Homeless people in 'sleeping pitches' on pavement outside store selling £7k beds
Homeless people tell of the sleeping pitches 'depending on how long you've been here' where they lie outside a plush shop selling £7,000 beds.
At around 9pm, the first tents start popping up between the pillars of Heal's department store on Tottenham Court Road, in London.
"Everyone has their own spot," a woman in an orange sleeping bag said, gesturing to black square patterns on the floor between the grand stone pillars. "It depends on how long you've been here."
The colourful domes are erectly neatly on folded cardboard which offers some protection from the freezing stone ground, reported MyLondon.
Trembling against the wind, the one-person tents strike a contrast with the lush bedroom display in the window behind, where beds are sold for £7,000.
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People are organized in the sleeping pitches where they camp (Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)People were bedding down in front of the store with just a sleeping bag, their preparations were quiet and polite, bags in place and zips pulled up with consideration for those already trying to sleep.
A man with a white beard, who is in his late 50s, is folding cardboard to lie down on.
"I've been here three weeks," he said. "Some of the people have been sleeping here for years."
When we ask about the circumstances which led to him becoming homeless he doesn't go into detail. "These things happen," he said. "Life throws a lot of stuff at you."
Whilst those sleeping outside Heal's weren't elderly, they were neither young and would feel the consequences of sleeping in freezing air on rock-hard floors.
Unlike many of the doorways people can be seen sheltering inside around central London, the harsh department store lighting illuminates each pitch.
This might look like an obstacle to falling asleep, but it makes it harder for someone to creep up and steal a bag or attack a person.
Tents block out the light and sleeping bags can be pulled up over the head, a measure which helps avoid the brightness and keeps the cold away.
Homeless people say it is safer to be sleeping where there is light (Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)"It's reasonably safe, not 100 per cent, but it's well-lit," the man with a beard added. When asked how he knew this would be a space he could sleep the man shrugged his shoulders and said he'd seen people camping outside for a "long, long time".
MyLondon has reportedly been told by other homeless people how they have been targeted for abuse by drunk revellers who in the worst cases urinated on them, but this man said so far all he has seen is empathy from passers-by.
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"Some people are really kind," he said. "Especially with food, there's loads of food. They try to look after those on the streets."
The man explained charity workers came by to offer food to those who needed it; their kindness in addition to that of strangers has impressed him.
But when he spoke to the people in the squares beside him who had lived on the streets for longer, the bearded man was upset.
Shops sell luxury beds that can cost £7,000 (Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)"Seeing what it's like around here, it's heartbreaking. The cold weather becomes part of everyday life, it's normal; they've become hardened to it," he said.
There is an irony to the windows of a department store with a 200-year history of specialising in items for the home being the space under which those without one choose to shelter. On the other side of the glass façade, you'd struggle to buy a bed and mattress for less than £1,000.
Not that its staff see the rough sleepers' presence as something to ignore.
"They're brilliant with us," the same man said. "They're just fantastic people. Everyone clears out before they open in the morning and sets up after they close."
The kindness of Heal's staff and others he's encountered is not something the man plans on having to rely on, however. "I hope I'll be on the move soon," he added.
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