One of my big regrets about not attending the Sons of the Desert conventions in 1984 and 1998, respectively in London and Birmingham, England, was that I had missed out on the pilgrimages to see the birthplace of Stan Laurel in Ulverston. This became even more of a void when I finally got see the place of Oliver Hardy’s birth at the 2006 convention. My friend Bob had never been to Stan’s birthplace either, so I didn’t have too hard of a time of convincing him. It was the how to get there that presented the problem.
Ulverston is about as far away from London as you can get in England. It would be a journey of about 275 miles to travel from the Southeastern city of London to the Northwestern city of Ulverston. Silly me, I had assumed that they were right next door to each other. Bob and I opted to go by train on our only free day of the week, Thursday, April 1, 2010.
I was facing the day with a little bit of trepidation. Bob had basically put me in charge of getting us there, and I had never undertaken quite a task before. Jimmy had made all of our arrangements during my last first European tour and my cousin Chris had pretty much arranged everything in Italy. Even still, I refused to give up on this venture, even more so when I realized that Manchester was practically on our way…and there was a Hard Rock Cafe there!
After grabbing a croissant, wishing Bob a happy birthday (recalling Guatemala from one year ago this very day), and stalling around for a little bit, Bob and I made our way to the nearby subway station and headed to Euston Railway Station. Here we negotiated our tickets. We went to three windows and were nearly sold a ticket to Atherton (instead of Ulverston), before finally figuring out what route we would be taking and the times that the trains would be leaving. Basically the ticket entitled you to take any of the trains along the way at any time that they were running. And the tickets weren’t cheap: 84 pounds, or 128 stupid American dollars.
We ended up catching the 10:30 train out of Euston, which stopped in Lancaster at 1:00. We then re-boarded at 1:32 and arrived in Ulverston at 2:14. Amazingly, this all happened without incident. Although we had been warned that the temperatures would be colder up north, we found this day’s weather to be one of the nicest of the entire week.
Brief stop in Lancaster
Arrival in Ulverston. The sign was across the train tracks and Bob wouldn’t let me cross
In search of the Laurel and Hardy Museum
Bob and I set out on foot, map in hand, in search of the Laurel and Hardy museum. The original museum had opened officially in 1983, but had begun nearly a decade before when Ulverston mayor began amassing his own personal collection of memorabilia, including furniture that was being removed from the house in which Stan Laurel was born. (The owner following Stan’s family held on to the residence untl 1977). I had always heard about and seen pictures of this museum – so naturally always wanted to visit it.
Entrance to the museum
The World Famous Laurel & Hardy Museum – Open!!
Unfortunately, the original museum had been relocated when they begin to outgrow the building that they occupied. The new musuem had opened in 2009. Bob and I located it about 20 minutes after our arrival in the city. The museum is a bit of a hodge-podge of material, some vintage and rare (letters and autographs, Stan’s family furniture) and some contemporary (statues, paintings, etc.). The museum contains a small video theater that was showing Busy Bodies during our visit. The photos below do fair justice to the contents, I believe.
Piano removed from the Stan’s Argyle Street house in the early 1970’s, when the owners decided to renovate
Laurel and Hardy dummies ready to drop a block and tackle on my head
Overview of the memorabilia wall
In the library section…er chair…I found the world’s funniest book
After about a half-hour of browsing, Bob and I headed out to walk around town. We had obtained a map at the museum and the young man who worked there had circled the various points of interest. We were particularly interested to see the statue that had been unveiled exactly one year to the day before our visit. It had been crafted by Graham Ibbeson in bronze. It sits in front of a local theater and to our delight, various Laurel and Hardy film quotes had been etched into the sidewalk in front of the statue.
Bob and me at the statue
Quote from Bonnie Scotland, etched in front of the statue
Since we didn’t get to tour the original museum on Upper Brook Street, I was interested to see where it had actually been located. I had seen so many photos take there that I just had to explore the area where it was. Amazingly, one of the smaller museum signs was still hanging at the entrance and the giant sign indicating the museum was sitting in the alley in front of the museum, tucked behind a bench that had been dedicated to Bill Cubin himself.
Location – and sign – from the original Laurel and Hardy Museum on Upper Brook Street
Bench dedicated to Bill Cubin with the original sign slid behind it
Ulverston was clearly a charming town, steeped in memories of days gone by. One of the buildings still standing was the Evening Mail, formerly Gilliams General Store on Market Street. This was where a young Stan Laurel used to visit to purchase his much-loved treacle toffee.
Map of Ulverston – with a familiar sponsor
On Market Street in Ulverston
I didn’t discover this photo in the book Laurel Before Hardy until after I had posed for the above photo. I was amazed to see it was nearly the same shot that had been taken in the early 1800s. The first building on the left in the photo directly above is the same one (next to the shorter building) seen six buildings away from me
Photo from the museum of Gilliam’s, which Stan used to frequent as a child
The same building today
From seeing photos (and a box of matches that I own), I was also familiar with the Stan Laurel Inn bed and breakfast. The house had no historical significance, but again, I wanted to see it live and in living color. I was hoping that we might have lunch there, but they had closed up at 2:30 that afternoon and wouldn’t re-open until 6pm. We were 45 minutes late.
Sign over the Stan Laurel Inn
We’re here! Time for some grub…
…or not.
But of all the sights in Ulverston, the most significant one was the house itself in which Stan Laurel was born. It took us a bit to locate Argyle Street because the map that we were using actually had the street positioned in the wrong place! As you can see from the photos below, the house still looks nearly identical to how it did when Stan was born here in the home of his Grandmother Madge Metcalfe. A nice plaque had been place there in the still-occupied house.
Somebody moved the street!
Stan with his Grandma Metcalfe outside his birth home
Same house today. Note the positioning of the red bricks.
Stan Laurel was born in this house 16th June 1890
Fifteen minutes later, we were trudging up the hill that led back to the Ulverston Train Station, some of us quicker than others. We got back there at about 4:00, having seen all we needed to see in Ulverston in less than two hours on foot. Our train didn’t leave until 4:38, so we had a bit of a wait at the station. They never threatened to put us in the roundhouse, though.
At the train station, ready to exit Ulverston
We made a stop in Lancaster at 5:25, where I grabbed a hot chocolate at the Cafexpress stand, and we boarded the 5:48 train to Manchester. We arrived there 6:56 and hailed a cab to get us to the Hard Rock Cafe. This ended up being my second of three Hard Rocks that I would hit over three consecutive days. I enjoyed my first Hickory Smoked BBQ Burger of the year and naturally, enjoyed browsing the memorabilia.
Second Hard Rock Cafe of 2010. This takes me to twenty-two total. But not for long.
Relaxing with our soft drinks in the Hard Rock
In case you need proof that I was in Manchester
Very cool piece of Beatles memorabilia: a handwritten letter from George Harrison to former Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe, dated December 16, 1960
Promo poster for the Morrissey single Dagenham Dave from 1995. This is the first time I found a Smiths-related piece of memorabilia in a Hard Rock. My face doesn’t do justice to the delight I’m feeling.
We left around 8pm, only to find that it had finally begun to rain. We had almost gotten through one day without it, but this one was at least mild – and came after we had finished most of our walking. We got a taxi to the train station and departed for the Euston train station at 9:15, arriving back in London at 11:48pm. By the time we took the tube train back to our hotel, it was nearly 1am. Overall, it was a very successful day and I was proud to have gotten us back alive.
There was just enough time to get on Facebook, catch about two hours of sleep, and get up the next morning for our final bus tour of the trip.
The England trip will continue…
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