diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 5a12f0a7..dc65c268 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ python: 3.7
 
 before_install:
   - pip install pycodestyle
-  - pycodestyle --exclude=".git,.tox,__pycache,venv,.eggs,build,jupyterhub_config.py"
+  - pycodestyle --exclude=".git,.tox,__pycache,venv,.eggs,build,jupyterhub_config.py,cylc/uiserver/tornado_ws.py"
 install:
   - pip install .[all]
 script:
diff --git a/cylc/uiserver/tornado_ws.py b/cylc/uiserver/tornado_ws.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1ecc682c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cylc/uiserver/tornado_ws.py
@@ -0,0 +1,120 @@
+# This file is a temporary solution for subscriptions with graphql_ws and
+# Tornado, from the following pending PR to graphql-ws:
+# https://github.com/graphql-python/graphql-ws/pull/25/files
+# The file was copied from this revision:
+# https://github.com/graphql-python/graphql-ws/blob/cf560b9a5d18d4a3908dc2cfe2199766cc988fef/graphql_ws/tornado.py
+
+from inspect import isawaitable
+
+from asyncio import ensure_future, wait, shield
+from tornado.websocket import WebSocketClosedError
+from graphql.execution.executors.asyncio import AsyncioExecutor
+
+from graphql_ws.base import ConnectionClosedException, BaseConnectionContext, BaseSubscriptionServer
+from graphql_ws.observable_aiter import setup_observable_extension
+
+from graphql_ws.constants import (
+    GQL_CONNECTION_ACK,
+    GQL_CONNECTION_ERROR,
+    GQL_COMPLETE
+)
+
+setup_observable_extension()
+
+
+class TornadoConnectionContext(BaseConnectionContext):
+    async def receive(self):
+        try:
+            msg = await self.ws.recv()
+            return msg
+        except WebSocketClosedError:
+            raise ConnectionClosedException()
+
+    async def send(self, data):
+        if self.closed:
+            return
+        await self.ws.write_message(data)
+
+    @property
+    def closed(self):
+        return self.ws.close_code is not None
+
+    async def close(self, code):
+        await self.ws.close(code)
+
+
+class TornadoSubscriptionServer(BaseSubscriptionServer):
+    def __init__(self, schema, keep_alive=True, loop=None):
+        self.loop = loop
+        super().__init__(schema, keep_alive)
+
+    def get_graphql_params(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        params = super(TornadoSubscriptionServer,
+                       self).get_graphql_params(*args, **kwargs)
+        return dict(params, return_promise=True, executor=AsyncioExecutor(loop=self.loop))
+
+    async def _handle(self, ws, request_context):
+        connection_context = TornadoConnectionContext(ws, request_context)
+        await self.on_open(connection_context)
+        pending = set()
+        while True:
+            try:
+                if connection_context.closed:
+                    raise ConnectionClosedException()
+                message = await connection_context.receive()
+            except ConnectionClosedException:
+                break
+            finally:
+                if pending:
+                    (_, pending) = await wait(pending, timeout=0, loop=self.loop)
+
+            task = ensure_future(
+                self.on_message(connection_context, message), loop=self.loop)
+            pending.add(task)
+
+        self.on_close(connection_context)
+        for task in pending:
+            task.cancel()
+
+    async def handle(self, ws, request_context=None):
+        await shield(self._handle(ws, request_context), loop=self.loop)
+
+    async def on_open(self, connection_context):
+        pass
+
+    def on_close(self, connection_context):
+        remove_operations = list(connection_context.operations.keys())
+        for op_id in remove_operations:
+            self.unsubscribe(connection_context, op_id)
+
+    async def on_connect(self, connection_context, payload):
+        pass
+
+    async def on_connection_init(self, connection_context, op_id, payload):
+        try:
+            await self.on_connect(connection_context, payload)
+            await self.send_message(connection_context, op_type=GQL_CONNECTION_ACK)
+        except Exception as e:
+            await self.send_error(connection_context, op_id, e, GQL_CONNECTION_ERROR)
+            await connection_context.close(1011)
+
+    async def on_start(self, connection_context, op_id, params):
+        execution_result = self.execute(
+            connection_context.request_context, params)
+
+        if isawaitable(execution_result):
+            execution_result = await execution_result
+
+        if not hasattr(execution_result, '__aiter__'):
+            await self.send_execution_result(connection_context, op_id, execution_result)
+        else:
+            iterator = await execution_result.__aiter__()
+            connection_context.register_operation(op_id, iterator)
+            async for single_result in iterator:
+                if not connection_context.has_operation(op_id):
+                    break
+                await self.send_execution_result(connection_context, op_id, single_result)
+            await self.send_message(connection_context, op_id, GQL_COMPLETE)
+
+    async def on_stop(self, connection_context, op_id):
+        self.unsubscribe(connection_context, op_id)
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index a80e8b38..f59dd1b1 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -41,7 +41,8 @@ def find_version(*file_paths):
     'jupyterhub==1.0.*',
     'tornado==6.0.*',
     'graphene-tornado==2.1.*',
-    'cylc-flow==8.0a1'
+    'cylc-flow==8.0a1',
+    'graphql-ws==0.3.*'
 ]
 
 setup_requires = [