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EDGES MAGAZINE Issue 14 |
Aug/Sept 1998 |
| a dying breed | |
| PUNKS IN LEICESTER SQUARE | |
My name is Darren and I'm 30 years old. I've been on the streets now for 6 - 7 months. I was living in a flat with my father, my father died and because there was rent arrears and that I couldn't take over the tenancy so I was evicted and I have to wait to be re-housed. Hopefully, it won't be too much longer, but that's my circumstances at the moment. This is the first time I have been homeless. |
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Basically,
just from day to day, we just try and sort of live. We just wake up,
try and get money for food and stuff like that, and spend our day
just waiting to go back to sleep. We sleep in a car park in
Chinatown, we have to leave there by 8 o clock, and we can't go back
until 10.30, so it's just like spending our time trying to fill the
hours basically. Once or twice a week I have to go for appointments
at Thames Region, they're the people who are trying to get me
re-housed. I don't take drugs or anything like that, I have a drink
from time to time, at weekends and stuff like that but I don't do
any other stuff, I couldn't afforded it even if I wanted to. I don't
live in a squat or anything, I sleep in the public car park.  I
haven't really had any bad experiences to speak of, you get stopped
regularly by the police and searched and stuff like that, but I
suppose that's to be expected if they see us on the street day and
night, all the time, but I can't really say I've had any bad
experiences. I've shaved my hair like this for about 10 years now, I've always been a punk. It's the music that I like, my friends are punks, we go to see bands, I like the image, I like everything about it. The image is different, it stands out, you get noticed. I do my hair, my girlfriend helps, we do each others hair. Monica is my girlfriend and we actually met on the street about 2 months ago and we have been together ever since. Monica was a punk before I met her. I wouldn't really say that there are that many punks on the street, there's a few, but not a great number of them. There are punks about but not on the street. My jacket didn't cost anything, I was given the jacket and the studs that you see on it I've built up over the years, you just get them here and there and add them when you can. It doesn't really cost a lot, that's the whole idea of being a punk, its not expensive, its just like you make do and mend sort of thing, you make your own stuff. I like bands like Exploited, the Buzzcocks, Zero Tolerance, loads of bands. To make our money and eat we beg daily to get the money together for food and to feed the dog and just the basic things that we need from day to day. My dog is called Dim, I've had him since he was 8 weeks old, he's a year old now. When I got him, I was living in a house, I didn't expect to be on the street with him, but now I've got him I'm not prepared to give him up, so I'll keep him with me until I get re-housed. When I met Monica she did sort of change my life. She stopped me from being alone and made me happy, it's good, I hope we stay together for a long time. People's attitudes towards me and how they feel about me are not really important, for me its how I feel in myself and about myself that counts, so being different is not a problem for me, its my life and the way I live it, it's the way I've chosen to live it so I don't really find it difficult at all. |
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| I am from Milan, Italy, and I have been over here a year and a half. I have been on the streets for 5 months. It's a bit cold, but I've got company at least. In Milan my family were supporting me so I had money to live all the time but they were always giving me hassle because of the way I look because they didn't understand that I wanted to be different, I wanted to do different things than other people. Everybody goes to college and get married and all that and I just wanted to enjoy my life, so I came here and that's what I am doing. | |
I
have a little sister, she's in school, she's really good. My mum and
dad are really good people, but I just wanted to live my own life,
make my own decisions. I am 20 years old. I love London. I came to
meet Darren when he was begging on the street one day, he'd got his
leather, we look a bit the same, so we started talking about the
things we have in common. I thought, he looks like me, I'm going to
talk to him and see what he's doing because there's something going
on.  I
believe in God, when I've got problems I ask God to help me. I don't
go to church or anything like that because I haven't got the time
and I think if you are a good person and you do good things and you
don't hurt anybody that is good enough for God I think. It's good
enough for God if you do good with others; if you love yourself and
love everyone else that is good enough for God, I think. was really good at school. I passed all my exams, have a high school degree but that's about it. I didn't go to university but I would like to in the future. I would like to study fashion. It's not easy to live on the streets at all, you haven't got a house so you cannot get a job, without a job you cannot get a house, it's really difficult, people - they don't like you. We have learned how cold and uncaring people can be. They just reject you completely, they don't want to say hello or to give you a cigarette or to ask what time it is because they think that you're a horrible person or something. A year and a half ago I left my family to make my own life, it's my life. I came straight to London on my own, I didn't know anyone, I just came here and started walking around, that's it. I am not weak, I'm not a push, I don't care. Some people they think "oh you sit on the floor, oh you're going to get Aids" something like that, that's stupid. I am not shy, so I'll survive. It wasn't difficult for me to meet people at all, I talk to everyone, if they don't want to talk to me I don't care. I have had a couple of fights, people get drunk and are arguing but that's about it, nothing really that took me down at all, life goes on. Maybe its bad today, it'll be good tomorrow. That's how I see it. Sometimes people are so stupid, they say "oh look at your hair". It's got nothing to do with my hair, they way you look is so irrelevant. People think it's expensive to do my hair, and the clothes I am wearing, it's completely irrelevant and it's not true. The clothes I've got, I got from the day centre, they give you free clothes, you've got to be a bit clever and choose nice things. I don't believe in brand new clothes and all that, you walk through Regents Park and you see trousers and skirts that cost £189 and people haven't got a place to live, it's just stupid I think, how can a piece of clothing cost £189? How come people die to wear them clothes. I am going to stay with Darren in England. I don't get any benefits, I don't know if I am able to. I am not British so it is harder. Sometimes I go to day centres, there is one called "London Connection" its in Trafalgar Square and they give you quite cheap food, proper meals. It's boring to be like everyone else. Everyone tells you what to do and what is good for you and I just want to do what I think is good for me. They think you should finish college, you should go straight away to college but I think I should live a bit more and then go to college if I feel like going to college. That's about being different and just not follow the rules that society gives you. I feel I have grown up a lot in the last year and a half, especially since I have been on the streets. I have learned to survive |
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