50 years and counting: Croydon Nightwatch’s work has been recognised multiple times, including here in 2022 with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service
“A true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its vulnerable members.” This quote, or variations of it, have been attributed to Thomas Jefferson, Pope John Paul II said something very similar and Gandhi was supposed to have said it, though researchers haven’t found exactly when it was.
When a man froze to death in the cold winter nights at the back end of 1975, some people in Croydon decided enough is enough. An appalling situation in a London borough where people lost their lives because they had nowhere to sleep other than a park bench sparked a movement which has continued for 50 years.
For half a century, Croydon Nightwatch has offered food and drink and been a listening ear to those who have found themselves on the streets with nowhere to go.
From the outset, they have had a continuing battle with those in authority who have often been against providing any sort of help at all.
“As a new reporter on the Croydon Advertiser… I wrote the story. much against the protests of my news editor of the time,” David Randall recalled years later. “‘But he’s just a tramp. They die all the time’, may not have been her exact words, but they were certainly the gist of what she told me.”
50 not out: Nightwatch volunteers’ work was recognised at an anniversary event in Braithwaite Hall this week
In September 1976, Croydon’s Chief Officer of Parks, in a report to a council committee, referred to the homeless people as a “nuisance” and asked the police to step up their “control” in public parks.
The then (civic) Mayor’s secretary, writing in response to a letter from a concerned resident, declared that, “Unfortunately, there are some wayfarers who do not, for various reasons, want to be helped in any way and if they choose not to make use of the available facilities or to seek help or advice, it is well nigh impossible to help them.”
But enough local residents took the view that something needed to be done.
Minster minister: Martin Wharton tended to the homeless on the streets of Croydon before becoming a bishop in the House of Lords
Canon Colin Hill, from Croydon Parish Church as it was then, and his curate, Rev Martin Wharton, had been aware of the issue in Croydon for a while. Cub reporter Randall went out with Wharton into the town centre on several occasions, chatting to people who appeared to be homeless.
Randall wrote two articles which were published by the Advertiser “through gritted teeth”. The public awareness campaign had begun.
Randall, who would go on to have an outstanding career as a journalist, becoming editor of the Advertiser before working in senior roles atThe Observer and the Independent on Sunday, would serve as one of Nightwatch’s founders and chair.
Previous to Randall’s reporting, the response from the local authority was always that there was no problem with homelessness. Randall and Wharton had found a significant number of people sleeping rough in parks, public lavatories and underground car parks. Now, there could be no more denials from the Town Hall – although council reluctance to admit to the issues, and even downright hostility to Nightwatch’s activities, has continued into the 2020s.
Nightly duties: Nightwatch volunteers are out in Croydon town centre every evening, helping those who need help
Rev Wharton remembered one man who he encountered in the Fairfield car park. When Wharton saw him, he noticed that he wore a suit and tie. The man told him he had a job, but nowhere to live. He told Wharton that the caretaker of the building where he worked would let him into the building early, before others arrived, so he could wash and clean himself up. That way he could hide his situation from his colleagues.
As is often the case for homeless people, the cause of the man’s homelessness was bereavement, the death of a partner or parent leading to his having to vacate their accommodation.
Helping a woman living in a toilet cubicle proved more difficult until a breakthrough moment was achieved.
Conversations were carried on with the cubicle wall between her and the volunteers. Despite cups of soup being pushed under the cubicle door and the encouragement to “warm yourself up with a hot drink”, the cup was always pushed back untouched.
After several unsuccessful attempts, a tiny voice replied from inside the cubicle.
“You keep giving me chicken soup. I am a vegetarian.”
Soft touch: David Randall was the junior reporter who found a news story in homelessness
Rev Wharton would leave Croydon in 1977, eventually to become Bishop of Newcastle. But his work with Randall in Croydon had started something of lasting importance.
By the time a Christmas lunch was served in Jude’s Church Hall in 1979 to a large number of people who had been helped by Nightwatch, the majority of their once homeless clients had been resettled.
Nightwatch had realised, though, that it had to transform the way it operated. It needed to extend beyond a “soup run” service to having the confidence and skills to take on and develop a comprehensive range of services. They needed to respond positively to the critical and often complex needs of the single homeless.
Nightwatch managed to secure a building at the rear of 89 Wellesley Road under licence from the Greater London Council. In October 1978, thanks to a grant from Croydon Council, they opened to offer temporary accommodation for 11 people. The Nightwatch building was immediately full, with its residents each paying £2 a week to cover the cost of utilities and rates.
One of the residents became the volunteer caretaker – Nightwatch did not have the money for paid staff.
The commitment of volunteers to this project was amazing.
In March 1981, a staffed hostel was opened. Randall would pop in virtually every night after a full day’s work to check on things and to deal with any problems which had arisen.
Over the next two years, more than 50 people were accommodated with the average stay being 12 weeks. Of these, 28 made their own arrangements to move into accommodation, and Nightwatch directly assisted another 20 to find somewhere to call home.
Even in 1981, one of the great constraints on the work of Nightwatch was the lack of available social housing. Plus ça change.
While many council tenants would benefit to the tune of thousands of pounds from the Thatcher government’s “Right to Buy” policy, the consequences of the scheme brought huge additional pressures for Nightwatch, and other homelessness charities. Not only were councils such as Croydon forced to sell their stock of council houses at vastly reduced values, they were also forbidden to use the money received to build replacement social housing for years. It is a decision for which we are still suffering today.
People who got into difficulties with mortgages or service charges found the free market a far more cruel landlord than the council could have ever been.
With the resources for housing homeless people so stretched, the statutory obligation of housing families was all that Croydon Council could realistically manage. The young couldn’t get anywhere to live through the council, nor could couples without children, nor could single men and women up to retirement age.
The only safety net became volunteer organisations like Nightwatch.
By the early 1990s, 53% of referrals to the Nightwatch shelter were aged 18 to 25. The profile of the homeless had changed dramatically. When Nightwatch was set up, the majority of the people they saw were “knights of the road”, what the Advertiser’s news editor called tramps.
Typically, they included ex-servicemen, some were disabled, some were alcoholic, some mentally ill. But a decade after Right to Buy was introduced, Nightwatch was seeing many more young people, unable to find a home.
These young people often had far more complex needs, both medical and psychological. Nightwatch had to adapt further.
The decision to expand their outreach work needed more money. Yet in 1995, Croydon Council halved its grant to Nightwatch because their “balances were healthy”.
Borough recognition: Civic Mayor Mohammed Islam with Nightwatch chair Jad Adams at the reception this week
From 1992, the Nightwatch soup runs had extended to six nights a week. This resulted in more conversations with people who the volunteers encountered and brought into sharp focus the troubles which they faced, including the cost of living, baffled with bureaucracy, uncertain where to get help.
Nightwatch has had to battle through many issues during its 50 years of service.
In 2011, Croydon was deeply affected by the riots. Nightwatch worked closely with the council to support people whose homes had been destroyed. Homelessness is often the result of sudden crisis, and not long-term planning.
Nightwatch’s chair, Jad Adams, received the London Peace Award that year from Mayor Boris Johnson in recognition of his work after the riots.
When covid-19 struck in 2020, Nightwatch faced one of its greatest challenges. Many of its volunteers were elderly and stepped back from their roles. Many of the charity’s sources of food became unavailable. Panic buying and irregular deliveries emptied many supermarket shelves.
New volunteers were found, with many young people furloughed or working from home and with more time available to help. New food supplies were sourced by contacting firms directly, such as Simply lunch.
Volunteers continued to go out nightly to distribute food when, at the peak of the pandemic, around 1,000 people across the country were dying each day and no vaccine was available.
The courage of these new young volunteers should never be forgotten.
In 2026, the borough’s ceremonial Mayor, Councillor Cllr Mohammed Islam, has chosen Nightwatch as one of his charities for the year. Cllr Islam has regularly attended the Nightwatch soup runs as a volunteer.
The many testaments supplied by those who have been helped to find a place to live and who have got back on to their own two feet show what an amazing job Nightwatch has done over the last 50 years.
At a reception to mark the 50th anniversary, Adams paid tribute to the volunteers, “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 the busy days”.
It is a wonderful anniversary but one tinged with frustration and sadness. Too many people still need a hot drink and a sandwich from the Nightwatch soup run. Too many people still need support to bring stability back into their lives. Too many people still have a job but no permanent place to live.
In late 1975, the man who died a terrible death, alone and hungry on a Croydon park bench on a freezing cold night, was Jamie Keating.
All Croydon should remember that name, because until there is no longer any need for Croydon Nightwatch to provide its hot food and assistance to those like Jamie who need it, the charity’s volunteers will continue to help, just as they have been doing for the last 50 years, while our politicians and authorities fail to provide solutions.
After all, those needs that Nightwatch tries to take care of could always be our own, if circumstances had turned out differently.
Read more: Nightwatch at 50: pride in the fight against poverty and misery
If you would like a group tour of Croydon Minster or want to book a school visit, then ring the Minster Office on 020 688 8104 or go to the website on www.croydonminster.org and use the contact page
Some previous articles by David Morgan:
- ‘Chinese’ magician who died on stage, shot by his own gun
- Family counts cost of burglary during Croydon’s Walnut Fair
- The church fire that consumed a thousand years of history
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