Setting of the story
Down and Out in Paris and London
Boris's best job before illness — waiting tables here for a hundred francs a day in tips — and the pavement the two of them wait on when they try to get it back.
Hôtel Scribe
Still standing
In, as a customer
A successor, same room
A grand hotel behind the Opéra, on the rue Scribe. In Down and Out in Paris and London it is the good job that keeps slipping away — where Boris earned a hundred francs a day in tips before he fell ill, and where he and George Orwell stood on the pavement for an hour hoping the manager would come out and hire them.
- 1 rue Scribe, 75009 Paris
- In Orwell's Paris, 1929; he returned as a correspondent in 1945
The place, briefly
The Hôtel Scribe stands on the corner of the rue Scribe, a street behind the Palais Garnier laid out as part of Haussmann's Opéra quarter. It was, and is, a large expensive hotel with a large expensive kitchen — which is exactly why it matters in Down and Out in Paris and London.
The book's economy runs on hotel kitchens. Boris, the Russian ex-officer George Orwell shares his hunger with, had climbed the trade: a brush factory, then portering at Les Halles, then dishwashing, then waiting tables. "When he fell ill he was at the Hôtel Scribe, and taking a hundred francs a day in tips." That is the peak he falls from, and the number the book measures every subsequent humiliation against.
Later, at their lowest, the two of them come here to try to get it back. Orwell's account is four sentences of pure flatness: "We went to the Hôtel Scribe and waited an hour on the pavement, hoping that the manager would come out, but he never did. Then we dragged ourselves down to the rue du Commerce, only to find that the new restaurant, which was be—"
It is a small scene and one of the truest things in the book about looking for work with no money. There was no interview and no refusal. They simply stood outside a building for an hour, and nothing happened, and then they walked somewhere else.
Orwell came back to the rue Scribe in better circumstances. He returned to Paris as a war correspondent in 1945, and stayed at the hotel — the same door, sixteen years and a reputation later.
Key facts
- 1 rue Scribe, behind the Palais Garnier, in the 9th
- Boris's best job — a hundred francs a day in tips — and the door he and Orwell waited outside
- An hour on the pavement hoping the manager would come out; he never did
- He stayed here as a war correspondent in 1945
- The Sofitel Le Scribe Paris Opéra; the café is enterable without a room
Timeline
Boris is a waiter here on a hundred francs a day in tips before falling ill.
Orwell and Boris wait an hour on the pavement outside, hoping to be taken on.
Down and Out in Paris and London is published.
Orwell returns to Paris as a war correspondent and stays at the hotel.
On the map
Questions before you go
What is the Hôtel Scribe's connection to Orwell?
It appears twice in Down and Out in Paris and London. It is where his friend Boris had his best job, waiting tables for a hundred francs a day in tips before illness ended it, and it is where the two of them later stood on the pavement for an hour hoping the manager would come out and hire them. He never did. Orwell returned to the hotel as a war correspondent in 1945.
Can you visit the Hôtel Scribe?
Yes — it still operates at the same address as the Sofitel Le Scribe Paris Opéra. You do not need a room to get inside; its café is open to anyone, which makes it one of the easier Orwell locations to actually stand in.
Where is the Hôtel Scribe?
1 rue Scribe in the 9th arrondissement, immediately behind the Palais Garnier in the Opéra quarter. It is a short walk from the Grands Boulevards and from the American Express office on the rue Scribe that appears elsewhere in expatriate Paris writing.
Related books
Writers who knew this place
George Orwell
Visited by · 1929
"We went to the Hôtel Scribe and waited an hour on the pavement, hoping that the manager would come out, but he never did." Orwell returned to the hotel as a war correspondent in 1945.
Within walking distance
L'Olympia
The boulevard music hall where Colette played the title role in La Romanichelle in 1906, during her run as a professional performer.
Visit the place
American Express Office at Opéra
The office by the Opéra where American expatriates collected their mail and cashed their cheques, and where David goes to escape Giovanni's room in Baldwin's novel.
Visit the placePalais Garnier
The Paris opera house — Charles Garnier's Second Empire palace on the place de l'Opéra, inaugurated on 5 January 1875 and the home of the Paris Opera ever since.
Visit the place
Bar Hemingway
A 25-seat cocktail bar at the rue Cambon end of the Ritz Paris, opened under Ernest Hemingway's name in 1994 in the former Le Petit Bar.
Visit the placeThe Friday Letter
Paris, one address at a time.
The cafés, studios, and walk-up flats where the work was made — one story from the map in every letter.