The start of winter nights in London: the history of the poor & night shelters
On Wednesday morning in Tottenham there was the first mild frost of the winter. On Thursday night the temperature was set to fall to 2C. Not freezing but very cold if you have nowhere to go and no heat.
In recent times the Mayor has made efforts to provide overnight shelter for those on the streets as winter weather sets in. The situation is certainly worse because of the pandemic. Nor is it a new thing
In his essay Comers and Goers (in Dyos, the Victorian City), the late historian Raph Samuel surveyed the seasonal migration of labour into and out of cities in the late Victorian period.
He noted that many came to winter in London, where, depending on the weather, night shelters, straw yards as they were called by those who used them, funded by private charity, opened up each November. The shelters were free and without obligation. People could stay for up to a month and they were heated with a huge open fire. The largest was at Playhouse Yard Cripplegate. The alternative was the Poor Law funded Casual Ward where a stay was limited to two nights and had to be paid for by a day’s forced labour.
Samuel lists many other places where people slept rough in London including railway arches and around the main hotels where heat was to be found, but the picture remains disturbingly similar 150 years on. Progress….
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