Arlington House (Camden Town)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the Rowton House hostel. For the historic mansion in the United States, please see Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial.

Arlington House is a hostel for homeless men in Camden Town, London which opened in 1905. It is the last and largest of the Rowton Houses to be built and is the only one to remain in use as a hostel.

George Orwell lived in Arlington House and wrote about the experience in Down and Out in Paris and London, his semi-autobiographical account of living in poverty in both cities. Brendan Behan was also a resident^[1].

Arlington House was taken over by Camden Council in the 1980's, but was subsequently privatised and is currently undergoing major government-funded refurbishment, owned and managed by the Novas Scarman Group.

The Aisling Project has is involved with the Irish Tenants Association of Arlington House, who constitute about a third of the residents. these tenants are generally older and have lived in the hostel for longer than most of the other tenants.

Arlington House is the opening phrase to a to 20 British Hit song by some of Camden's most famous residents, the pop group Madness. The song is "One Better Day", about homeless people, released 1984, and the opening line to the song, sung by Suggs and backed extensively by Carl Smyth, is "Arlington House - address, no fixed abode"