“This is where I used to sleep”: Meet the tour guides offering a new perspective of London

Carrying on a little further, she points out metal ventilation grids that serve the Underground station beneath our feet, and describes how these can double as warming rest spots for anyone rough-sleeping.

As her walk continues up to Covent Garden, the car-free Piazza that’s home to shops, craft stalls and the Royal Opera House, Viv reveals further details of some of her own experiences while on the streets, including a particularly violent night when one of her friends was attacked: “There were 200 of us sleeping in a row and, about two or three in the morning, someone comes past and tries to squirt lighter fuel on Mary,” she says.

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The perpetrator was seconds from setting her on fire, but fortunately, Viv woke just in time: “If we hadn’t chased them away, she would have burned in a nylon sleeping bag.”

Viv is one of four guides currently employed by Unseen Tours, an award-winning social enterprise supporting formerly homeless and vulnerably-housed individuals who devise and deliver walking tours in a number of areas across London.

The first initiative of its kind in the city, Unseen Tours has trained 23 people since launching in 2010, with each guide receiving 60 percent of the ticket revenue from their tours (plus 100 percent of tips).

And during 2022, the company will be adding a new King’s Cross tour to its existing repertoire. “Our tours are unique in that they create a safe space to discuss and understand homelessness issues,” says Jayni Gudka, Unseen Tours’ CEO.

According to the housing charity Shelter, almost 170,000 Londoners were without a permanent home as of December 2021. Translating as one in 53 people, these figures show just how precarious living in the UK capital can be.

“Our guides choose the stories and facts that they find most interesting in their communities, and then we work with them to refine the tours until they’re ready for our customers,” adds Gudka. “There is no set script that we give the guides in advance; it’s all about what they want to share and find most fascinating.”

In addition to Viv’s tour, prospective patrons can also opt to stroll around London Bridge with David, through Soho and St. Giles with Nic, or along Brick Lane with Pete.

Despite originally hailing from Manchester, Pete calls himself “a true local” of Brick Lane, talking about everything from multiculturalism to gentrification on his tour. He even incorporates a little audience participation as he encourages his customers to decipher the messages behind Brick Lane’s abundant sprawl of street art.

When I meet him outside Aldgate East station for our walk, he adds a disclaimer that he no longer covers Jack the Ripper as part of the tour, dropping the topic as a mark of respect to Sarah Everard—who was abducted from a London street in 2021 and later killed—and the many other women whose lives have been taken by men.

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Nic’s tour of Soho and St. Giles is inspired by the theme of masks, and how we all wear them. Among her tales of Mary Seacole, Casanova, and police corruption are sobering reminders of how the area has always been both a haven and deeply inhospitable for those deemed to dwell on the peripheries of society: Lepers, prostitutes, immigrants and the unhoused.

We pause at a plaque on Flitcroft Street, around the corner from St. Giles-in-the-Fields, also known as the Poets’ Church, which memorializes a 26-year-old homeless man named Craig Hayden who “lived and then died” on the flagstones. Beyond the engraving, Nic hasn’t been able to find out much more about him. She doesn’t even know who had the plaque made.

According to the housing charity Shelter, almost 170,000 Londoners were without a permanent home as of December 2021. Translating as one in 53 people, these figures show just how precarious living in the British capital can be.

As Viv says, “I never thought, in my 40s, I’d be homeless on the streets of London.”

“It’s about raising awareness. People have an idea of what a homeless person looks like, or where they’ve come from, or think it’s their fault anyway. So maybe they can just get some insights.”

- Nic, Unseen Tours guide

No-one ever does. But projects like Unseen Tours prove that there is a glimmer of hope for those affected by such changes in circumstances. This is where the transformative potential of responsible tourism comes in.

In Colombia, for example, a project has helped former rebels retrain as professional rafting guides and even World Championship competitors. Elsewhere, global initiatives empowering women are at the heart of tourist experiences, such as the Nepali foothill community of Panauti—where over 17 Nepali households now operate homestays.

It’s also about the tourism industry working together to make a difference. “We are the first organization of this kind training and employing people with homelessness to lead walking tours of London and have supported many others to do the same,” says Gudka. “Now that the industry is starting to recover, we’re hoping to do the same for other cities around the world—working with people affected by homelessness and other forms of marginalization—and are always happy to hear from people wanting us to help them set up similar ventures.”

London Bridge guide David, like Nic, was one of the “hidden homeless”—an umbrella term used to recognize sofa-surfers, squatters, and people in hostels or temporary housing.

As he escorts groups down the alleyways of Southwark—through the grounds of the cathedral, past the curves of the Golden Hinde and Shakespeare’s Globe—he’s come a long way from the thankless factory jobs he worked prior to becoming homeless.

He feels much better suited to his new career (“I’ve always had a good ability for remembering”) and enjoys introducing both domestic and international travelers to sides of London they may never otherwise have explored.

Every hour I spend with David, Nic, Viv and Pete, I learn so much about London’s complex culture and vast history—more than I ever did in seven years of living here. But this is far from the most remarkable thing about Unseen Tours.

These walks, and the people leading them, help us see the full picture of a place—as we travel, but also when we are still. Much of tourism remains centered around seeing the ‘best bits,’ but genuine understanding means taking a 360-degree view of the good and not-so-good, and seeing a place from different perspectives.

“It’s about raising awareness,” says Nic. “People have an idea of what a homeless person looks like, or where they’ve come from, or think it’s their fault anyway. So maybe they can just get some insights.”

She says that these tours possess a genuine passion for London and its quirks and its weird bits. “Yes, we do go off on tangents, and that might be irritating to some people… But the tours have this charm of not being so polished.”

Being conscious of the tour companies we choose when traveling, as well as the accommodation we book and the food we eat, can generate a more positive impact on a place and its communities. In a recent World Travel & Tourism Council report, WTTC President and CEO Julia Simpson said: “Travel and tourism plays an incredibly important role in a city’s economy, not only boosting GDP, but also creating jobs and improving the livelihoods of those who rely on our sector.”

By choosing local guides who can fill in the gaps between what we know, what we think we know, and what we don’t know at all, we forge a richer connection to our surroundings—while having our own assumptions, biases, and misperceptions actively challenged.

“We uncover things that you wouldn’t usually think about… If you go on another tour, you’ll see things that everybody else sees,” as David puts it. “It’s a lot more personal than the big tours. It’s like showing a friend around.”