An icon of rock ‘n’ roll legend, the Chelsea Hotel in New York opened it’s doors in 1884. Since that date it has been at the epicentre of a riotous folklore of debauchery, creativity and the downright wacky.

Author Sherill Tippins has written an account of these events in her new book, ‘Inside the Dream Palace: the Life and Times of New York’s Legendary Chelsea Hotel’. Tippins explained, in her interview on the Tom Dunne Show, the hotel manager’s utopian view of a sort of artist collective living under one roof. “What he was trying to do was bring together all the economic classes, people of different backgrounds who were traditionally very separated and never communicated with each other...he was trying to bring them together in one building as housemates,” she said.

The hotel was designed with artists in mind. The walls are three feet thick, ensuring that the many bands who rehearsed within the building did not disturb the other residents. Arthur Miller conveyed the attraction of the hotel by insisting that it embodied an egalitarian atmosphere. Celebrities and non-celebrities were treated alike. It was also designed to be sociable with a number of loft-type apartments where artists could stay for extended periods. Indeed, Miller himself spent a considerable amount of time there in the period following his split with Marilyn Monroe.

Our own Brendan Behan was one such resident who was known for singing ‘I Should have been Born a Tulip’ at the top of his voice in the middle of the night, no doubt after a heavy drinking session, until eventually his wife came and brought him back to Ireland.

Bob Dylan moved into one of the apartments in the hotel in 1965 and it was here that he wrote ‘Visions of Joanna’.

You can listen to the full interview here.

‘Inside the Dream Palace: the Life and Times of New York’s Legendary Chelsea Hotel’ by Sherill Tippins, is on sale now.