I wonder if anyone could shed some light on The Tricycle House and/or a cyclist called Arthur Abram, who broke the Liverpool to London tricycle record in the 1930s?
The house and an allusion to someone who could be Mr Abram are mentioned in a poem by Kenneth Rexroth, who visited Liverpool in 1949:
The great black psuedo classical
Victorian public buildings
Of Liverpool, bombed out shells,
Everybody too busy
To fix them up. So Rome died,
They were always going to
Get at the ruins next year.
Coal smoke and Spring move down the
Brick-lined gas-lit streets on the
Chill wind from the Mersey
“A Jew bloke, decent chap, yu know,
Runs a plice called Troicycle Ouse.”
Friendly as a six months pup,
Enthusiast for the adult
Tricycle, bronzed from tricycling
Over England. It is Peseach,
An austerity Passover,
With matzoth and fish and chips.
Victorian public buildings
Of Liverpool, bombed out shells,
Everybody too busy
To fix them up. So Rome died,
They were always going to
Get at the ruins next year.
Coal smoke and Spring move down the
Brick-lined gas-lit streets on the
Chill wind from the Mersey
“A Jew bloke, decent chap, yu know,
Runs a plice called Troicycle Ouse.”
Friendly as a six months pup,
Enthusiast for the adult
Tricycle, bronzed from tricycling
Over England. It is Peseach,
An austerity Passover,
With matzoth and fish and chips.
(Extract from The Dragon And The Unicorn by Kenneth Rexroth)
Any information would be gratefully received.
With thanks,
Phil Hearne
Dear Phil,
ReplyDeleteIn 1930 Arthur Abram joined the Westerley Cycling Club. He was only an average bicyclist. In 1933 he borrowed a tricycle and within weeks had attained national fame as a tricyclist. In that year he won the major national tricycle award - The Tricycle Trophy. He repeated his success the following year - a year in which he also broke the national 12 hour tricycle record. In October 1935 he broke the London to Liverpool Tricycle record. Not satisfied in reducing it by 26 minutes he attacked it again the following month reducing it by a further 36 minutes and in 1939 he broke the Liverpool to Edinburgh Tricycle record.
Regards
Rob Ainsworth
Web Administrator
Liverpool History Society
Web Site:http://liverpoolhistorysociety.org.uk