Early history
For as long as historical records have been kept, Britain has had a homelessness problem. As far back as the 7th century, the English king Hlothaere passed laws to punish vagrants.
William the Conqueror forbade anyone to leave the land where they worked. Edward the First ordered weekly searches to round up vagrants.
The numbers of vagrants has risen and fallen, and precise figures are hard to come by, but we know that 16th century estimates put the numbers of vagrants at 20,000 or more. And it was in the 16th century that the state first tried to house vagrants rather than punish them. It began introducing bridewells - places meant to take vagrants in and train them for a profession, but which in reality were dirty and brutal places. By the 18th century workhouses had replaced the bridewells, but these were intended to discourage over-reliance on state help. At best they were spartan places with meagre food and sparse furnishings - at worst they were unsanitary and uncaring.
The numbers of vagrants has risen and fallen, and precise figures are hard to come by, but we know that 16th century estimates put the numbers of vagrants at 20,000 or more. And it was in the 16th century that the state first tried to house vagrants rather than punish them. It began introducing bridewells - places meant to take vagrants in and train them for a profession, but which in reality were dirty and brutal places. By the 18th century workhouses had replaced the bridewells, but these were intended to discourage over-reliance on state help. At best they were spartan places with meagre food and sparse furnishings - at worst they were unsanitary and uncaring.
The 20th century
The successor to the workhouse was the spike (dormitory housing provided by local boroughs), which was familiar to George Orwell, who stayed in them while researching poverty in Britain.
Some of the more punitive aspects of the workhouses were missing from spikes, but the standard of housing was basic. In the 1930s there were 17,000 people in spikes in the country, and 80 were found sleeping rough during a street count in London.
It was in the 1960s that the nature of homelessness changed and public concern grew. From a post-war low of six people found sleeping rough in London in 1949, the numbers began growing. Cathy Come Home, a gritty TV drama about homelessness, helped raised awareness of the problem. Organisations like Shelter and St Mungo's started up. St Mungo's began housing some of the hundreds sleeping rough in the capital.
It was in the 1960s that the nature of homelessness changed and public concern grew. From a post-war low of six people found sleeping rough in London in 1949, the numbers began growing. Cathy Come Home, a gritty TV drama about homelessness, helped raised awareness of the problem. Organisations like Shelter and St Mungo's started up. St Mungo's began housing some of the hundreds sleeping rough in the capital.
CATHY COME HOME
Cathy Come Home is a 1966 BBC television play by Jeremy Sandford, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach, about homelessness. A 1998 Radio Times readers' poll voted it the "best single television drama" and a 2000 industry poll rated it as the second best British television programme ever made.[2][3] Filmed in a gritty, realistic drama documentary style, it was first broadcast on 16 November 1966 on BBC1. The play was shown in the BBC's The Wednesday Play anthology strand, which was well known for tackling social issues.
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