George Orwell in Hayes, Middlesex

 

'GEORGE

ORWELL

(ERIC ARTHUR BLAIR)

1903–1950

 

Lived and Worked Here As

Senior Master Of The Former

HAWTHORNE HIGH SCHOOL

FOR BOYS

April 1932–July 1933

 

Hayes Literary Society'

The school at 116-18 Church Road, Hayes, had about twenty boys and there was only one other teacher, who was younger than Blair. It was during his time teaching here that his first book, Down and Out in Paris in London, was published (in January 1933), when he was working on Burmese Days. He thought Hayes a 'God-forsaken' place, and his next (and last) teaching place was Frays College in Uxbridge, Middlesex, which he left in January 1934 on the grounds of bad health.

The George Orwell pub in Coldharbour Lane, Hayes, previously called the Famous George Orwell, is now closed, as indicated by the boarded up lower windows partly visible here. Previously it had belonged to the Wetherspoon group and named the Moon Under Water after a short essay Orwell wrote about his ideal, and obviously non-existent, pub.