Down and Out in Bethnal Green: George Orwell’s arrest on Mile End road confirmed in 1931 court reports
A court record uncovered by a UCL researcher confirms that George Orwell was arrested on Mile End Road in 1931 during one of his ‘down and out’ experiments, spending two nights in Bethnal Green Police Station under the alias Edward Burton.
A court report uncovered by UCL in 2014 confirmed that George Orwell, author of 1984 and Animal Farm, was arrested on Mile End Road and spent two nights in Bethnal Green Police Station.
The finding by Dr Luke Seaber of University College London found evidence of the arrest, which was one of Orwell’s ‘down and out’ experiences, to understand London’s poverty better firsthand.
On Saturday, 19 December 1931, George Orwell, the pen name of Eric Blair, set out for Mile End Road, where he was arrested for being ‘drunk and incapable’. He claimed to have drunk ‘four or five pints’ and most of a bottle of whisky. He was in custody over the weekend and taken to Old Street Police Court on Monday morning.
This arrest was intentional by Orwell, as he later wrote about his experience in an unpublished 1932 essay titled Clink. He created an alias, Edward Burton, and a backstory that he had been ‘working as an outside (fish) porter at Billingsgate’ and after earning six shillings, he ‘went on the razzle’.
The court records, uncovered in the London Metropolitan Archives, confirm he was sent to Bethnal Green Police Station. Today, this is now the offices of the Providence Row Housing Association, on the corner of Ainsley Street and Bethnal Green Road. The station was once home to the J Division from 1868 until it became part of the H (Whitechapel) Division in 1933. The building still stands and is used by a charity today.
Dr Seaber, who published his findings in Notes and Queries, said in a UCL report, ‘I felt rather excited when I found the record in the London Metropolitan Archives – everyone dreams of finding something important or overlooked on a dusty shelf.’
The document provides ‘unambiguous external confirmation that Orwell did indeed carry out, more or less as described, one of his ‘down-and-out’ experiments’.
Within Orwell’s writing, he switches his storytelling between fact and fiction. This research now shows that his essay Clink, was based on true events of this arrest. In the essay, he talks of another prisoner who pleaded guilty to obstructing Shoreditch High Street with a costerbarrow, within the court reports, this is seen to be Pierre Sussman, marked under court number 16.
Now with confirmation that George Orwell did get arrested on Mile End road, it builds on the research that he tried first-hand to experience as much of London’s criminal experience. There are still sections of the essay that show he combined multiple accounts for dramatic effect. The blend of social commentary, personal experience and vivid stories is what makes his work so captivating, bringing East London in the 1930s to life.
