A group of rough sleepers who describe themselves as the parliamentary “night shift”, moving into an underpass leading to the parliamentary estate after MPs have left for the day, have been barred from accessing their relatively safe bed space underneath the street.
The group of about 10 rough sleepers formed a distinct community with rules of conduct. They made themselves invisible from MPs and parliamentary workers and visitors during the day and only emerged after 11pm to lay out their cardboard, newspaper and sleeping bags in the exit 3 underpass from Westminster tube station to the parliamentary estate.
None of the group were involved in begging, substance abuse or rowdy behaviour and those who joined had to abide by the group’s informal code of conduct, especially being willing to get up before 6am to vacate their nocturnal space before parliament’s daytime business begins and leaving the tunnel clean and tidy with no newspaper, cardboard or food and drink waste left behind.
One of the rough sleepers, a 58-year-old who became homeless almost a year ago after the breakdown of a relationship, has dubbed himself the Earl of Westminster and has written a blog about the eviction of his group.
He condemned the decision by parliament to install rolldown shutters on Friday which in effect evicted the group. A temporary barrier had been in place but the rough sleepers were able to negotiate their way around it.
It is understood that the rolldown shutters were installed to delineate parliament’s new boundary after a transfer of land from Transport for London to parliament. Parliament is understood to be working with Westminster City Council to offer support to those sleeping in the station area.
“We were a good community sleeping in that tunnel,” said the Earl of Westminster, also known as Tim. “There was no mess, no drinking, no drugs and no rowdy behaviour. But now our group has been broken up and we have nowhere to sleep. We are condemned to stop being rough sleepers and instead to become ‘rough walkers’.”
He said that as part of the group’s determination to keep the space clean and tidy and not cause any public nuisance they had even asked Transport for London staff if they could borrow a broom to sweep up after themselves before quietly leaving the tunnel each morning.
“As street homeless people we can’t carry brooms around with us. But when we asked to borrow one to make sure we left things really clean and tidy we were told we couldn’t for health and safety reasons,” he said. “The people in this group are really nice. When the police came to move us on Friday they told us we were a good group.”
The tunnel runs under the road from Westminster tube station towards Elizabeth Tower, which is undergoing restoration work.
Laura Hughes, a friend of Tim’s, checks up on his welfare regularly and provides him with support. She said she was dismayed about Friday’s eviction.
“This is a human rights violation, it’s part of the hostile environment towards homeless people and it’s social cleansing,” she said.
Rough sleeping in the London borough of Westminster has increased by 16% between April 2018 and March 2019. During that period outreach workers recorded 2,512 people sleeping rough compared with 2,165 the previous year.
In June Westminster council boarded up an area outside the McDonald’s in Victoria Street to keep rough sleepers away.
Last year two rough sleepers were found dead in underpasses near parliament.
A UK parliament spokesperson said: “We are in the process of transferring ownership of the area to parliament and have installed a pass-activated gate to better manage the area for those entering the estate.
“We continue to engage with partners on addressing the difficult issue of rough sleeping in and around the station constructively and sympathetically.”