Tower House, Whitechapel by Doilum.
Why this one? Photographically it's not so interesting. But historically, it is. "This ominous building," the description explains, "was a giant hostel". Not tourist hostel, workers' hostel. "Stalin, Jack London and George Orwell stayed in it at various times to research work on the London poor. More recently the derelict building was squatted and became a centre for criminal activity in the area - there were a number of assaults and a murder inside. The photo was taken in January 2005, just before Tower House was converted into luxury flats."
Stalin and George Orwell stayed here - not bad. To make things more interesting still, a commenter came back a couple of times to recount how it was to stay there, back in 1972:
Quote:In my young down and out days in London 1972 I stayed for some time and at different times at Tower house in Whitechapel [..], I stayed long enough in whitechapel to get a Special, This was a proper room as opposed to a cubicle, I think on the first or second floors. [..] I had a cubicle on the top floor across from the washrooms, They use to send all the young guys to the top floors in those days.A cubicle was as wide as my right arm fully extended to the side and my left arm half extended about 5 foot wide, Cost 50p a night. The smell was very overpowering at first it was a mixture of body odor. smelly feet. excreta. and roll your own tobacco and urine, and sour beer. as best as i remember. in the very basement was the canteen they served tea and toast which was all i could afford also a very hearty soup but i never liked the taste. They had a good bath system and good clean towels.
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