Why Britons’ house names reflect their class anxieties
British houses are often given names like Belle Vue or Dunroamin
IN GEORGE ORWELL’S “Coming Up For Air” (1939), a novel about a middle-aged, middle-class Englishman bitter about the destruction of good old-fashioned English values, the lead character complains about his area, where the homes are “alike as council houses and generally uglier. The stucco front, the creosoted gate, the privet hedge, the green front door. The Laurels, the Myrtles, the Hawthorns, Mon Abri, Mon Repos, Belle Vue.”
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Dun Namin’”
Britain March 14th 2020
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