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· Public Car Park, Bristol by Andy
That’s Tollgate car park. I spent many a night there. We used to stay on the third or the top floor. There was a crowd of us. But the security people there used to wake us up at about 5 in the morning, ‘Get out’, banging gates about and all that ... Most of us stuck together. Some went into hostels like, but the rest of us would stay together ... That’s [pictured] behind the Marriott [Hotel]. See down here they’ve got grilled cages and the fans are on top ... you see a lot of cardboard in there, right, which everyone’d chuck out? Well, we’d just crash there some nights ...
Sarah: Did the staff know you were there?
They never bothered us at all. There were only like 2 or 3 of us at a time that used to stay there. It was brilliant down there. It was as warm as toast. It was below ground level. And the fence there meant we were out of public view.
· Hostel Hallway, Bristol by Martynn
This is the view of the hallway in ****. ‘Here’s your room, get in your cell!’ … This is what happens if you get off the street … A room, 6 by 12. You’ve got a bed, no plugs, no sink, no nothing … a light, a bed and 4 walls … If you put pictures up and damage the paintwork you have to pay for it. … that’s the bathroom … You’ve got a tin urinal on the wall. They’re massive. They stretch for about 12 feet. The sinks are minute. There are 8 toilets in here and 1 radiator. There’s a big gap at the top of the cubicles, and a whacking great gap at the bottom. In other words, no real privacy …Technically you’d be better off going to prison. I mean it’s a 6 by 12 room. You’ve got to live in that room …
· Fathers Day Card, Bristol by Andy
This is a Father’s Day card from my daughter. She’s can’t come and visit ‘coz of Schedule 1 offenders [who also live in the hostel]. They should have a room here where we could go and meet, and draw pictures together and stuff. There’s nothing like that here. I love that picture, that’s what’s stopped me taking heroin.
· Begging Pitch, Bristol by Martynn
I was talking to a gentleman at the waterfront begging. I said ‘Do you mind if I take a photograph?’. He said ‘I don’t really want my photo taken’. I said ‘Well, can I take your pitch? - what they call their pitch, their begging pitch. All the beggars have got their pitches. Nobody will go to another beggar’s pitch otherwise… fight time! So he said ‘Ok’. So he left his sleeping bag in there. Even though a lot of them are living rough or in a tent or whatever they’ll take their sleeping bag with them in case it gets stolen … Anybody can sit there. But when he turns up… they … move. There’s no argument … Like it’s always someone’s pitch. If he’s not there someone can sit there, but as soon as he comes back… he might say ‘Look, do you want to use the pitch for a couple of days, coz I’ve got to go somewhere, well it’ll cost x amount per day’.
· Police ID Parade, Bristol by Richard
This is an ID parade which runs daily, Monday to Friday and a couple on Saturday. They [The Police] put lists up and they need volunteers to help make up the numbers. You get paid £10 and then £5 for every subsequent hour … There’s only about 10 people there, but by the time they open the door there’ll be like 4 times as much as that.
Sarah: Are most of these guys homeless?
Yeah, the majority of them. Most of these guys are Sallie Army.
Sarah: How often do you go there as a means of making extra cash?
As often as I can, like. If I get on that it means it’s £10 less that I’ve got to beg.
· Kebab Van, Bristol by Christine
That’s a kebab on the Triangle. That’s **** who works there. I’ve known him for a couple of years now. I buy kebabs there for £1.50. Normally they’re £3 … Sometimes they give them for free. Or if I hold my hand out and I’ve only got a pound of change in my hand, sometimes he says ‘No, you’ve made more money than that’ - if there’s lots of people about. If there’s not many people about sometimes he’ll just say ‘Keep it’ …We have a standing joke me and **** that ????’s, my boyfriend. They ask me to give him a kiss and I chase after him trying to kiss his cheek. The other two people that work there egg me on. It all started because a whole kebab is too big for me. I wouldn’t mind paying the 3 pounds, but it’s just that I wouldn’t eat it. I mean I can give half away which I don’t mind, but sometimes I can’t always afford it.
· The Steps, Bristol by Christine
Lots of people going past those steps stop and have a drink and that sort of thing. It’s quite a social gathering point … If you want to find someone they’ll be there, or in The Pit [a well known underpass in the city] … ???? is a saxophone player who can be the most annoying person. But he is a good geezer. **** is always going into detox and she’s got a pal that pays for her to do detox. Then she comes out and uses again … Oh,[that’s] ++++, a fellow beggar on Stokes Croft.
· The Cave, Scarborough by Eddie
The cave never used to have that door on or nothing, so you could bed down in there. You could spend all day in there, you know what I mean?
Sarah: Why did the door get put on?
Probably to stop people going in there. Scarborough has got rid of all the bushes and things that people can hide in and all. That's why the gardens here have all been changed around. And places have been boarded up.
· Statue, Bristol by Martynn
This is where the council have built silly little things like bronze statues to ‘improve’ the city. These are projects that the council has done to try and tidy up the city instead of addressing the real problem in the city itself… which is empty premises going derelict and people living on the streets.
· Squat, Bristol by Martynn
The big tall building … that’s an office block with squatters in. There’s 35 people living in there that I know of … They’ve got individual rooms … nobody seems to break into those rooms. There seems to be like a hidden code between them… ‘That’s now my room’ … sometimes they find mattresses in skips. Then they go to the [day] centres, getting blankets, and soup runs… you can get sleeping bags sometimes, clean clothing… I was living in a tent and … they told me about it …so I went and had a look… someone takes you along and says ‘Look, this is a mate of mine…’ and they say, ‘Right, pick a floor’. And eventually they get to know each other and they all decide to get on one floor. Then you get accepted down, if you know what I mean. There is a hierarchy system, obviously. Like in any life. Whether you’re living in a house, on the street, when you first move in… [but] after a while you become part of the community …There’s needles everywhere. You’ve just got to be careful where you walk. Especially in the social area in the middle [that’s where] they drink, sit down, talk. Somebody might have a radio which they bring out so they play music and have a chat …
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