambridge, who had hired a plane to fly from Heston Aerodrome via Castle Bromwich Aerodrome en route to North Wales. (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 26).

Lowry refers to Air Force Officers at Woodside Ferry in his short story 'Goya The Obscure' who could have been on their way to RAF Hooton Park. 

Castle Bromwich Aerodrome

Castle Bromwich Aerodrome was an early airfield, situated to the north of Castle Bromwich in the West Midlands of England. The site now falls within the City of Birmingham. A large piece of Warwickshire grassland (Castle Bromwich playing fields) became the privately-owned Castle Bromwich aerodrome, when  The Midland Aero Club established itself, and a hangar was built for the aeroplanes. It became a stopping place during early air races. At the start of World War I the War Office requisitioned the airfield for use by the Royal Flying Corps and flying schools in 1914, when proper roads and buildings were established. In 1915 No. 5 Reserve Aeroplane Squadron was formed, later becoming the No 5 Training Squadron. Nine other Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force squadrons resided at the airfield during and just after World War I. After the war, Imperial Airways started a service from London. In the inter war years, the aerodrome had a dual military and civilian function.

On 28th September 1933, Lowry and Jan Gabrial landed at the aerodrome with Tom Forman, a friend of Lowry's from Cambridge, who had hired a plane to fly to RAF Hooton Park on the Wirral en route to North Wales. They flew from Heston Aerodrome with the intention of landing at RAF Hooton Park but had to land at Castle Bromwich Aerodrome because of poor weather.(Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 26). In an earlier account Jan Gabrial told Gordon Bowker that they stayed overnight in Birmingham before continuing the flight the next day. (Gordon Bowker Malcolm Lowry Remembered Pg. 94)

Heston Aerodrome

Heston Aerodrome was a 1930s airfield located to the west of London, UK situated on the border of the Heston and Cranford areas of Hounslow. Heston Air Park was conceived by fellow pilots and aircraft co-owners Nigel Norman and Alan Muntz in 1928, and it was constructed by their new company, Airwork Ltd. It was officially opened on 5 July 1929, to coincide with hosting the two day King's Cup air race. By then, the Airwork Flying School had become well established, many privately-owned aircraft had moved in, and the Household Brigade Flying Club, also known as the Guards flying club, had moved from Brooklands. Frequent public events helped promote Heston as a major centre of private flying, air displays, public demonstrations of new aircraft types, 'garden parties', air races, and as the starting point for long-distance flight record attempts.

Lowry, Jan Gabrial and Elizabeth Cheyne flew from the airfield with Tom Forman, a friend of Lowry's from Cambridge, who had hired a plane to fly to Hooton Aerodrome on the Wirral en route to North Wales. On 26th September 1933, they had to cancel their trip to Wales because of poor weather flying instead to Woodley Airfield amongst other airfields. (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg 24). Lowry and Jan Gabrial with Tom Forman made a short flight on the 27th September from Heston to an unidentified airfield after once again cancelling their trip to Wales. The three flew from Heston on 28th September 1933 en route to RAF Hooton Park but had to land at Castle Bromwich Aerodrome because of poor weather.