Arcadia England

By Erica Kitchin

“That was my bench,” Viv said to us as she pointed her electric blue-painted fingernail towards a metal, green bench parked under a grown out tree. She motioned towards an adjacent bench: “and that’s where my partner slept.” We were standing in the middle of Viv’s old home: a public park in the Temple area right outside of Embankment tube station.

This was the first stop on our tour of London, and the last place Viv slept as a homeless person. She is now employed by Unseen Tours, a company that employees the formerly homeless with paid work to guide both Londoners and tourists around parts of the city. They incorporate both history of London and personal anecdotes along the way.

Viv led us to a terrace that overlooked the Thames River. The area felt very dull: grey cement beneath our feet, faded wooden benches, and thin barbed-wire surrounding air vents.

To me, we were somewhere of little significance. To Viv and the homeless, we were in a home. Warmth is provided by the subway vents, there are several long benches, and the elevation keeps sleepers safe from feisty wanderers on the street.

“Oh, this is what my partner and I used to do!” Viv’s face lit up as she motioned towards two of the benches. “You put benches together and you got a bit more room,” she continued. “And you put cardboard underneath, and then you put your sleeping bag on top, and some people had quilts.” She then shared with us that she and her partner were of the lucky bunch who had a sleeping bag AND a quilt. My head bowed down and my heart sunk with it. I remember thinking to myself “it’s certainly the little things.”

With mention of her partner, we asked what it’s like to have a relationship while being homeless. “It’s a lot easier,” Viv explained. “If you’re a single lady you get picked out and thrown around a bit.” She didn’t touch on the romance of it, but rather the practicality.

“There are a lot more men out there as well, and not many single women so if you’re with somebody, it doesn’t matter who it is, you get more respect than being on your own sort of thing.”

She went on. “When I met my partner it became a lot easier. He knew the streets better than I did, it was easier to find a place to sleep.” Viv explained this to our group, so matter-of-factly, with no change in her very pleasant misdemeanor.

With the wind sweeping past our cold cheeks, my classmates and I followed Viv and her long, dirty-blonde ponytail from the Thames River through the Temple area until we reached Covent Gardens. Along the way, Viv stopped us at her prior homes and various spots to share otherwise unknown facts and stories about the history of London. All places that I, having not experienced this tour, would’ve walked past without turning my head or blinking an eyelash.

Unseen Tours (http://sockmobevents.org.uk, 07514266774) offers tours of London from £12 per person.