Ilford's Homeless - past and present!
In November 2018, the Ilford Recorder reported that there were 7100 homeless people in Ilford. An increase, they suggested, was up by 13.6% on the previous year. More disconcerting was the figure of 449 homeless people who had died the previous year and a figure that suggested 65 rough sleepers were present in the borough. While this was all going on British Asian Christian Association (click here) , a group I volunteer for was working towards beginning a 'Meals for the homeless project'. That's me feeding the homeless at the Prince of Wales Pub Car Park Ilford is not the biggest or oldest town in London, but it must have been large enough to attract rough sleepers in the 1920's as Eric Arthur Blair, more commonly known by his pen name George Orwell, mentioned our small town in his first ever publication 'Down and out in Paris and London'. I learned about the book after a discussion with Pub Landlord, David Christof, at the Prince of Wales on Gree