Earl's Court was the
background for Marc Glendening's excellent walk that delved into
the life of Patrick Hamilton and his novel Hangover Square. Hamilton's profile is currently high: the
BBC recently dramatised Twenty Thousand Streets Under the
Sky, and this undoubtedly
helped to swell the number of walkers to 62.
All the locales are
within easy reach of Earl's Court underground station, where the
walk started. We then moved on 12 Earl's Court Square where
Hamilton lived in his early years when it was the White House
Hotel. Here he fell in love with Maruja Mackehenie, the object of
the first of Hamilton's possessive but unrequited affairs. Her
brother Michael introduced Hamilton to underground London: alcohol
and ladies of easy virtue. These influences were hugely
influential in shaping the character, outlook and inspiration
of
the nascent
novelist.
Hamilton renamed the
White House the Fauconberg Hotel: it was here that Anthony Forster
stayed in Hamilton's first novel, Monday Morning, and where George Harvey Bone lodged in
Hangover
Square.
As we were there, a
neighbour came over and introduced herself: her aunt had owned the
White House Hotel: "It was in fact at number 17, across the road.
Number 12 was the annexe. My aunt gave Hamilton the use of the
mattress room to write in. He was very poor in those days."
We then made our way
north up Earl's Court Road, crossing the junction with Cromwell
Road, and passing several public houses frequented by Hamilton,
including the Three Blackbirds and the Courtfield (as the
Rockingham in Hangover
Square, it was where Bone
met Netta).
Hamilton's sister, Lalla,
lived at 134 Earl's Court Road. It was here that Hamilton was
staying in 1932 when he was knocked down and seriously injured by
a car in Logan Road, where we also visited. This event increased
Hamilton's insecurity and darkened his outlook: his alcoholism
gripped him from this point. Hamilton was taken to St Mary Abbots
Hospital in Marloes Road, which was very close by. This site has
been redeveloped into a private housing estate, although two
original buildings remain: part of the hospital (not visible from
the road), and the porter's lodge, outside which we stopped. (Pop
fans note: Jimi Hendrix died in the lodge in 1970.)
We moved south to 17
Hogarth Road, another hotel where Hamilton lived, and then ended
the walk at the King's Head pub, just off Kenway Road, where Bone
met a "bad lot" in Hangover
Square. These days this
excellent pub - a mere fifty yards from Earl's Court station, but
a world away in a quiet backwater - is well worth visiting.
Marc led the walk with
great confidence and insight, ably assisted by several readers who
read from Hangover
Square. Nick
Granger-Taylor collected over £200 in donations for The
London Adventure Russian Orphans Fund. A rewarding result for
everyone.
Above and
below: Marc Glendenning addressing the London Adventurers
