Tag: Shaftesbury Society

Meeting a man on Southwark Street

Between January 1995 and September 1997 I lived and worked in London in three Shaftesbury Society homeless hostels (Kilburn NW6, Camberwell SE5, and Bermondsey SE1).

Although I wasn’t paid much, I loved it. As an assistant group worker, I was paid around £40 per week (that would be around £80 today, given inflation), until I was promoted to group worker after my first few months. From that £40 I needed to buy myself a zones 1 and 2 travelcard which ate £13.80 deeper into my weekly budget. I worked with some great people, got to explore a lot of central London on foot and with my travelcard, worked a crazy nine-day shift pattern and got a ton of life experience.

Some of those experiences have remained with me, like one memorable evening’s walk home.

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Moulinex blender lamp

Moulinex food blender exploded into parts
Moulinex-ploded

This week I’ve started a project to restore a very precious gift, from a very precious period of my life, my Moulinex blender lamp.

In the autumn of 1996, I moved into Flat 3, Lansdowne Centre, Law Street, Bermondsey. At the time I thought this would be a sojourn before moving in with a friend but I settled in quickly and it remains today one of the best places I’ve ever lived.

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Welsh party

Lena Fox House, Crimscott Street, Bermondsey in London

Between 1995 and 1997 I lived and worked in central London in three homeless hostels run by the Shaftesbury Society. I spent the longest time at Lena Fox House (LFH) on Crimscott Street in Bermondsey and not long after we opened I worked alongside a lovely Welshman called Dave Smith.

We didn’t work long together but our friendship and trust went deep quickly and his is a friendship that I still value today. Two memories stick in my mind about Dave.

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