Queer Places:
The Savoy London, 2 Savoy Ct, Strand, London WC2R 0EZ
Thomas Wade Earp (1892 or 1895-1958) was an art critic and writer. He was a brewery-fortune heir, Oxford
graduate, and aspiring writer in the literary hostess Lady
Ottoline Morrell's
circle. With his high-pitched quaver and his hair cropped close like a
convict's, Earp became “the flaming meteor" in
Berenice Abbott's new world.
Thomas Wade Earp; John Howard Whitehouse
by Lady Ottoline Morrell
vintage snapshot print, 1917
2 3/8 in. x 1 1/2 in. (60 mm x 38 mm) image size
Purchased with help from the Friends of the National Libraries and the Dame Helen Gardner Bequest, 2003
Photographs Collection
NPG Ax140554
Earp spent freely to show Abbott Paris, "completely and magnificently, elegantly and poetically, and - expensively." He kept a room at the Hotel Foyot, in the Latin Quarter near the Luxembourg Gardens, frequented by the English and by well-to-do Americans who thought its fine restaurant the best in Paris. At their first meeting Earp invited Abbott to dinner; with no evening clothes of her own, she borrowed an old opera coat from a new friend, Rachelle, whose hotel room she was sharing. Earp arranged for Abbott to stay overnight at his friend Nancy Cunard's room at L'Etoile Hotel.
Earp took Abbott to London. They stayed in Earp's Savoy Hotel room. Eventually they tried a serious menage. Earp proposed to Abbott, but she refused.
Constant Lambert's Piano Sonata is dedicated to Earp. Earp was friend of Cecil Gray and Philip Heseltine.
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