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).

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.

Central Market, Liscard

Liscard Market Circa 1930 Courtesy of Wallasey Central Library

Lowry refers to a market in his novel Ultramarine; "Then he was walking again with Janet, slowly, through the crowd. Electric lights swam past. Gas jets, crocus-coloured, steadily flared and whirled. The shouts and cries of the market rose and fell about them like a breathing of a monster." (Pg. 43).

In the 1920's, there were only two markets on the Wirral - Liscard Central Market and Birkenhead Market.  There is a strong possiblity that the market that Lowry referred to in Ultramarine was the Liscard one as it  was approximately 400m from Tess Evan's home at 26 Thirlmere Street.

Central Market Buildings was a post First World War development in Wallasey Road, Liscard, which stood on land originally occupied by two dwellings, one of which was Clairville Cottage, before being demolished in the 1960's and replaced by a supermarket which was converted into a Wetherspoons pub called the Clairville.

The market may also be where Dana and Janet buy fish for her mother; "Ruby fisheries. Do you remember going there to get the cod steaks for your mother?" (Pg. 123).

Vice Admiral Gordon Campbell VC, DSO

Vice Admiral Gordon Campbell VC, DSO & Two Bars (1886 – 3 July 1953) was an English naval officer, later a writer and politician, who was a recipient of the Victoria Cross.

He was educated at Dulwich College, which he attended between 1898 and 1900. He then joined the Royal Navy. In 1917, by the age of 31, he had reached the rank of Commander during First World War when the act for which he was awarded the VC took place. On 17 February 1917 in the north Atlantic, Commander Campbell, commanding HMS Farnborough (Q.5) (one of the "mystery" Q ships) sighted a torpedo track. He altered course and allowed the torpedo to hit Q.5 aft by the engine-room bulkhead. The 'Panic party' got away convincingly, followed by the U-boat. When the submarine had fully surfaced and was within 100 yards of Q.5—badly damaged and now lying very low in the water—the commander gave the order to fire. Almost all of the 45 shells fired hit the U-boat which sank. Q.5 was taken in tow just in time and was safely beached. Read more on Wikipedia

Campbell wrote several publications, including the successful My Mystery Ships published in 1921:

And an Introduction by Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly. Illustrations from photographs and sketches and diagrams by Lieutenant J. E. Broome. An interesting account by Campbell in his own words of his experiences on board the mystery ships in which he served. Mystery ships were camouflaged to appear like peaceful merchant ships, but with real guns that were hidden until a few seconds before opening fire, or more frequently opening fire the instant the guns were disclosed. They cruised on the trade routes hoping to encounter an enemy submarine so that they might attract her attention, and then when the submarine came to the surface to sink her because of heavier armament. He relates the encounters with the enemy, both successful and unsuccessful and how his crew were the only ones who, not only once, but twice, succeeded in sinking an enemy submarine after their own ship had been torpedoed. Kessinger Publishing, 2011

Gordon Bowker states that Lowry and brother Russell were taken by their elder brother Wilfrid, a part-time officer in the RNVR, to see an unidentified Q-ship in the Mersey sometime in 1918/19. (Pursued By Furies Pg. 16). Lowry must have retained an interest in Q-ships as they appear in the short story 'Goya The Obscure' when Lowry notes an advert; "Mystery Ship VC Visits Wallasey" (Pg. 273). This relates to a lecture given by Vice Admiral Gordon Campbell at Wallasey Town Hall on Friday, January 10th 1930. The advert noted by Lowry appeared twice in the Wallasey News on December 21st 1929 and again on December 28th 1929. A short reminder also appeared inside the paper on December 28th as seen below:

There is no record of Lowry attending the lecture though he may have attended as could have been home in Caldy after his first term at Cambridge University. The date of the lecture is significant as it shows that he was collecting newspaper headings/signs for inclusion in 'Goya The Obscure' during this period. 'Goya The Obscure' was published in June 1930 in Venture 6.

A report on the lecture appeared in the Wallasey News on 18th January 1930 with the headline: Beating the Submarines - Admiral Campbell, V.C., and the "Mystery Ships". The event was organised by the Mersey Mission to Seamen to raise funds. There was a full attendance at the Town Hall to hear the one and half hour illustrated talk by Rear-Admiral Campbell who gave a "thrilling account of some his own experiences". Below are extracts from the newspaper account:

......The dire perils which fraught the means of coping with the submarine menace during the Great War by "mystery ships" were graphically recounted........

....In view of recent attempts at stark realism in books on the war, ostensibly with the objective of promoting peace, the nature of Rear-Admiral Gordon Campbell's lecture assumed a special importance. In its grim vividness it militated towards such an objective...

...The Mayor (Alderman J.G. Storey) was present and at the conclusion of the lecture proposed a vote of thanks to the speaker..."Rear-Admiral Campbell has told us of deeds of heroism," he said, "that will live long as the British flag flies; deeds of which every man and woman in Wallasey is proud, and always will be, if only for the fact that two Wallasey men took part in the gallant action under his command."........Mr Martindale (Wallasey), who served under Admiral Campbell, sat among the audience, in which was the mother of another man who served under the Admiral, named Morrison. Wallasey News 18th January 1930.

Q-ships appear later in Lowry's novel Under The Volcano. The character Geoffrey Firmin, the Consul in Lowry's Under The Volcano was a Lieutenant-Commander of the Q-Ship S.S. Samaritan during WW 1. In the novel, Firmin is haunted by his involvement in the deaths of a captured German U-Boat crew by placing them in the furnace of the Samaritan. Read more on Malcolm Lowry @The 19th Hole

Kings Picture House

The site of the King's with new housing in 2009

The Old Court House Picturedome was in Liscard Road and began life as a Police Station, being built in 1845. The building was then converted into a 400 seater cinema and opened on Saturday 31st January, 1914.

Performances began each evening at 6.30 pm and 10.30 pm with matinees at 3.00 pm on Wednesday and Saturdays. On Mondays and Wednesdays the programmes were changed twice weekly. Ticket prices were 3d for the Pit Stalls, 6d in the Stalls and 9d for the Balcony.

On the outside of the theatre wide, steep steps led to a small entrance hall with its central paybox and a pair of steep staircases on either side provided access to the balcony. Inside the theatre the auditorium was square shaped with a lofty ceiling and a silver screen was raised high up on the end of the wall. The electric generator was housed in the former basement which had been the prison cells.

Between the 13th June 1914 and the autumn the Old Court closed, in part due to the drab design of the building but on 14th November of that year the newly decorated cinema reopened as the Kinema under the management of C.W Harrison.

By the early 1920s the cinema was renamed Kings and in 1931 talkies were being shown. Throughout the 1930s the Kings underwent several changes in management and refurbishments. On 2nd November 1963 the cinema closed for the final time. The building was subsequently used for a time as a bingo hall but was finally demolished in 1986 and new properties built on the site. Read more

Lowry refers to the cinema in his novel Ultramarine when Dana and Janet are walking around Egremont; "Later, however, avoiding Egremont Ferry as they ascend a street of houses built on an incline to Brighton Road, which runs parallel to the promenade, as they waver at the King's picture-house, with its peeling stucco, where they are showing on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Love's Crucifixion, with Olga  Tschechowa.." (Pg. 131). We must assume that Lowry and Tess frequented the cinema which was about a mile from her home at 26 Thirlmere Street in Liscard from which they could have walked or got a tram.  Love's Crucifixion was not shown at the King's according to newspaper records from 1929 when the film was released though it may have returned at a later date.

Brighton Street, Egremont

A street which runs parallel to the River Mersey from running from Church Road, Seacombe to King Street, Egremont. Built as part of the expansion of Wallasey in the late 1800's linking Seacombe to New Brighton with the main tram route between the 2 places. Once a major shopping and business area in the 1920's which has seen declined with many of the original buildings being demolished.

Lowry refers to the street in his novel Ultramarine though he calls it a road; "Later, however, avoiding Egremont Ferry as they ascend a street of houses built on an incline to Brighton Road, which runs parallel to the promenade" (Pg. 131) and "the one figure now drifts slowly under the grainy sky past Morgan Roberts' Osteopathy and Manipulative Treatment and the children's playground on the left and into Brighton Road again." (Pg. 132).

Children's Playground, Egremont

Lowry refers to a children's playground in his novel Ultramarine;  "the one figure now drifts slowly under the grainy sky past Morgan Roberts' Osteopathy and Manipulative Treatment and the children's playground on the left and into Brighton Road again." (Pg. 132).

Given the topography of the above - the playground would be one which overlooked the Seacombe Promenade and accessed from Demesne Street. The playground still exists as seen in the above photograph.

County Inn, Wallasey

Lowry's refers to this pub in his  novel; Ultramarine; "The puddles are lying at the foot of the Wallasey sandhills after the rain, the groundsel is growing on the vacant lot by the County Inn. At eleven-thirty Samuel Broster comes smiling out of the bar parlour, tying his apron." (Pg. 133).

The pub remains unidentified as no such pub existed in Wallasey in the late 1920's.

Liverpool Victoria Rowing Club, Wallasey

At the beginning of the nineteenth century Wallasey Pool was a natural inlet, running from the Mersey estuary some two miles into Wirral, initially between the coastal townships of Wallasey and Birkenhead. The first dock was opened in 1847 and over the following half century most of the Pool was converted into docks. The open central waterway became the Great Float and only the upper end retained its original rural character and the name Wallasey Pool. Liverpool Victoria Rowing Club was founded in 1884 building their own boathouse on Wallasey Pool in 1892.

Up to1914-18 War, membership rose considerably, the boathouse was enlarged. In 1919 the Club was restarted. In 1930 the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board commenced excavations for the conversion of the last part of Wallasey Pool into Bidston Dock and the Club was required to move to a new site on the Birkenhead side of the Pool. Read more 

Lowry refers to rowers in his novel Ultramarine; "And there had been nothing that mattered, save only themselves and the blue sky as they scampered like children past the Hall Line shed to the harbour wall just in time to see the Norwegian tramp steamer Oxenstjerna pass through the gate of the inner dock, while a scratch four paused on their oars watching her entrance steadfastly, their striped singlets dancing in the afternoon sunlight. (Pg. 28). This reference has to be to rowers from the Liverpool Victoria Rowing Club.

Hall Line Shed, Birkenhead

The Hall Line shed stood on the Wallasey side of the Great Float in Birkenhead Docks near to the Duke Street swing bridge.

Robert Alexander started shipowning in the 1850s and in 1868 founded the Sun Shipping Co., Liverpool which operated cargo and passenger services. The ships were named _____HALL, the company became known as the Hall Line, and in 1899 the name was officially changed to Hall Line Ltd. The company was purchased in 1901 by John Ellerman and continued operating as part of the Ellerman Group as Ellerman's Hall Line. Below is a photograph of a Hall Line ship The City Of Cairo built in 1915 and which would have been a familiar sight at the Hall Line sheds in Birkenhead during the 1920's

Lowry refers to the sheds in his novel Ultramarine; "And there had been nothing that mattered, save only themselves and the blue sky as they scampered like children past the Hall Line shed to the harbour wall just in time to see the Norwegian tramp steamer Oxenstjerna pass through the gate of the inner dock, while a scratch four paused on their oars watching her entrance steadfastly, their striped singlets dancing in the afternoon sunlight. (Pg. 28).

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.