DOWN-AND-OUT IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE
By MARK BENNEY
ASHELTERED island washed, and in a sense secluded, by the turbulent tides of city traffic, Trafalgar Square has a spacious, leisurely charm which pigeons and down- and-outs have been quick to appreciate. The pigeons are the more numerous nowadays, perhaps ; but in 1848 the down-and-outs clustered there so thickly that police had to make baton-charges to dispel them. In those days the Irish Famine brought thousands of starving Irishmen to the Square, and there was little food to spare for the pigeons. Today, on a fine afternoon, you will see only a few miserable starve- lings sitting about the base of the monuments and watching kind citizens feed bread to the birds.
In the evenings, however, anyone who cares to loiter for an hour on the wide terrace overlooking the fountains will see enough to remind him that the problems and dangers of destitution are by no means outfaced. Aesthetic appeal apart, this terrace has advantages which call peculiarly to the homeless poor. It commands a wide view of the environs, and the approach of a good Samaritan or a policeman can be seen from equal distance. Its broad expanse allows. for the boisterous horse-play which among the younger down-and-outs takes the place of more respectable but in- accessible forms of activity. Then, within a stone's throw, there is the free shelter of St. Martin's crypt, a soup-kitchen, a doss-house and the L.C.C. Welfare Office. And, lastly, the nightly distribution by the bountiful Miss Baxter of hot tea and caviare sandwiches. These attractions draw to the terrace every evening a shifting, shifty concourse of young men who, with singular appositeness, illustrate important social tendencies.
Perhaps the most startling feature of this unfixed, protei- form gathering is the different economic levels represented within it. There are some lads who are obviously experienc- ing the extreme of destitution-. Their clothes are filthy and inadequate, their pinched, starved faces have the vacuous apathy of a Modigliani portrait, they shuffle restlessly among their mates, scrounging cigarettes from passers-by or, occasionally, breaking into minor moaning ecstasies in which their feet drag out a dance-rhythm and betray the mean cravings which harry them. Others are comparatively opulent ; they wear new, bright neckties and smoke their own cigarettes ; they have some self-confidence and eyes for the girls passing ; they obviously have jobs. There is also a sprinkling of youngsters who, while seedier and shabbier than these, remain distinct as a type from the completely destitute ; they are drawing unemployment benefit.
These groups intermingle freely on the social level, which perhaps facilitates the passing of individuals from one economic level to another, and certainly tends to produce common standards of behaviour. The lads in employment do not hesitate to apply for Miss Baxter's bounties ; those who draw unemployment benefit have few scruples about begging cigarettes and coppers from passing strangers. Many of the lads in both these categories have, in the more or less recent past, been down-and-out, and in returning to spend their evenings on the terra _eretain habits formed during their period of plight Seasonal factors do not seem to affect their numbers, though they perceptibly affect the distribution of the different economic levels. In winter, the young down-and-outs preponderate. In summer, many of these obtain either casual employment or make the rounds of the rural casual-wards.
It is a fluid grouping, then, brought together by the disciplines of poverty and the desire for " a bit of sport."
These determine such characteristic behaviour as the gathering possesses. In so far as a common spirit can be said to animate these youths, it is one of bravado. This manifests itself in the extravagance of the horse-play which breaks out sporadically, in the volume of the occasional sing-songs, in the audacity of the begging, and in the resistance put up to the policemen who periodically, on their rounds, disperse the groups. From these activities to petty crimes is a short step. No small number of the lads have at one time or another been to Borstal or prison.
Another inevitable factor in the demoralised life of the terrace is homosexuality. The ages of these youngsters range between sixteen and the early twenties, and for the most part their exiguous course cuts them off from the society of women. Male prostitutes isolated by general abhorrence, turn to them as a dernier resort, and find here a community whose tolerance results as much from thwarted instinct as from the " kip-money " it exacts. Undertones of homo- sexuality are plainly noticeable in the horse-play one sees, although its gratification must be rare.
On fine nights the groups rarely disband until the early hours of the morning. Miss Baxter, who seldom appears with her van before midnight, is a potent influence in keeping them out so late. Then, according to their means, they, distribute themselves among the various sleeping-quarters on hand. Many of the employed youths lodge on weekly terms at the superior L.C.C. lodging-houses, as do the more provident of the lads drawing benefit. Among the latter, however, many prefer to sleep at Levy's, a private lodging house in the locality, where one pays only 9d. for a bed and may remain sleeping until midday. The down-and-outs, likewise, prefer Levy's if they have been able to raise the wind ; otherwise they make for one of the independent free-shelters. In most cases, it is only when these fail them that they turn to the L.C.C. Welfare Office. • There is a curious hostility among down-and-outs towards the efforts of the Welfare Office, which shows very plainly in these youths who loiter about the terrace. Since it is they who are the chief object of the Welfare Office's scheme, it is well worth enquiring why. The chief criticism among the lads is that " The night-office only sends you to a casual ward, or gives you a week chopping wood for the Church Army—that's no bloody good ! " In point of fact less than 10 pet cent. of the applicants for free shelter that pass through the Welfare Office are sent to casual wards, though it is true that the majority of applicants are sent to voluntary societies with inadequate resources for rehabilitation. There also lingers among the down-and-outs a rumour that the officials of the Welfare Office work in close collaboration with the police ; one still hears tales to the effect:that the tickets of introduction which policemen issue are merely traps for fingerprints, and that the electrical heating-apparatus in the night-office is really a hidden camera. These quite false rumours are not wholly the product of guilt-ridden con- sciences ; hatred and suspicion of the police is a tradition of long-standing among the homeless poor.
One cannot talk with these youngsters on the terrace without feeling that, behind their distorted and often false views of the Welfare Office's efforts, there is a grain of reason. Their aimless, degraded lives are to some extent the outcome of a desire to retain independence and initiative ; they can see no future behind the stacks of wood waiting to be chopped in institutional backyards. On the terrace, they think, there is at least a chance of hearing about a job. . . . There are few of them, indeed, who do not harbour this hope. On the other hand, the L.C.C. maintains two residential industrial training centres which are seldom full to capacity. There are also in existence three non-residential training centres which, designed for able-bodied unemployed under the old regulations, have since 1937 been almpit without function. Surely these are avenues of rehabilitation which should be used to the full. When I suggested it to a relevant L.C.C. official, I was told that the lads on the terrace were not " suitable types." But if you consider that the alternative is—the terrace, you begin to wonder if the word " suitable " is particularly apt.
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