Unseen Tours: The secret of the streets

“Who’s better to talk about London than someone who’s lived on its streets?” says Unseen Tours general manager Eva Van Der Vliet, 23.

The non-profit, founded in 2010, offers a new outlook on London by giving a voice to people who have experienced homelessness. Its tour guides have all experienced homelessness or vulnerable housing situations, and tell their story to groups while showing them the streets of the capital.

The central mission for Unseen Tours is to “change public perception of homelessness”. Many believe homelessness is a lifestyle choice, but it’s always a much more nuanced issue according to Eva.

Some people end up rough-sleeping, living in hostels, or couch-surfing for a multitude of reasons, such as being laid off or escaping an abusive relationship. That’s why Unseen Tours welcomes guides with different experiences “to show how homelessness can affect everyone”, says Eva.

Back in 2003, David, 54, who has been the London Bridge tour guide since 2009, was asked by his employer to relocate with only two weeks‘ notice. He didn’t manage to find a place to stay in time and was lucky enough to crash at a friend’s apartment as he sorted things out. This was the first time that David had experienced homelessness.

“Who’s better to talk about London than someone who’s lived on its streets?”

“Practically from day one I knew I was homeless; I knew I couldn’t live like that the rest of my life,” says David. “If I didn’t find somewhere, I could be on the streets.

“With a house you have a safe place, things are okay; being in temporary accommodation, you don’t know what is going to happen.”

It’s that sense of uncertainty that haunted David, not letting him be at ease.

Luckily, he managed to find a flat but, only a few months later, he found himself in the same situation. While he was kept in hospital for six weeks, his new landlady terminated his tenancy leaving him with nowhere to live. After being discharged from the hospital, he spent another month and a half in a homeless hostel.

While he had everything he needed to survive — a room, a bathroom, a kitchen — he wasn’t comfortable enough to share anything with other residents and develop relationships, making it impossible for him once again to call this place home.

“The day I came in [the hostel owners] said I couldn’t lend anything to anyone,” explains David. “I couldn’t have any friends; nobody I could trust.”

David is a perfect example of what being “hidden homeless” means, in other words someone who despite having some sort of roof over his head, he still couldn’t say he had a home.

“I think a lot of people think that homelessness is just living on the streets,” he says. “According to reports, there are 170,000 homeless people in London, but who are they counting?

“People miss things when they are going about their business,” adds David. “I would like to broaden their horizons, and open their eyes [with my tour].”

“The point is to show untold stories of London”

Another tour guide Ben, 55, from London, joined Unseen Tours right before the start of the Pandemic, which gave him plenty of time to research all the “extra nuggets of information” hidden in King’s Cross and Camberwell.

“We all want to see big monuments, but we also have a hunger to see nooks and crannies, the more unusual places; places that are perhaps anonymous,” he says.

“People also like to hear something with a personal touch, something special about a person’s particular experience of a place. There is a notion that homeless people would represent an authentic vision of the area,” he adds.

“Homeless people can be good tour guides, because we have an intense relationship with particular places or neighbourhoods.”

Ultimately, Unseen Tours is about raising awareness and show that there is so much more behind the preconception of homelessness.

Ben says, “[People] may not entirely understand all the issues related to homelessness. Unseen Tours helps get this information out into the public realm and challenges some clichés,” says Ben.

Unseen Tours was inspired by the work of volunteer group Sock Mob, which engages with rough sleepers around London by gifting them warm socks to spark meaningful conversations that otherwise would have remained silenced.

“The point is to show untold stories of London,” says Eva. “We want people to tell their stories on their own terms.”

All the tour guides – over 24 in the past decade or so – go through months of training in order to craft their tour.

Apart from doing a lot of research to find out the most interesting things about the area they cover, the tour guides also acquire storytelling skills to allow them to speak about their experience in a way that respects their own boundaries.

“Those with lived experience of homelessness are at the centre of what we do. No one speaks on their behalf, and they have the power and freedom to share their stories in a way that best suits them,” explains Eva. 

David leads tours at London Bridge on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday (check times here).

Find out more about the other tours here.