posted on 12 Sep 2022

The Fitzrovians: A portrait of Bohemian society 1900 - 1955 by Hugh David

I very much enjoyed reading Hugh David’s social history of homosexuality in the UK - On Queer Street - which was published in the late 1990s because it was so readable and didn’t get bogged down in unnecessary cul-de-sacs and dead-ends. Distilling so much history into a narrative thread that stays clear-sighted and reasonably concise is a tough job and so when I discovered that the same author had tried his hand at a similar social history of Bohemian London a decade earlier, I thought it was well worth taking a look.

Of course, the idea of ‘Bohemian’ culture is problematic in terms of definitions and this is where Hugh David kicks off his study. The idea that big cities develop specific neighbourhoods that offer - or even encourage - an influx of writers, artists and social misfits who eschew the norms and mores of the age they live in, seems to have its roots in late 19th century Europe, with Paris at its centre. Young men and women living in penury in order to be artistically free and creative while at the same time demanding the same freedom in the realms of drink, drugs and sex became the template for urban Bohemia.

But what constitutes Bohemian behaviour and characteristics ebbs and flows over time. The Aesthetic Movement, with Oscar Wilde at its centre, came and went to be replaced by a new grouping centred on the almost diabolic attractions of the artist, Augustus John. Also at the centre of Bohemian life in the first half of the 1920s was the artist and socialite, Nina Hamnett who embodied the idea of unconventional behaviour. Her Wikipedia entry neatly captures her reputation:

“Flamboyantly unconventional, and openly bisexual, Hamnett once danced nude on a Montparnasse café table just for the "hell of it". She drank heavily, was sexually promiscuous, and kept numerous lovers and close associations within the artistic community. Very quickly, she became a well-known bohemian personality throughout Paris and modelled for many artists. Her reputation soon reached back to London, where for a time, she went to work making or decorating fabrics, clothes, murals, furniture, and rugs at the Omega Workshops, which was directed by Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell, and Duncan Grant."

But by 1926, the influence of John and Hamnett was waning. Bohemian culture tended to focus on specific locations like cafes and pubs and being in the ‘right’ location was everything. However, this had its drawbacks because these locations became magnets for ‘tourists’ seeking to get a close-up look at the dangerous Bohemians or ‘wannabes’ who would pack the venues simply to pose.

By the late 1920s the ‘real’ Bohemians had taken up residence in The Fitzroy Tavern on the corner of Charlotte and Windmill Streets in Soho. It was a location that underlined its separation from that other - very middle-class - Bohemian location, Bloomsbury and gave UK Bohemians a new title, Fitzrovia. The new spiritual centre of Fitzrovia was a hard-drinking, podgy little Welsh poet - Dylan Thomas. Also in prominently in attendance in The Fitzroy was the novelist, journalist and general literary dogsbody, Julian Maclaren-Ross whose career seems to embody the popular notion of Bohemia. His Wikipedia profile describes this time in his career thus:

“Maclaren-Ross's career was, however, undermined by his boozy, amphetamine-fuelled, spendthrift way of life. In search of rapid financial rewards, he devoted more and more time to journalism, screenwriting, and French-into-English translation work. The mid-1950s represented the low point of his life. Obsessed by George Orwell's glamorous widow Sonia, he ended up homeless, sleeping in the waiting-room at Euston station, on underground trains, and on friends' settees. He also had a brief spell in prison for non-payment of debts.”

Following the ending of World War Two, Fitzrovia was still a mecca for the literary outsiders and experimentalists and the worlds of Bohemian and gay London started to elide - presumably this is what led the author to move on to his later study, On Queer Street.

I’m not sure whether there is an edition of this book still in print but there are paper and hardback copies available on the secondhand market which are affordable. This book was published in the late 1980s and since then there have been several more studies of the cultural phenomenon known as Fitzrovia. This one provides a very useful general overview and is an ideal starting point for anyone wanting to discover more about Bohemian London.

 

Terry Potter

September 2022