Tuesday 20 May 2008

At home with George Orwell

I have posted before about the shop in South End green where George Orwell worked - well of course, if he worked there - he must probably have lived nearby?

And sure enough up on Parliament Hill is the answer...

This house right at the top of the road is the house - currently a multi-occ house. it got me thinking about what it was like when orwell lived there - was it a student house, rented to 6-8 people who didn't really know each other, who just perched here in one of london's many student houses... he would have been 30-32 years old.

Of course the plaque is great - I'm a great supporter of commemorative plaques but it doesn't record the nature of the stay and I'm reminded the several houses of John Constable, from a time when he moved around a lot and they effectively reflect his summer haunts.

This is the house where he is credited with writing 'Keep the apidistra flying' and the plaque at South End Green hints at my hunch that this was a place of residence for say 9-18 months before he moved on...

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/02/keep-aspidistra-flying.html

4 comments:

Manfarang said...

Interesting.
I've been to the Red Lion in Willingdon, stayed in a house on the Beech Hill estate Wigan,and drank tea in a Burmese tea house.

Manfarang said...

That should be Burmese tea shop.
Orwell spent his formative years in Henley-on-Thames so I may well be able to check that out during the bye-election.

Anonymous said...

For thiose missing the joke this is a good reference to orwellian biography - here's a more lucrative form of it
:-)
http://www.spikemagazine.com/0105secrethistories.php

Manfarang said...

Burma is no joke Mr Fordham.Life there for many is real hardship.