Helping the homeless
Jeffery Smith remembers the first London ‘Open Christmas’
It is forty years since the first Open Christmas. In a way, it is a personal anniversary for me. I got to know the woman who would be my wife there. Heather came to be the behind-the-scenes kitchen organiser.
But the story is bigger than that. Together with other Friends, we in the London Quaker Action Group (LQAG) had decided to emulate an ‘Open Christmas’ for the homeless, which had been organised the previous year by a Manchester nonviolent action group.
The LQAG had been inspired by ‘A Quaker Action Group’ in Philadelphia to look at how the violence we saw around us could be countered. Homelessness was seen as an example. The homeless had little financial power. At the time, there was a tendency to use patronising relief methods and there was plenty of homelessness in east London. Instead of a paternalistic, patronising, approach we wanted to treat the homeless as equals and enable them to be more in charge of their lives. While a free Christmas day dinner could be got by the London homeless, support, food and overnight shelter on other days at Christmas could not.
Taking the first step
So, that autumn we wrote a letter to the Friend asking for support. And we got it. As well as monetary donations of around £1,000, we got gifts in kind, including men’s clothing and foodstuffs that we could see a use for. On the other hand, we were also sent a single sixteen-ounce tin of grouse in wine sauce! It was difficult to see how we could share this amongst scores of hungry men.
LQAG’s numbers were also swollen by readers of the Friend who decided that they would give up part of their Christmas to become helpers; or, in one case, a doctor from a Quaker Meeting in south London who offered to come so clients could consult him. We were, at first, nervous of treading on the toes of other homeless workers; but, when they saw that we were in earnest and that we could give them a Christmas break, co-operation set in.
By November there was just one big problem - we had no venue. But ‘D’ got on her scooter and toured east London, quizzing managers of church halls. Luckily, we were offered an enormous crypt that had been modernised after war damage. Many other problems were resolved and, after a sluggish start, grubbily turned-out men started to show up. In fact, in ‘normal’ terms we were grossly overstretched - but resources came.
One day we ran out of gas. A brainstorming session and phone books elicited the information that near Epping there was a campsite, with a shop, that would be open on Boxing Day. A volunteer’s dad leant us his estate car and that trip, and many trips around London to pick up and take home volunteers late at night, helped us to acquire a broad knowledge of London’s geography.
Inspiring others
A year later we arranged the second Open Christmas. This was done much better. Mattresses, that had been used in summer by Christian Action’s ‘Tent City’ (a backpacker’s hostel under canvas on Wormwood Scrubs), were brought in. Hundreds slept better on these. We also organised film shows. One, on Scott of the Antarctic, held hundreds of men in rapt attention.
And there was a spy! She admitted that she had come from another, more established, organisation to learn ‘how to do’ an Open Christmas. That was fine by us, though we were less happy when, years later, they let television cameras in to ‘view’ the homeless ‘receiving charity’ from ‘celebrities’.
The harsh reality
Forty years ago we helped many for five days. But it had to end. The prospect of ordinary homeless life with only a derelict east London roof over one’s head was too hard for some. ‘Reg’ couldn’t face it and we took him into our communal house for a time. Returning to a heavily marshalled hostel, however, was too much for him. Sadly, we went to his inquest a week later, which recorded his suicide.
The running of Quaker Open Christmases was taken over by what is now Quaker Homeless Action. LQAG did other things, including setting up ‘Some Friends Community’, which continued in Bethnal Green until 2008. Heather and I lived there for seventeen years. But that’s another story.
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