Orwell's Old Pub...

P.S.Burton wrote:
> where abouts does he identify the canonbury arms as the model for the
> moon under water? I thought he kept quiet about exactly which pub(s) he
> thought came closest. The Fitzroy Tavern in Charlotte Street plays up
> the connection a bit - well, there's a big picture of him in the
> corridor on the way to the bogs. It's an alright pub, I was in there
> last week.
>
>
>
>
>
> ROBBIE wrote:
> > ...the Canonbury Arms (model for the Moon Under Water) is to close next
> > week. Nick Cohen in the Standard says it will be reopened - and ruined - as
> > a gatsropub.
> >
> > ROBBIE

"'A street or so from Canonbury Square stood a large working-class
tavern, a kind of gin palace, with cut-glass screens and a big garden
filled with tables, where the proletarians wouls sit on a summers'
evening in whole families, with the fathers and mothers downing pints
of old-and-mild while the children shouted on the swings which the
publican had so cannily provided. Orwell liked to go there
occasionally, always keeping a weather eye openso that he might avoid
the embarrassment of running into one of the little group of Stalinist
writers who lived in the district. But he did not appear to know any
of the working men who frequented the pub, and he certainly seemed out
of place among them, a rather frayed sahib wearing shabby clothes with
all the insouciance an old Etonian displays on such occasions.' (George
Woodcock, The Crystal Spirit). The pub seems to be a source of The
Moon Under Water, the impossible ideal pub described in an article in
1946"

- John Thompson, Orwell's London p.88

Note: *a* source. Thompson's book is a nice little item but it is
essentially a cut n paste of pictures and text.

See also:
http://groups.msn.com/EricArthurBlair/orwellslondon.msnw?action=ShowPh...&PhotoI


I don't rate the Fitzroy much. Nasty, noisy, characterless place.

N
 >> Stay informed about: Orwell's Old Pub... 

"P.S.Burton" <dlbits.DeleteThis@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1159626587.910376.216360@e3g2000cwe.googlegroups.com...
> where abouts does he identify the canonbury arms as the model for the
> moon under water?

I've chucked the paper out now but Cohen says something like: the Moon Under
Water was a made up pup but...' and goes on to say something about Orwell's
opinion of the Canonbury Arms and it being the closest pub to where he
lived.


I thought he kept quiet about exactly which pub(s) he
> thought came closest. The Fitzroy Tavern in Charlotte Street plays up
> the connection a bit - well, there's a big picture of him in the
> corridor on the way to the bogs. It's an alright pub, I was in there
> last week.
>

I always feel the Fitzrovian pubs are too expensive and a bit taxidermified.
I quite like the Weatsheaf.

ROBBIE
 >> Stay informed about: Orwell's Old Pub...