Down and Out in Paris and London

The narrator

The first-person narrator, an Englishman living in Paris who works as a plongeur. After leaving the Auberge de Jehan Cottard, he travels to England for a job arranged through his friend B., then survives in London while waiting for his prospective employers to return.

Madame Monce

The keeper of a small hotel opposite the narrator's, who argues with one of her lodgers in the street.

Woman on the third floor

An unnamed lodger at Madame Monce's hotel who argues with Madame Monce.

Madame F.

The Auvergnat owner of the Hôtel des Trois Moineaux, where the narrator lives; she also runs its bistro and looks after Furex.

Madame F.'s husband

The husband of the Hôtel des Trois Moineaux's owner; the narrator describes him and Madame F. as good sorts.

The Bulgarian student

An unnamed theology student who makes fancy shoes for the American market while attending lectures at the Sorbonne.

The Russian woman

An unnamed mother who works long hours darning socks to support herself and her son.

The Russian woman's son

Also known as the artist

An unnamed young man who calls himself an artist; while his mother darns socks to support them, he spends his time in Montparnasse cafés.

The day worker

An unnamed lodger who shares a room with a night worker, using it during the day.

The night worker

An unnamed lodger who shares a room with a day worker, using it at night.

The widower

An unnamed lodger who shares a bed with his two grown-up daughters.

The widower's elder daughter

One of the widower's two grown-up daughters, both of whom are consumptive.

The widower's younger daughter

One of the widower's two grown-up daughters, both of whom are consumptive.

The Rougiers

An old, ragged, dwarfish couple who sell sealed packets advertised as pornographic postcards, which actually contain photographs of châteaux on the Loire.

Henri

A taciturn sewer worker and former chauffeur. After a turbulent relationship with a woman and two prison terms, he turns to sewer work.

Henri's lover

Also known as the girl

An unnamed woman who has a passionate, troubled relationship with Henri; after his imprisonment, she is pregnant by someone else.

R.

An Englishman who spends half the year in Putney with his parents and half in France, where he drinks heavily and talks about antique furniture.

Monsieur Jules

A Romanian lodger with a glass eye, which he refuses to acknowledge.

Furex

A Limousin stonemason who works steadily and drinks heavily on Saturdays. Sober he is a Communist; drunk he turns fiercely patriotic, and Madame F. looks after him.

Roucolle

A miser who lived in the narrator's Paris quarter and died at seventy-four after being swindled in a supposed cocaine venture. He had half a million francs invested but was devastated by the loss of six thousand francs.

Laurent

Also known as old Laurent

An elderly rag merchant who copies his signature from a slip of paper he carries in his pocket.

Charlie

A young man from a well-off, educated family who ran away from home and lives on occasional remittances. He refuses to work and tells boastful stories to the bistro regulars, including the tale of Roucolle's death.

Charlie's brother

A lawyer who once took Charlie to dinner in Paris; Charlie drugged him and stole his money.

Charlie's parents

Charlie's parents, who sent his brother to find him and take him to dinner.

The young man who guides Charlie

Also known as Charlie's guide

An unnamed, fashionably dressed eighteen-year-old whom Charlie meets in a bistro and who leads him to a brothel.

The old woman at the brothel

An unnamed woman who takes Charlie's payment at the door and directs him to a room downstairs.

The young woman in the brothel

An unnamed woman whom Charlie assaults in a room at the brothel; he speculates, without evidence, that her parents sold her into slavery.

The young Italian lodger

Also known as the Italian

An unnamed Italian who calls himself a compositor, makes duplicate keys, and robs rooms at the Hôtel des Trois Moineaux.

Boris

Also known as the Russian waiter

A Russian refugee and the narrator's close friend, formerly a captain in the Second Siberian Rifles and later a waiter. He becomes successful at the Auberge de Jehan Cottard and later tells the narrator he earns a hundred francs a day and supports a serious-minded woman.

The narrator's first English pupil

An unnamed pupil who dismisses the narrator from English lessons when the weather grows hot.

The narrator's second English pupil

An unnamed pupil who leaves his lodgings without notice, owing the narrator twelve francs.

The red-haired secondhand shopkeeper

An unnamed Jewish shopkeeper in the rue de la Montagne St Geneviève who buys the narrator's clothes at very low prices and cheats other customers.

Numéro 83

An old bearded man at the pawnshop whose bundle of men's woollen pants is judged nearly worthless.

The pawnbroker's clerk

An unnamed clerk who assesses pledges and calls out the sums offered to customers, including the narrator.

Boris's parents

Boris's wealthy parents, who were killed in the Revolution.

Boris's Jewish roommate

Also known as the Jew · the mechanic

An unnamed Jewish mechanic who shares Boris's attic room and owes him money, repaying the debt with a place to sleep and two francs a day for food. He later stops paying, takes the money back, and plans to leave without paying rent.

The American customer at the Hôtel Royal

An unnamed, drunken American hotel customer who challenges Boris to drink brandy cocktails and rewards him with tips.

The café barman

An unnamed barman at an employment café near the rue de Rivoli who connects hotel workers with employers and can secure jobs in return for a bribe.

The stout restaurateur

An unnamed, important-looking man who visits the employment café seeking hotel workers.

The Hôtel Scribe manager

The unnamed manager whom the narrator and Boris wait for in hopes of asking for work; he never comes out.

The restaurant patron on the rue du Commerce

The unnamed owner or manager who hires Boris and the narrator for the Auberge de Jehan Cottard before it is ready to open. Short of money, he delays the opening and uses the staff for unpaid renovation work.

The short, fat man at Les Halles

Also known as the man in the bowler hat

An unnamed man directing porters at Les Halles who tests the narrator's strength with a heavy potato basket and dismisses him.

Yvonne

Also known as Boris's former mistress

A woman who was Boris's former mistress and owes him two hundred francs. Charlie later says she was his partner during a period when they were starving, and recounts persuading her to pretend to be pregnant to get free meals.

Boris's Polish friend

Also known as the Pole

A Polish friend of Boris, described by him as a man of genius, who forged pawn tickets to borrow money.

The pawnbroker's receiver

An unnamed pawnshop employee who refuses to accept Boris and the narrator's overcoats because they are improperly packed and their identification papers are insufficient.

The patron

The unnamed landlord of Boris's lodging, who watches for tenants trying to leave without paying rent and is distracted by Boris with talk of bicycle races.

The patron's wife

The unnamed wife of Boris's landlord, who takes turns watching the office and might have caught Boris and the narrator carrying away his suitcase.

Boris's debtor in the rue Fondary

Also known as Boris's friend in the rue Fondary

An unnamed man whom Boris accuses of cheating him of four thousand francs. Boris says the man is dishonest when sober but honest when drunk; they argue over who owes whom, then drink together.

The cobbler

An unnamed Russian refugee and cobbler who lets Boris sleep at his house in the Commerce quarter.

The exiled Russian duke

Also known as the duke

An unnamed duke in exile who frequents expensive restaurants and tricks Russian officers serving as waiters into lending him money, which he does not repay.

Boris's Russian friend

An unnamed Russian refugee, one of Boris's ex-officer friends, who lends him twenty francs and introduces him to a supposed Russian secret society.

The Russian waiter who brings Boris and the narrator

Also known as Boris's friend, another waiter

An unnamed Russian waiter and refugee who takes Boris and the narrator to the rendezvous of the supposed secret society.

The Frenchwoman in the laundry

An unnamed woman ironing clothes in the laundry that conceals the society's office; she directs Boris and the narrator upstairs and later says the men have left after rent trouble.

The surly young Russian

A strong, suspicious-looking young man who guards the supposed society's office and demands the password. He later questions the narrator alongside the unshaven man.

The unshaven Russian

An unnamed Russian in shirt sleeves who addresses newspaper wrappers in the society's office and interviews the narrator about political articles. The narrator later suspects he and his associates were swindlers posing as a Communist society.

The patron's wife at the rue du Commerce restaurant

An unnamed Frenchwoman, described by the narrator as fat and ill-looking, who is present when the restaurant patron interviews Boris and the narrator. She watches the first French customer's reaction and urges the kitchen to give him generous vegetable portions.

The Hôtel X doorkeeper

An unnamed hotel employee who checks staff entering through the service entrance, searches them for stolen food, pays their wages, and cheats the narrator of most of his Sunday pay. He calls himself Greek but is Armenian.

The Hôtel X chef du personnel

Also known as the assistant manager

An unnamed Italian assistant manager at the Hôtel X, haggard from overwork, who hires the narrator after learning he is English and takes him to his underground workplace.

The old woman in the Hôtel X laundry

An unnamed skull-faced woman in the Hôtel X laundry who gives the narrator a blue apron and dishcloths.

The Italian waiter in charge

An unnamed Italian waiter who supervises the narrator at the Hôtel X and threatens him to ensure he works carefully. He later invites the narrator to eat with him and tells him stories about his past.

The head cook at the Hôtel X

An unnamed, scarlet-faced cook with large moustaches who calls orders in the Hôtel X kitchen and berates the narrator after he brings a tray to the wrong counter. He is a skilled, punctual cook and an insufferable bully.

The breakfast cook at the Hôtel X

An unnamed cook whom the head cook points out the narrator to after the narrator takes a tray to the wrong counter.

Mario

A huge, excitable Italian who works with the narrator and Boris in the Hôtel X cafeterie. A highly skilled cafetier, he keeps the team working through the busiest periods and is paid more than his coworkers.

The Magyar

An unnamed, hairy, uncouth and inept worker in the Hôtel X cafeterie, whom the narrator thinks may be Transylvanian or from a more remote place.

The Hôtel X manager

Also known as the manager

An unnamed, conscientious manager who oversees discipline at the Hôtel X and can dismiss any employee, including cooks.

Valenti

A twenty-four-year-old Italian waiter on the Hôtel X's fourth floor who treats the narrator kindly in private and sometimes tips him. He has worked since he was twelve and tells the narrator about his difficult and colorful past.

The woman who washes up in the Hôtel X dining room

An unnamed woman, about sixty, who normally washes the dining-room crockery for thirteen hours a day, six days a week, and is bullied by the waiters. She claims to have been an actress; the narrator suspects she was a prostitute.

The Hôtel X assistant maître d'hôtel

Also known as the fiery Italian

An unnamed, fiery Italian who directs the waiters at the Hôtel X. He furiously berates an apprentice for breaking a bottle, then enters the dining room and serves customers with practiced elegance.

The Hôtel X apprentice waiter

Also known as the apprentice

An unnamed apprentice waiter who breaks a bottle of wine and is sharply reprimanded by the assistant maître d'hôtel.

The Hôtel X head waiter

An unnamed head waiter who says he would enjoy calling the narrator names, a remark the chef du personnel uses when offering the narrator a permanent job.

The Hôtel X maître d'hôtel

Also known as the head waiter

The unnamed senior maître d'hôtel described as directing the waiters and helping with catering. The passage explains his rank and earnings but does not otherwise identify him.

The Hôtel X night-watchman

Also known as the night-watchman

An unnamed hotel worker sent to wake the narrator and order him to work on his scheduled day off because the hotel is short-staffed.

The cellarman

An unnamed Hôtel X employee who steals brandy by saving a little from each drink and sells it to coworkers he trusts.

The university-educated waiter

Also known as the gentleman

An unnamed young waiter who had a university education and a well-paid office job before contracting a venereal disease, losing his job, and drifting into waiting tables.

Morandi

An Italian waiter at the Hôtel X, described as dangerous-looking and later revealed to be an Italian spy. He takes another waiter's mistress and threatens him with a razor.

Morandi's rival waiter

Also known as the other Italian · the other man's mistress's lover

An unnamed Italian waiter whose mistress Morandi has taken; intimidated, he threatens to denounce Morandi to the secret police.

The Serbian extra

Also known as the Serbian

An unnamed Serbian hotel worker who speaks six languages and repeatedly takes temporary jobs, works hard until noon, then provokes dismissal so he can collect a full day's wages.

The girl in the bakery

An unnamed sixteen-year-old bakery worker at the Hôtel X, noted for her fierce swearing during rush hours.

The German kitchen plongeur

Also known as the German

An unnamed German plongeur in the Hôtel X kitchen, known as a resourceful worker; he once procured peaches for an English lord by stealing them from a neighboring restaurant.

The chambermaid

An unnamed chambermaid at a hotel where Mario once worked who stole a diamond ring from an American guest and hid it by baking it into a roll.

The chambermaid's lover

Also known as the lover in the bakery

An unnamed bakery worker at the hotel where Mario once worked, who helped conceal the stolen ring by baking it into a roll.

The American lady

An unnamed guest at a hotel where Mario once worked, whose priceless diamond ring was stolen by a chambermaid.

Maria

A large, kind peasant woman lodging at the Hotel Suzanne May. She discovers that the narrator's empty oil can can be returned for its deposit, bringing him food when he is starving.

Sainte Éloise

The patron saint of the Latin Quarter, represented by a print in Valenti's room; he prays to her for money while starving, though he is an atheist. Maria identifies the picture the narrator mistook for Sainte Éloise as Suzanne May.

The cook at the Auberge de Jehan Cottard

A five-foot-tall, broad-hipped Baltic Russian hired to cook at the restaurant. She says she had been a singer and loves English literature, especially La Case de l'Oncle Tom; overworked, she frequently breaks down in tears.

Azaya

A clumping peasant girl who works fourteen hours a day in a glass factory and sings at the bistro. She joins the others in teasing Furex during his drunken patriotic speech.

Marinette

A thin, dark Corsican girl and Azaya's friend, described as obstinately virtuous. She performs the danse du ventre at the bistro.

Manuel

A Spaniard who brings girls to the bar and shakes the dice box against their bellies for luck. He later goes to the Arab bistro to gamble.

Big Louis

Also known as Louis

A bricklayer whose two children sit in the bistro sharing sirop. When drunk, he crawls about barking like a dog.

The itinerant singer

An unnamed traveling singer who comes to the bistro with a banjo and performs for five-sou pieces.

The Arab dancer

An unnamed Arab who dances with a girl from a nearby bistro, wielding a painted wooden phallus.

The girl from the bistro down the street

An unnamed woman who dances with an Arab at the bistro.

The murdered man

An unnamed man killed beneath the narrator's window by three assailants, who crack his skull with a piece of lead piping.

The three murderers

Three unidentified assailants who kill a man beneath the narrator's window and flee down the street.

The maternity hospital nurse

Also known as the nurse

An unnamed, large, motherly nurse with a gold pince-nez who recognizes Yvonne a year after Yvonne had pretended to be pregnant to receive free meals. She asks about Yvonne's supposed baby; when Yvonne claims to have twins, the nurse embraces her.

The milk-train worker

An unnamed railway worker implied by the milk train that passes down the Boulevard St Michel in the early morning.

The second waiter at the Auberge de Jehan Cottard

Also known as Jules

An unnamed Magyar waiter, a former medical student who left his studies for lack of money. Talkative, proud, lazy, and Communist, he steals food and claims he once contaminated a customer's soup with a dirty dishcloth to spite the bourgeoisie.

The cook's husband

The bedridden husband of the cook at the Auberge de Jehan Cottard, whom she supports and for whom she secretly takes food from the restaurant.

The grocer's wife

An unnamed, moustachioed woman of about sixty who runs the grocery; she takes a fancy to Jules, allowing the restaurant staff to maintain credit.

The inspector of labour

An unnamed official who investigates the restaurant because its staff includes no Frenchmen; the patron is apparently obliged to bribe him.

The restaurant's creditors

Unnamed creditors who come to collect debts from the Auberge de Jehan Cottard, including men who attempt to seize saucepans.

The girl in the nearby bistro

An unnamed girl who works from early morning until midnight for a year, is consumptive, and dies around the time the narrator leaves Paris.

The narrator's friend B. in London

Also known as B

An unnamed friend of the narrator in London, whom he writes to seeking help finding a less exhausting job. B. sends money for the narrator's passage to England and to retrieve his clothes from pawn; in this passage he tells the narrator that the prospective employers are abroad for a month.

The first French customer at the Auberge de Jehan Cottard

Also known as the Frenchman

The restaurant's first French customer, whose arrival prompts the staff to unite in serving him and the patron's wife to watch his reaction. He returns the next night with two other Frenchmen.

The two French customers

Two unnamed Frenchmen who accompany the first French customer on his return visit to the Auberge de Jehan Cottard.

The Czech plongeur

An unnamed, thoroughly competent plongeur hired to replace the narrator at the Auberge de Jehan Cottard. With him and another first-rate worker in the kitchen, the plongeur's hours are reduced to fifteen a day.

The narrator's prospective charge

Also known as the congenital imbecile

An unnamed person with a congenital intellectual disability whom the narrator is offered a job caring for in England.

The young Pole in Roucolle's cocaine scheme

Also known as the Pole

An unnamed Sorbonne student who proposes to invest four thousand francs in the supposed cocaine-smuggling venture with Roucolle and the Jewish promoter. He is arrested alongside Roucolle when the package proves to contain face-powder.

The Jewish cocaine-scheme promoter

Also known as the Jew

An unnamed, businesslike young man who persuades Roucolle to invest in a supposed cocaine-smuggling venture, delivers face-powder instead, and disappears with the money. Charlie says he pulled the same trick on two other people.

The man selling face-powder

An unnamed man on Roucolle's floor who sells face-powder tins on commission; the tins are used to conceal the supposed cocaine during the police search.

The police inspector at Roucolle's hotel

Also known as the inspector

An unnamed inspector who searches Roucolle's room and suspects the tins contain cocaine after Roucolle reacts nervously. He learns from the analyst that the substance is face-powder.

The Commissaire

An unnamed police official who interrogates Roucolle and the young Pole after they are arrested over the supposed cocaine.

The analyst

An unnamed analyst who examines the contents of the tin and reports that it is face-powder, not cocaine.

The Roumanian honeymooners

Also known as the couple of Roumanians

Two unnamed young Roumanians traveling to England on their honeymoon. They ask the narrator about England, and he answers with exaggerated praise.

The fourth Lambeth rag-shop proprietor

An unnamed large, blond young shopkeeper who exchanges the narrator's second-best suit for ragged clothes and only a shilling.

The hawker

An unnamed street hawker whose overturned barrow the narrator helps lift; he calls the narrator 'mate.'

The Waterloo Road lodger-house guide

An unnamed navvy or laborer who directs the narrator to a cheap lodging house in Waterloo Road.

The cellar boy at the Waterloo Road lodging house

A small, pale, sleepy-eyed boy who takes the narrator's payment and leads him to the dormitory.

The sailor at the Waterloo Road lodging house

An unnamed sailor who sleeps beside the narrator, wakes repeatedly to swear and smoke, and whose dirty foot sticks out near the narrator's face.

The lodger with a bladder disease

An unnamed man in the Waterloo Road dormitory who repeatedly gets up at night to use his chamber pot.

The coughing old lodger

A very old man with a sunken grey face in the Waterloo Road dormitory, whose regular violent coughing keeps the other lodgers awake.

The sleepy lodger who complains

An unnamed lodger who repeatedly tells the noisy men in the Waterloo Road dormitory to be quiet.

The coffee-shop girl

A fourteen-year-old girl who handles dishes at a Tower Hill coffee shop and serves the narrator tea and bread with margarine.

The bacon-eating man

Also known as the Jew

An unnamed Jewish man eating alone in the Tower Hill coffee shop, described as guiltily wolfing bacon.

The lodging-house deputy

An unnamed manager who runs the Pennyfields lodging house on behalf of its wealthy owner.

Steve

Also known as head of the house

A Norman-looking stevedore and senior lodger at the Pennyfields lodging house, who arbitrates disputes and acts as an unpaid enforcer.

Pore Brown

Also known as Brown

A little, pale, wizened lodger at Pennyfields who is gravely ill and has undergone several operations; the other lodgers regularly feed him.

The talkative old-age pensioner

An unnamed elderly lodger who explains to the narrator how he budgets his ten-shilling weekly pension, including money for shaving and haircuts.

The other old-age pensioners

Unnamed elderly lodgers who depend entirely on their old-age pensions and have no other resources.

The Singing Evangel

An unnamed street preacher in Whitechapel who offers to save people from hell for sixpence.

The two Mormon speakers

Also known as the Mormons

Two unnamed men trying to address a street meeting on Tower Hill, where a crowd interrupts and heckles them.

The lame atheist heckler

Also known as the bearded man

An unnamed lame, bearded man who angrily challenges the Mormon speakers to show him God.

The Middlesex Street mother

Also known as the mother

An unnamed, shabby woman who hauls her five-year-old child through the market and angrily insists that the child enjoy a toy trumpet.

The Middlesex Street child

Also known as the brat

The five-year-old child of the market woman, who cries while being dragged through the crowd with a tin trumpet.

The old-age pensioner in the quarrel

An unnamed man of about seventy at Pennyfields who quarrels bitterly with a stevedore after losing his food and being taunted about it.

The short, thickset stevedore at Pennyfields

An unnamed, well-fed stevedore who taunts an old pensioner over lost food and leaves after the lodgers turn against him.

The deputy's son

A pale, sticky five-year-old who plays on the navvies' knees in the cellar of the Bow lodging house.

The blind bullfinch

A blind caged songbird in the Bow lodging house, to which an old Irish lodger whistles.

The old pavement artist

An unnamed, very old pavement artist lodging in Bow, whose severe curvature of the spine makes him protrude from his bed.

The drunken lodger in Bow

An unnamed man who comes into the Bow lodging house drunk and vomits on the floor near the narrator's bed.

The old Irish tramp

Also known as the Irishman

A wizened, disease-ridden Irish tramp the narrator meets at Romton. He has spent fifteen years on the road and guides the narrator to a place offering free tea and a bun.

The lady at the tea mission

An unnamed woman in a blue silk dress, gold spectacles, and crucifix who welcomes tramps for free tea and buns, then speaks to them about religion and prayer.

The north-country lad at the tea mission

An unnamed, decent-looking young tramp from northern England, probably an unemployed miner or cotton worker, whom the tea-mission lady approaches with a plate of buns.

The red-nosed tramp

Also known as the red-nosed man

A spry tramp who resembles a former corporal and speaks the religious responses confidently. He helps the tea-mission lady distribute prayerbooks, joking with the other tramps.

The young lad at the tea mission

Also known as the poor lad

An unnamed young tramp whom the tea-mission lady questions about prayer; his hunger leaves him unable to answer.

The youngest tramp at the Romton spike

A fresh-faced sixteen-year-old in the queue at the Romton workhouse spike.

The oldest tramp at the Romton spike

A doubled-up, toothless man of seventy-five in the queue at the Romton workhouse spike.

The registering official at the Romton spike

An unnamed workhouse official who records the tramps' names, trades, ages, and routes as they enter the spike.

The Tramp Major at the Romton spike

An unnamed workhouse pauper who supervises casual visitors at the spike and helps usher the tramps inside.

The porter at the Romton spike

A large, abusive workhouse porter in blue uniform who searches and herds the tramps, oversees their bathing, and distributes food and possessions.

The narrator's cellmate at the Romton spike

Also known as the fitter

A thin, scrubby-faced man with a slight squint who shares a cell with the narrator. He is an unemployed fitter whose wife left him after he lost his job three years earlier.

The young medical student at the Romton spike

Also known as the doctor

A cigarette-smoking medical student who inspects the tramps for smallpox and determines that the narrator's cellmate's rash is caused by undernourishment.

The serving-maid at the Ilford coffee-shop

An unnamed young woman who contemptuously delays serving the narrator and Paddy Jaques after recognizing them as tramps, then gives them their meal-ticket food.

Paddy Jaques

Also known as Paddy

An Irish tramp who becomes the narrator's travelling companion for about a fortnight. He is ashamed of life on the road, hungry and self-pitying, but generous with his food and reluctant to steal.

The sharp-faced Rowton House doorkeeper

Also known as the man lounging in the doorway

An unnamed man apparently in authority at a Rowton House who turns the narrator and Paddy away because they did not sleep there the previous night.

The Salvation Army shelter official

Also known as the official

An unnamed Salvation Army official who lets the narrator and Paddy into the shelter before bed-booking opens, provided they buy tea.

The tall, thin young clerk

Also known as the young clerk

An unemployed, deadly pale clerk at the Salvation Army shelter who boasts that he will get a job and curses religious dependence when officers cannot hear. The narrator later sees him kneeling in prayer, his face showing that he is starving.

The blind foreign gentleman at the shelter

One of two ragged but gentlemanly foreigners at the Salvation Army shelter; he is blind and plays chess verbally with his companion.

The foreign gentleman at the shelter

The companion of a blind foreign gentleman at the Salvation Army shelter; they play chess verbally and have long been saving for a chessboard.

Pip

Also known as the man who cries out 'Pip!'

An unnamed regular at the Salvation Army shelter who has a nervous condition, possibly shell shock, that makes him cry out 'Pip!' at irregular intervals and keeps nearby lodgers awake.

The clothed newspaper seller

Also known as the dressed man

An unnamed newspaper seller at a Strand lodging house who sells his clothes to another seller, then strips and goes out wearing only a sheet of newspaper.

The naked newspaper seller

Also known as the naked man

An unnamed newspaper seller at a Strand lodging house who buys another seller's clothes and dons them before going out to work.

The old Etonian

Also known as M—

A fashionably dressed man of about fifty, refined but worn, who drinks cherry brandy in a squalid Strand lodging house and says he has come down in the world. He repeatedly tells himself that he is past redemption.

The hunchback lodger

Also known as the man next to the narrator

An unnamed hunchback with long, ape-like arms who attempts to steal the narrator's money from beneath his pillow.

The fourteen-stone lodger

An unnamed, heavy man whose story Paddy recounts: thieves lifted his mattress with him on it and stole his money.

Bozo

Also known as Paddy's friend · the screever

A disabled pavement artist and the son of a bankrupt bookseller, with a deformed right foot from a fall while house-painting. He is educated, interested in astronomy and literature, and believes poverty need not destroy a person's inner freedom; an embittered atheist, he imagines that life on harsher planets might be worse than life on Earth.

Winston Churchill

A public figure whose likeness Bozo copies from a penny notebook and uses as the subject of political pavement cartoons.

The old white-bearded screever

Also known as the salmon plater

An unnamed pavement artist on the Embankment who has drawn the same dog-rescuing-a-child picture for ten years.

The Astronomer Royal

An unnamed astronomer whom Bozo says sent him two letters thanking him for writing about meteors.

Bozo's French fiancée

Also known as the French girl

An unnamed French woman to whom Bozo was engaged while working as a house-painter in Paris. She was crushed to death beneath an omnibus.

The doctor who treated Bozo

Also known as the doctor

An unnamed doctor who treated Bozo after his fall from a work platform; Bozo recounts a vivid, probably self-invented remark attributed to him.

The child at Chelsea Bridge

An unnamed child whose head became stuck in the railings of Chelsea Bridge, inspiring one of Bozo's topical pavement cartoons.

Old Grandpa

Also known as Grandpa

A seventy-year-old tramp who makes much of his living by collecting cigarette ends and selling the tobacco.

The Doctor at the lodging house

Also known as The Doctor

A real doctor who was struck off the register for an unspecified offence. He sells newspapers and gives medical advice for a small fee.

The Chittagonian lascar

A barefoot, starving sailor who deserted his ship and wandered through London without knowing what city he was in; he thinks he is in Liverpool until the narrator tells him otherwise.

The begging-letter writer

A friend of Bozo's who writes false appeals claiming to need help with his wife's funeral, then spends successful proceeds on large meals. The narrator finds him unpleasant and says he believes much of his own deceit.

The Indian lodger

An unnamed Indian man at Bozo's lodging house whom the narrator addresses in poor Urdu; he calls the narrator 'turn.'

Shorty

An organ-grinder and friend of Bozo's who works coffee-shops and pubs around Whitechapel and Commercial Road with a partner. He hires an organ and averages about a pound a week.

Shorty's mate

Also known as the organ-grinder's mate

Shorty's unnamed partner, who has a wooden leg and collects money in pubs after Shorty plays. Together they earn their living performing in coffee-shops and pubs.

The real artist screever

Also known as the Paris-trained screever

An unnamed pavement artist introduced to the narrator by Bozo, who studied art in Paris and submitted pictures to the Salon. He makes remarkable pavement copies of Old Masters and supports his wife and six children with screeving and her sewing income.

The screever's wife

The wife of the Paris-trained artist screever. She takes in sewing to supplement the money he earns drawing on the pavement and help support their six children.

The first screever on the Strand

An unnamed pavement artist whose pitch and chalks the Paris-trained artist screever takes up briefly when desperate for money; the two then become friendly.

The churchwarden

Also known as the man in black

An unnamed man, apparently a churchwarden, who angrily orders the Paris-trained screever to erase a pavement copy of Botticelli's Venus outside St Martin's-in-the-Fields.

The slumming-party preacher

Also known as the gentleman in the frock coat

An unnamed, grave and reverend man who enters a lodging-house kitchen with companions and preaches a religious service to the residents.

The harmonium player at the slumming-party service

Also known as the lady with the portable harmonium

An unnamed woman who accompanies the slumming-party's religious service on a portable harmonium.

The chinless youth at the slumming-party service

Also known as the youth with the crucifix

An unnamed young man who accompanies the slumming-party preacher and plays with a crucifix.

The King's Cross church clergyman

An unnamed clergyman who organizes a weekly free tea for tramps at a church near King's Cross; the tramps disrupt the service that follows.

The regular church congregation

A small congregation, mostly older women, who attend the service at the King's Cross church and are jeered at by the tramps.

Brother Bootle

Also known as Brother Bootle or some such name

An older member of the King's Cross congregation who is often asked to lead prayers; the tramps mock him for his lengthy extempore prayers.

The minister at the King's Cross church

Also known as the minister

The unnamed minister who preaches at the service after the free tea and addresses the tramps as unsaved sinners.

The clergyman distributing meal tickets

A shy, chubby, youngish clergyman who gives meal tickets to tramps under Charing Cross Bridge. His unshowy manner earns their genuine gratitude.

The eating-house proprietor

An unnamed proprietor who accepts the clergyman's meal tickets but cheats the tramps by providing less food than the tickets are worth.

Bill

Also known as the moocher

A strong, cheerful tramp and habitual beggar who boasts of taking navvying jobs only to get drunk and be dismissed. He shares bread with the other tramps at Lower Binfield.

The Cromley spike suicide

Also known as the haunted-cell tramp

An unnamed tramp who, according to a story told by other tramps, killed himself with a smuggled razor in a Cromley spike cell; they claim his ghost haunts the cell.

The stowaway bound for Chile

Also known as the stowaway

An unnamed man who hides in a crate aboard a ship bound for Chile and dies of suffocation after being loaded beneath hundreds of other crates.

The docker who helps the stowaway

Also known as the docker

An unnamed docker who helps the stowaway hide in a crate but misjudges the order in which the crates will be loaded.

Gilderoy

Also known as the Scottish robber

A Scottish robber in a story told by a tramp; the tramps' version says he escaped to America after hanging the judge who sentenced him, though the narrator notes that he was actually recaptured and executed.

The very old tramp historian

Also known as the old man

An unnamed elderly tramp who shares oral-history fragments, including fanciful beliefs about the one-bite law, the Corn Laws, and the Great Rebellion.

William

One of two lively former Norfolk fishermen who sing the tramp song 'Unhappy Bella' and deliberately ruin their boots to obtain replacement pairs at Cromley spike, which they sell.

Fred

One of two lively former Norfolk fishermen who sing the tramp song 'Unhappy Bella' and deliberately ruin their boots to obtain replacement pairs at Cromley spike, which they sell.

The Cromley Tramp Major

Also known as the Tramp Major at Cromley

An unnamed spike official with a stock of old clothes who gives William and Fred nearly new boots after seeing their damaged ones.

The two fighting tramps

Two unnamed tramps who fight over an insult that one interpreted as calling him a Bolshevik; the narrator and others stop the fight.

The householder at Lower Binfield

An unnamed resident who gives Paddy and the narrator boxes to chop for firewood and pays them sixpence each.

The maid at Lower Binfield

An unnamed maid who is so frightened by the narrator and Paddy that she leaves their tea on the path and runs back inside.

The Irishman with thirty pounds

Also known as the Englishman with thirty pounds

A man who sews thirty pounds into his clothes and enters a workhouse casual ward to get a free bed; a tramp steals his clothes, and he is sentenced to thirty days for entering under false pretences.

The tramp who steals the clothes

Also known as the advising tramp

An unnamed tramp who advises a man with thirty pounds to enter a workhouse, then tricks the Tramp Major into letting him leave early in the other man's clothes.

The clergyman at Lower Binfield

An unnamed clergyman who comes with his daughter to look silently at the tramps waiting outside the spike.

The clergyman's daughter

The daughter accompanying the clergyman who stares at the tramps waiting outside the Lower Binfield spike.

The first woman tramp

Also known as the woman tramp

A dirty, battered woman of about sixty who carries herself with offended dignity and distances herself from the other tramps; the narrator supposes she became a tramp through misfortune.

The Tramp Major at Lower Binfield

Also known as the Tramp Major

A stiff, soldierly spike official who treats the narrator with unusual deference after learning he is a journalist and a gentleman. He is described by the tramps as a tyrant, but the narrator finds him gruff rather than bullying.

Scotty

Also known as the Glasgow tramp

A little, hairy tramp with a mixed Cockney and Glasgow accent. He gratefully repays the narrator for a cigarette by returning cigarette ends that had been confiscated during the search.

The young carpenter

Also known as the superior tramp

An unnamed, literate young carpenter who has been tramping for six months because he lacks tools. He prefers sleeping outdoors to spikes, but separates himself from other tramps and defends the workhouse's deliberate food waste.

The workhouse paupers

Also known as the paupers

Unnamed residents of the Lower Binfield workhouse who tell the narrator about life there, including the stigma of the uniform and the contrast between Sunday feasting and weekday underfeeding.

The workhouse cook

Also known as the cook

An unnamed cook at the Lower Binfield workhouse who gives the narrator washing-up work after dinner and tells him to discard the leftover food.

The imbecile tramp

Also known as the imbecile

An unnamed, individually distinguished tramp who is too tired to leave the Lower Binfield spike and clings to the railings until the Tramp Major kicks him loose.

The valet at the Twopenny Hangover

Also known as the valet

An unnamed man humorously called the valet at the Twopenny Hangover, who cuts the lodgers' support rope at five in the morning.