Anniversary dinner: Croydon homelesssness charity Nightwatch marked its 50 years by celebrating its volunteers
PHOTOGRAPHS by MICHAEL SHILLING
Croydon homelessness charity Nightwatch marked 50 years of caring for and helping the borough’s vulnerable and most-in-need citizens with a special anniversary reception for its volunteers held at Braithwaite Hall last night.
Jad Adams, chair of the charity, praised volunteers for “the heroism of everyday life” in their commitment to maintaining a service which goes out every night of the year to homeless and otherwise vulnerable people in the centre of the borough.
Labour councillor Mohammed Islam, this year’s ceremonial Mayor of Croydon, praised Nightwatch’s “compassionate dedication”.
Royal recognition: Croydon Nightwatch has received many awards and acclaim in 50 years
In a speech, Adams described how residents had formed the organisation in September 1976 following the death of Jamie Keating, a homeless man well-known in Croydon. Keating had frozen to death on a Croydon park bench in early in 1976.
David Randall, a junior reporter at the Croydon Advertiser, wrote two articles about homelessness in Croydon. These put him in contact with Martin Wharton, then the curate of Croydon Parish Church – now the Minster.
“The articles galvanised other people to get together for a meeting in spring 1976,” Adams said.
“They were exceptional in that they not only cared, but they wanted to do something. They did what respectable people do, they went to the authorities.”
Borough recognition: Cllr Mohammed Islam, the civic Mayor, with Nightwatch’s long-standing chair Jad Adams last night
Adams recounted how Rev Wharton told him: “The borough council said there was no problem. Social services said there was no problem. The police said there was no problem. The health service said there was no problem…
“We were told to forget it, to go away and get on with our jobs because there was no need to do anything at all.”
And Adams said: “The true spirit of Nightwatch asserted itself early and they went and did it anyway.”
Nightwatch duty: the grand Braithwaite Hall, next to the Croydon Clocktower and Town Hall, was full of the many volunteers who help the organisation operate
What has grown from that early stubbornness and determination to not ignore the people out there, forced to live on the streets, or (increasingly so more recently) in accommodation but in such grinding poverty that they have no money for food, has been a beacon of hope during a troubled era when so many cuts in public services and the loss of social housing have combined with other factors to make homelessness one of the most pressing issues of our time.
In his speech, Adams read a diary note from June 1996: “A good night at Nightwatch. Some 23 people, six helpers.
Much to learn: Nightwatch has backed up its service with attention to the detail of homelessness in Croydon
“Les thinks his suit which I obtained is magnificent; Blue is out of hospital and looking less depressed; Linda had baby things for Julia; Malcolm is getting sorted out after his flat was ransacked; Nikki came to ask where we had got the outsized bra for her so she can get one for herself; everyone was happy with their clothes.
“I used to cry driving home thinking of the wall of despair we were confronted with, which was added to every day. Well, we started dismantling that wall, working just a little faster than the wall was being built
“And for the first time this year, for the first time in a decade, I feel we are winning in the fight against poverty and misery in Croydon and I am as proud as can be.”
Nightwatch has faced many new challenges since, not least the covid pandemic during 2000 and 2001, when despite the risks to their own health, Nightwatch volunteers somehow managed to continue to provide a service which offers simple human kindness on a nightly basis.
Banner service: Nightwatch tries to align itself with other organisations in the borough
Adams paid tribute to the volunteers who every night provide food and care: “So what have volunteers done?
“In many individual cases, too many to count, we have turned lives around completely. In many other cases, of course, we have not been so successful and have just maintained existence.
“More importantly, however, is the consistency that volunteers are a calm point in the storm of chaotic lives, a constant, nightly reminder that society cares about homeless and vulnerable people, however little it appears during busy days.”
And then, once the gala event was over, volunteers from Croydon Nightwatch were out of the streets of Croydon town centre once again, just as they have been since 1976, offering food, help and a smile, and leading the fight against poverty and misery.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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