Name: Katya
Age: 29
Place of Birth/Raised in: Stolipinovo, Bulgaria
Neighborhood of London: Camden
How did you become homeless?
“My whole life I traveled. In this country, they call us gypsies. When I was a girl, we stayed in the same compound for years, only we would move to different parts when we stopped getting along with the neighbors. My brother would always steal something or I would break something else. So we never stayed in one place for too long."
“When I was 16, I met and married Andrey. Andrey wanted to go to Sofia. He said being a traveler was not safe, and we could not raise a family that way. In Sofia, we went to live in the ghetto with Andrey’s aunt. She had her room, and we shared the living room with Andrey’s cousin Ivan and his wife. Ivan and Andrey worked at a steel factory for 14, 15 hours a day. I would fix and sew rich ladies’ clothes for very little money."
“When I was 20, I became pregnant. My son, his name is Nikola. Andrey was not making the money he thought he would in Sofia, and men at the factory spoke of trucks that could take us to France. From there, they would ferry us to London. ‘We would make money in pounds!’ Andrey would say, ‘Get us out of this ghetto for good, live better for Nikola."
“So we moved. Life was hard those early days. We had a baby that needed many things, and we could barely make enough to keep a roof over our heads. It was then I got used to eating very little since most of the extra money we made fed Nikola. But I don’t regret it. He grew strong because of us. Two years we lived like this. But Andrey grew impatient. He couldn’t keep a job and had to get a new one for even lower pay. His English was poor. I learned faster and was able to bus tables in a small Turkish restaurant here in Camden."
“Andrey returned to Sofia with Nikola. He told me I have to work, I have better English, and I can send him money in the mail, and I did for the first few months. Then the money got low, and I kept losing the work. Since he left, I have lived on the street on and off for almost nine years. No one can hire me full time because I am not legal, so they pay me under the table. I can do simple jobs: fix dresses, wait tables, but I don’t really know how to do anything else. Nothing that could make me much more money legally.”
Can you walk me through a normal day?
“I wake up, get my things, and start to walk around. I find something cheap to eat, like fruit from the stands, something to give me energy. I’ll eat one full meal a day, maybe twice on good days. I try to keep clean and look nice, so sometimes if I need food and don’t have the money, I can makes up stories about forgetting my wallet at the till so people might pity me. I get a few free meals like that, but not at the same places."
“In the afternoon I go and look for jobs. I must every day, it is the difference between sleeping on a bed or on the pavement. If I’m not too tired after that, I’ll sit in some crowded place, ask people for their loose change, or sing for a couple of hours. I sing in Bulgarian, some hymns I know from when I was a girl. If I’m lucky, that’ll give me maybe ten pounds for three hours."
“At night, if I can’t find a spot at a shelter, lit corners are probably the best. There are usually other homeless people, and it’s more safe to be where people can see you.”
What is the hardest thing about being a woman that is homeless?
“Sometimes London is a cruel place. The air is wet and it rains all of the time. I’ll set up my sleeping bag underneath the overhangs of stores to protect from the weather. When I am out on the street, I keep only a rucksack for clothes, money, food and a sleeping bag. A couple of years ago I was robbed, so I saved for a little box that has a lock for my money. I have a lot more saved now because of it."
“At night, sometimes, I wander, and I see the women. Men come up to me, asking for one night for £50. Sometimes I think of how easy it could be. I could do it for a couple of months and go home. People expect you to do it, like a woman could have nothing else but her body to sell. But I could never look at my son and tell him that’s how his mama got home.”
What is the sweetest thing someone has done for you?
“I was doing extra cleaning for the people I was staying with, thinking maybe they’d hire me. They couldn’t. The wife was pregnant and needed the room. But the man let me stay in my room for free for a few nights more than I said I would. It was the best sleep I had in years, knowing I wasn’t going to be kicked out or on the streets again.”
If you could do/live/be anything in the world, what would it be?
“I want to go home. I miss Bulgaria, even Sofia. So if I could be and do anything I wanted? It would be to save up enough money to go home. My son is nine now. He doesn’t know me anymore. I want him to know me again.”
Name: Jamie
Age: 21
Place of Birth/Raised in: Derbyshire, moved to London when he was three
Neighborhood of London: Fitzrovia, attends UCL
Do you perform original music or covers?
“Yeah, I mean it’s original in a sense, I sing ‘em myself, all live, just a mic, guitar, and an amp. But I mean, I don’t write the songs I perform if that’s what you're getting at — I try to bring people the music they already know. Like, having a go in Covent Garden is great ‘cause you get all sorts of crowds. Obviously there’s English people but then you get like, so many American and French and Italian blokes — they form this great little crowd and for those who don’t speak English you need songs that everyone can sing along to. Like the typical British artists, y’know? I put out some Ed Sheeran, Adele, Arctic Monkeys and obviously The Beatles. I try to cover the Across the Universe versions; not many people know the originals anymore, it’s a right shame.”
When did you start playing/performing music?
“I learned to play the guitar just out of primary school. My uncle owned a music shop and got me one for my birthday just before I started Year 6. So I was about 12 or 13 at the time and yeah, it just kinda stuck y’know? I did talent shows and stuff, got pretty good at it too. I’m really into classic rock. Like I said, The Beatles are really good. And then there’s some great American bands like The Doors, the Ramones, and Nirvana. Then you got Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and the like. I’ve practiced a lot and learned to copy their voices."
“So it got sorta serious by the time A-levels came around. My dad wasn’t too keen on my choosing Music and English as two of my subjects. So I chose Maths and Economics as well to settle him. But I was 16 and wanted to be Shakespeare and write these amazing songs. I gained some ground on the singing, all my profs told me I had a great voice. But lucky for my dad, one thing that A-levels taught me was that I was a shit poet. So I kinda gave up on it then. But it all worked out ‘cause I’ll be making thousands more pounds as an economist anyway. Have you seen the yearly salary? Something wicked, man.
“Anyways, at Uni I would only sing and play when I was hammered, and after a while it became a habit. I would go to a friend’s flat with all my stuff and hold mini concerts for all of them. Being drunk gave me an excuse to enjoy playing, without some end-goal attached to it.”
What brought you to the streets of London to perform? What do you love (if anything) about street performing?
“It was a dare if I’m honest. A couple of months ago some of the lads and I were heading to the pub to have a couple more than we needed. I was already pissed and brought my guitar down into the Tube. My mate Will bet I wouldn’t go sing and play along with this bloke playing the bass. Not being one to back down from a challenge, I followed his chords and sang along (not well, granted, and my man was pretty annoyed). But I thought, it’s a couple of weeks before term starts, I reckon I could make a few quid singing on the street. It didn’t seem too hard. That was about four months ago now."
“I mean, yeah, playing music is great. As a kid I thought I’d be doing this for a living. That I’d be selling out shows and what have you. But it’s a pipe dream, something I learned wasn’t a possibility a long time ago. My old man made sure of that. And I’m not mad, he had a point. It’s not where the money is unless you’re like really, really good. He knew that I wasn’t. I’ve just been able to take the piss with it a little.”
What has been the hardest part of endeavoring to make music in London?
“Not really making music, love. Just having a bit of fun. . .I mean, people who busk for a living, that’s a whole ‘nother bout. That’s right proper work there. And I give a lot of the change I get from singing myself to them y’know? Whenever I finish a set, I’ll give away a lot to the performer coming to take my space after me or to the ones I pass on my way down to the Tube. I imagine making it in London is probably the hardest thing you could do."
“I’m happy where I’m at, honest. It’s not some big loss, not making music. Exams are coming up in the next couple of months anyways, so probably I will have to drop the performing soon enough. You’ve got to live with the hand you’ve been dealt, y’know? Besides, I’ve got a job lined up, this big insurance company called Admirals. At the very least I will have played music before heading into the real world. That was the point, wasn’t it?”
Name: Claire
Age: 80
Place of Birth/Raised in: Bray (Bray-on-Thames)
Neighborhood of London: Marylebone
How did you get your money?
“I was raised on an estate in Bray, right on the Thames. I played on its banks as a child, it was right in my backyard. It’s about 20 kilometers outside of London. I come from old money, you see, dating back almost three generations. The industrial revolution did wonders for us if you could imagine such a thing. My great-grandfather bought an oil refinery in the late 19th century, and, well, let’s say he did right by it. God knows that a woman in my family hadn’t worked a day in her life until I came around.”
How do you spend that money? What is daily living like?
“Daily living… That’s one for the books. I’m not living, honey. I’m cruising. When you get to my age, time feels less heavy. It just…flutters by. But to keep busy, I write everyday now. Nothing publishable, generally, but I write nonetheless. Keeps the mind entertained and stimulated. It’s just about the only thing that’s been stimulated these days. And yes, I’ve given and keep giving to all the charities in London and Africa and for refugees coming from Syria and what have you, if that is what you were asking. I’m happy too. Money is not much use to someone as close to death as I am.”
Can you describe your family life?
“Well, if you must know I’m an old spinster. The old bag they all warn you not to become. And it’s not like being alone is a travesty — though society would make it seem so. Even these modern women with their modern jobs still want to be married and expecting by the time they’re 30. And there is nothing wrong with that, I suppose. But it was never me. When I decided to become a writer, I was 35 years old. Quite a time to do so as well, the 70s were just beginning, and an era of peace becoming somewhat more situated. I never married. Came close once, but he wanted me to stay home and push out babies like a bleedin’ gumball machine. Let’s just say that ended abruptly."
“As for my actual family, I have two siblings, a brother, Jacob, and a sister, Moira. Moira had four kids, while Jacob had three. Those seven children have taken up loads of my trust fund, I’ll have you know — and then their children doubled the suit. My great nephews and nieces bring the old bag a little happiness. Even today I’m out to buy Laura some earrings for her 15th birthday."
“But, those kids are all growing up now, and less and lessdo they want to spend time in solitary with their crinkly old aunt — no matter how rich she is. Moira is afraid I’ll poison her granddaughters into a life of solitude! Quite the worrywart that one; you know she tries to set me up on dates? At my age! The thought itself is just ridiculous. I mean” --
So whom do you spend your time with now?
“Oh. Well. Like I said, my nieces and nephews if they’ll have me, obviously. But a lot of my time is spent with my old tabby Reginald. He’s a fat and moody feline, but it’s all right. He’s a good listener.”
How has living in such affluence influenced you as an individual?
“Heavens, where to begin. Let’s see, I grew up as spoiled as they come, right after the war too, so you can imagine how wellliked we were. For years this country had spent its time rationing and saving and here we come, gallivanting into London in such extravagance. I thank my lucky stars I was too young to remember the seething dislike that was formed for my family. I, the eldest of my siblings, probably received the worst of it in primary school, but it died down when Moira was born. Jacob saw almost none of it."
“We weren’t the most frugal bunch, but we didn’t need to be; we had the money not to be. Did you know that one in every 35 people in London is a millionaire? It’s curious. When I was a girl, it was probably something like one in every five. My, my, how the times have changed.”
Are you proud of the life you are living?
“Absolutely.”
Age: 29
Place of Birth/Raised in: Stolipinovo, Bulgaria
Neighborhood of London: Camden
How did you become homeless?
“My whole life I traveled. In this country, they call us gypsies. When I was a girl, we stayed in the same compound for years, only we would move to different parts when we stopped getting along with the neighbors. My brother would always steal something or I would break something else. So we never stayed in one place for too long."
“When I was 16, I met and married Andrey. Andrey wanted to go to Sofia. He said being a traveler was not safe, and we could not raise a family that way. In Sofia, we went to live in the ghetto with Andrey’s aunt. She had her room, and we shared the living room with Andrey’s cousin Ivan and his wife. Ivan and Andrey worked at a steel factory for 14, 15 hours a day. I would fix and sew rich ladies’ clothes for very little money."
“When I was 20, I became pregnant. My son, his name is Nikola. Andrey was not making the money he thought he would in Sofia, and men at the factory spoke of trucks that could take us to France. From there, they would ferry us to London. ‘We would make money in pounds!’ Andrey would say, ‘Get us out of this ghetto for good, live better for Nikola."
“So we moved. Life was hard those early days. We had a baby that needed many things, and we could barely make enough to keep a roof over our heads. It was then I got used to eating very little since most of the extra money we made fed Nikola. But I don’t regret it. He grew strong because of us. Two years we lived like this. But Andrey grew impatient. He couldn’t keep a job and had to get a new one for even lower pay. His English was poor. I learned faster and was able to bus tables in a small Turkish restaurant here in Camden."
“Andrey returned to Sofia with Nikola. He told me I have to work, I have better English, and I can send him money in the mail, and I did for the first few months. Then the money got low, and I kept losing the work. Since he left, I have lived on the street on and off for almost nine years. No one can hire me full time because I am not legal, so they pay me under the table. I can do simple jobs: fix dresses, wait tables, but I don’t really know how to do anything else. Nothing that could make me much more money legally.”
Can you walk me through a normal day?
“I wake up, get my things, and start to walk around. I find something cheap to eat, like fruit from the stands, something to give me energy. I’ll eat one full meal a day, maybe twice on good days. I try to keep clean and look nice, so sometimes if I need food and don’t have the money, I can makes up stories about forgetting my wallet at the till so people might pity me. I get a few free meals like that, but not at the same places."
“In the afternoon I go and look for jobs. I must every day, it is the difference between sleeping on a bed or on the pavement. If I’m not too tired after that, I’ll sit in some crowded place, ask people for their loose change, or sing for a couple of hours. I sing in Bulgarian, some hymns I know from when I was a girl. If I’m lucky, that’ll give me maybe ten pounds for three hours."
“At night, if I can’t find a spot at a shelter, lit corners are probably the best. There are usually other homeless people, and it’s more safe to be where people can see you.”
What is the hardest thing about being a woman that is homeless?
“Sometimes London is a cruel place. The air is wet and it rains all of the time. I’ll set up my sleeping bag underneath the overhangs of stores to protect from the weather. When I am out on the street, I keep only a rucksack for clothes, money, food and a sleeping bag. A couple of years ago I was robbed, so I saved for a little box that has a lock for my money. I have a lot more saved now because of it."
“At night, sometimes, I wander, and I see the women. Men come up to me, asking for one night for £50. Sometimes I think of how easy it could be. I could do it for a couple of months and go home. People expect you to do it, like a woman could have nothing else but her body to sell. But I could never look at my son and tell him that’s how his mama got home.”
What is the sweetest thing someone has done for you?
“I was doing extra cleaning for the people I was staying with, thinking maybe they’d hire me. They couldn’t. The wife was pregnant and needed the room. But the man let me stay in my room for free for a few nights more than I said I would. It was the best sleep I had in years, knowing I wasn’t going to be kicked out or on the streets again.”
If you could do/live/be anything in the world, what would it be?
“I want to go home. I miss Bulgaria, even Sofia. So if I could be and do anything I wanted? It would be to save up enough money to go home. My son is nine now. He doesn’t know me anymore. I want him to know me again.”
Name: Jamie
Age: 21
Place of Birth/Raised in: Derbyshire, moved to London when he was three
Neighborhood of London: Fitzrovia, attends UCL
Do you perform original music or covers?
“Yeah, I mean it’s original in a sense, I sing ‘em myself, all live, just a mic, guitar, and an amp. But I mean, I don’t write the songs I perform if that’s what you're getting at — I try to bring people the music they already know. Like, having a go in Covent Garden is great ‘cause you get all sorts of crowds. Obviously there’s English people but then you get like, so many American and French and Italian blokes — they form this great little crowd and for those who don’t speak English you need songs that everyone can sing along to. Like the typical British artists, y’know? I put out some Ed Sheeran, Adele, Arctic Monkeys and obviously The Beatles. I try to cover the Across the Universe versions; not many people know the originals anymore, it’s a right shame.”
When did you start playing/performing music?
“I learned to play the guitar just out of primary school. My uncle owned a music shop and got me one for my birthday just before I started Year 6. So I was about 12 or 13 at the time and yeah, it just kinda stuck y’know? I did talent shows and stuff, got pretty good at it too. I’m really into classic rock. Like I said, The Beatles are really good. And then there’s some great American bands like The Doors, the Ramones, and Nirvana. Then you got Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and the like. I’ve practiced a lot and learned to copy their voices."
“So it got sorta serious by the time A-levels came around. My dad wasn’t too keen on my choosing Music and English as two of my subjects. So I chose Maths and Economics as well to settle him. But I was 16 and wanted to be Shakespeare and write these amazing songs. I gained some ground on the singing, all my profs told me I had a great voice. But lucky for my dad, one thing that A-levels taught me was that I was a shit poet. So I kinda gave up on it then. But it all worked out ‘cause I’ll be making thousands more pounds as an economist anyway. Have you seen the yearly salary? Something wicked, man.
“Anyways, at Uni I would only sing and play when I was hammered, and after a while it became a habit. I would go to a friend’s flat with all my stuff and hold mini concerts for all of them. Being drunk gave me an excuse to enjoy playing, without some end-goal attached to it.”
What brought you to the streets of London to perform? What do you love (if anything) about street performing?
“It was a dare if I’m honest. A couple of months ago some of the lads and I were heading to the pub to have a couple more than we needed. I was already pissed and brought my guitar down into the Tube. My mate Will bet I wouldn’t go sing and play along with this bloke playing the bass. Not being one to back down from a challenge, I followed his chords and sang along (not well, granted, and my man was pretty annoyed). But I thought, it’s a couple of weeks before term starts, I reckon I could make a few quid singing on the street. It didn’t seem too hard. That was about four months ago now."
“I mean, yeah, playing music is great. As a kid I thought I’d be doing this for a living. That I’d be selling out shows and what have you. But it’s a pipe dream, something I learned wasn’t a possibility a long time ago. My old man made sure of that. And I’m not mad, he had a point. It’s not where the money is unless you’re like really, really good. He knew that I wasn’t. I’ve just been able to take the piss with it a little.”
What has been the hardest part of endeavoring to make music in London?
“Not really making music, love. Just having a bit of fun. . .I mean, people who busk for a living, that’s a whole ‘nother bout. That’s right proper work there. And I give a lot of the change I get from singing myself to them y’know? Whenever I finish a set, I’ll give away a lot to the performer coming to take my space after me or to the ones I pass on my way down to the Tube. I imagine making it in London is probably the hardest thing you could do."
“I’m happy where I’m at, honest. It’s not some big loss, not making music. Exams are coming up in the next couple of months anyways, so probably I will have to drop the performing soon enough. You’ve got to live with the hand you’ve been dealt, y’know? Besides, I’ve got a job lined up, this big insurance company called Admirals. At the very least I will have played music before heading into the real world. That was the point, wasn’t it?”
Name: Claire
Age: 80
Place of Birth/Raised in: Bray (Bray-on-Thames)
Neighborhood of London: Marylebone
How did you get your money?
“I was raised on an estate in Bray, right on the Thames. I played on its banks as a child, it was right in my backyard. It’s about 20 kilometers outside of London. I come from old money, you see, dating back almost three generations. The industrial revolution did wonders for us if you could imagine such a thing. My great-grandfather bought an oil refinery in the late 19th century, and, well, let’s say he did right by it. God knows that a woman in my family hadn’t worked a day in her life until I came around.”
How do you spend that money? What is daily living like?
“Daily living… That’s one for the books. I’m not living, honey. I’m cruising. When you get to my age, time feels less heavy. It just…flutters by. But to keep busy, I write everyday now. Nothing publishable, generally, but I write nonetheless. Keeps the mind entertained and stimulated. It’s just about the only thing that’s been stimulated these days. And yes, I’ve given and keep giving to all the charities in London and Africa and for refugees coming from Syria and what have you, if that is what you were asking. I’m happy too. Money is not much use to someone as close to death as I am.”
Can you describe your family life?
“Well, if you must know I’m an old spinster. The old bag they all warn you not to become. And it’s not like being alone is a travesty — though society would make it seem so. Even these modern women with their modern jobs still want to be married and expecting by the time they’re 30. And there is nothing wrong with that, I suppose. But it was never me. When I decided to become a writer, I was 35 years old. Quite a time to do so as well, the 70s were just beginning, and an era of peace becoming somewhat more situated. I never married. Came close once, but he wanted me to stay home and push out babies like a bleedin’ gumball machine. Let’s just say that ended abruptly."
“As for my actual family, I have two siblings, a brother, Jacob, and a sister, Moira. Moira had four kids, while Jacob had three. Those seven children have taken up loads of my trust fund, I’ll have you know — and then their children doubled the suit. My great nephews and nieces bring the old bag a little happiness. Even today I’m out to buy Laura some earrings for her 15th birthday."
“But, those kids are all growing up now, and less and lessdo they want to spend time in solitary with their crinkly old aunt — no matter how rich she is. Moira is afraid I’ll poison her granddaughters into a life of solitude! Quite the worrywart that one; you know she tries to set me up on dates? At my age! The thought itself is just ridiculous. I mean” --
So whom do you spend your time with now?
“Oh. Well. Like I said, my nieces and nephews if they’ll have me, obviously. But a lot of my time is spent with my old tabby Reginald. He’s a fat and moody feline, but it’s all right. He’s a good listener.”
How has living in such affluence influenced you as an individual?
“Heavens, where to begin. Let’s see, I grew up as spoiled as they come, right after the war too, so you can imagine how wellliked we were. For years this country had spent its time rationing and saving and here we come, gallivanting into London in such extravagance. I thank my lucky stars I was too young to remember the seething dislike that was formed for my family. I, the eldest of my siblings, probably received the worst of it in primary school, but it died down when Moira was born. Jacob saw almost none of it."
“We weren’t the most frugal bunch, but we didn’t need to be; we had the money not to be. Did you know that one in every 35 people in London is a millionaire? It’s curious. When I was a girl, it was probably something like one in every five. My, my, how the times have changed.”
Are you proud of the life you are living?
“Absolutely.”
About MereysaMereysa Taylor is a rising Junior at Eckerd College studying Creative Writing and communication. Her goal is to be a journalist, with some kind of talent for writing awesome fiction stories and novels on the side. She dabbles in poetry, and is currently trying to put her bilingual skills to good use.
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