Saturday 15 June 2024 @ 11:45
from £12
Pond Street Gardens
Led by experienced tour guide Michael King
Although he only lived in Hampstead for about 15 months in the mid-1930s, this was an important period in George Orwell’s life. On this walk, led by Michael King from the Orwell Society, we will see the plaque and relief of him outside the building which was the bookshop in which he worked and upon which he based the shop in Keep the Aspidistra Flying. Another dystopian novelist, John Wyndham, also lived above this shop in the 1930s: a scene from that novel is commemorated outside this building too. During his period in the area Orwell’s first novel Burmese Days was published in the UK; he also wrote Keep the Aspidistra Flying while living here. Perhaps most importantly, Orwell met Eileen O’Shaughnessy, who would become his first wife while lodging at a house in Parliament Hill, which also has a plaque.
The walk will last about and hour and a quarter. We will meet in Pond Street Gardens, two minutes’ walk from Hampstead Heath overground station and about ten minutes’ walk from Hampstead underground station (Northern line). Various buses serve this point too.
There are many nearby pubs, cafes and restaurants for refreshments after the walk.
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Book event