9 March 2013

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.

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