Jazzing in the House

This is an amusing story from the beginning of the Jazz Age about a housewarming party in St John’s Wood which disturbed the next-door neighbour and resulted in two trials.

Arthur Bentley had served in France as a driver for the Royal Air Force in the First World War. When he was de-mobbed in March 1919, he took over and ran a teashop in Regent Steet. In June he heard about a house in St John’s Wood which only had a few years remaining on the lease. He was offered a good deal on Number 3 Northwick Terrace, because the Central London Building Company who owned the land, were going to demolish one side of the road to build a large block of flats on the Edgware Road in Maida Vale. Today, this is the distinctive mock-Tudor Clifton Court.

Map showing Nos, 3 and 4 Norwick Terrace

In July 1919, Arthur negotiated with Edward Hamilton Allen, the current lease holder, and paid him a deposit to buy the lease. On Saturday 16 August the Bentleys held a housewarming party with a small jazz band consisting of piano, banjo and drums. Arthur’s nephew was a Canadian officer stationed at the Bramshott Camp in Hampshire, and he and his friends arrived by car. About 20 people attended the party which went on to the early morning. At 3.00am, Arthur’s wife Helen discovered there was a tradesman’s pony grazing in the long garden which ran down to Maida Vale. She decided it would be fun to have a bareback ride round the garden.

The Guild of Officers jazz band (Getty Images, 1923)

Northwick Terrace was a quiet street and the next-door neighbour, Walter Faber, was very annoyed by the noise of the party. Faber a batchelor, was a Lloyds underwriter who had lived at No.4 since 1916 with his housekeeper. Another party was planned for the following Monday and a woman who was drunk, knocked on Bentley’s door that evening and demanded to be let in saying her husband was there. He did not know the woman and asked her to leave. When she refused and shouted abuse, Arthur pushed her away and closed the door. She returned with a policeman and complained that she had been assaulted and that Bentley had given her a black eye. Bentley denied this and explained what had happened to the constable, and he began to escort the woman away.

At this point, the Canadian officers arrived for another dance party, but Bentley told them he had not been able to hire a band. The drunk woman shouted at the officers that this was a brothel and people had been robbed there, and they drove off. Disturbed by all the noise, Walter Faber came out with a stick and began shouting at Bentley and his family.

Faber wrote to the Central London Building Co. saying he could not continue his tenancy because of the noise and disturbance from next door. As a result, the company wrote to Edward Allen, and he decided not to complete the sale of the lease to Bentley. Allen said the company had the impression that the house was being used as a nightclub and a disorderly house. This meant that Bentley was now living in the house on suffrage and could be turned out at any moment. He left for West Kensington but was determined to get his own back.

In February 1920, Bentley took the Central London Building Co. to court for libel and damages. The libel was because of the letters they wrote to Allen after the party, and the damages which resulted when the sale of the lease did not go through. Bentley won and was awarded £150 (today worth about £6,200) by the jury.

In November Bentley sued Faber for slander claiming that he had shouted, ‘This is a disorderly house and the police ought to stop it.’ He also asked for damages for libel from the letters written by Faber to the property company. One of these said, ‘Yesterday week, there was jazzing until 3am, which must have been audible a quarter of a mile off, and after that a woman riding a pony, which was kept in the back garden. After that there was singing, and no sleep for anyone here.’

Lord Darling by Spy

Mr Justice Darling, the elderly judge, did not know what jazz was and he asked Helen Bentley about the band. Then he started joking with the two barristers about the music. Mrs Bentley said her husband was a caterer and he also wrote books. When the prosecution barrister asked if the books were about catering, she said ‘No, they were real books, proper novels’ which caused much laughter. 

After the judge heard that Faber was an underwriter for Lloyds, he made a joke about the ‘possible jealousy between a writer and an underwriter.’ Faber said, ‘I have no familiarity with jazz bands, because I am fond of music.’ A neighbour said she heard the noise from the party which kept her awake. She noticed ‘the women were of the flash type, such as did not live in the area.’ The jury stopped the trial, saying they had heard enough and decided that Faber was not guilty of the charges.

‘The Great Gatsby’ film showing the 1920s flapper fashion

The account of the 1920 trial shows how amusing the judge and the barristers thought the case was, at the beginning of the jazz age when the music was little understood.