Down and Out in Paris and London - where is Romton?

I'm reading this book at the moment. He writes about staying at a
'spike' (a kinda hostel and soup kitchen for the homeless) in Romton,
and then walking to another one in Edbury. But these towns do not seem
to exist - I can't find anything about them on Google. So are these
places really Romford and Edmonton? He may have altered the names so to
avoid getting sued by the owners of the spikes (Salvation Army in both
cases I think) Does anyone know? I'm from Romford way, so am very
curious about this.

Martha Bridegam wrote:

>>
> Can't help on Romton but I'm pretty sure the "spikes," formally known as
> "Casual Wards," were public institutions -- outgrowths of the old
> workhouses -- and much more institutional than private or even nonprofit
> lodging houses. If you read through the rest you'll get to Orwell's
> complaints (by name) about a Salvation Army place. He says the Salvation
> Army can't even seem to run a profit-making enterprise like a lodging
> house without making it stink of charity.
>
> /M

Having re-read the particular passages I can see that you're right,
they were government institutions. In 'Romton' he went to a church
with in order to get some food and drink and that may have been Sally
Ally. But still, there would have been good reasons for the publishers
at the time to alter the placenames (or perhaps Orwell did it himself).