C4WS Shelter Report
The shelter opened on 14th December, six weeks later than usual, in the County Hotel, in Upper Woburn Place, hundred yards or so down from Euston Station. Having decided that a rotating shelter, in a different church every night, was not feasible within the Covid restrictions, we had great trouble in locating a hostel or hotel able to house the guests and reasonably accessible for volunteers. The C4WS staff worked like Trojans to find a venue, and several locations were on the point of being signed up when some hitch prevented it.
Although found late in the day, the County Hotel is in many ways an ideal for location and accommodation, and its owners, Splendid Hotel Group, really seemed to want to help us. Each guest has his/her own room and although they do not have en suite bathrooms, we have taken on three rooms on each floor, so that each guest has a communal bathroom to his/herself. The hotel cannot be described as splendid; it is, to put it politely, “tired”; it has not been redecorated for, I guess, 50 years. Brown melamine tables match the yellowing (once white) paint and pub pattern carpet. But is basically clean, and some bits, such as the catering kitchen (in which one cannot cook!) are a good deal cleaner for the attention of some of HPC’s volunteers. It’s warm (in fact tropical in the rooms unless the window is open), and the beds are luxurious. I have spent two very cosy nights there myself.
Guests can come and go or stay in their rooms; they do not have to leave a church hall with their bags at 9 am and not return to a different church at 7pm. We can take 20 guests where before we were stretched to sleep 16. A decent hot meal is provided by the hotel, via airline caterers in the evening and unexciting but adequate cold lunch and breakfast. A casualty of these arrangements is, however, that there is not much of the community feeling of the old shelter model; the guests do not eat or sleep together and while some friendships have developed and quite a few games are played, most prefer to stay in their rooms. Social distancing and masks make it difficult anyway to build up much of a communal atmosphere.
There was, however, a good feeling at Christmas and New Year. For Christmas a team organised by Rosslyn Hill came to cook a Christmas dinner and there was a short concert and film all well received as were the Christmas “stockings” and a fine array of woolly hats and scarves (both supplied by members of HPC). An industrial oven had been hired for the meal, but alas, proved to big to fit in the lift (and weighing 80kg, it was not getting down stairs any other way) Harry, C4Ws’ resourceful Shelter manager quickly contacted Linda Gilson, deacon at the (fairly) nearby Kings Cross Methodist church which as well as hosting Mandarin and Cantonese congregations, also runs C4WS’ Friday Lunch Club. Linda was happy to lend her voluminous ovens, and turkey and roast potatoes hurried back and forth along the Euston Rd. Some of the guests are still sporting paper crowns on their woolly hats; It was an evening worth remembering.
The advantages of the shelter in a hotel come at cost. Splendid Hotels have given us a good deal, but it is still much more expensive than using the free churches and their halls. We have received some grants towards the cost but more is needed. Many people who had volunteered for the shelter last year asked if they could make a financial contribution this year instead and others may wish to as well. The easiest way to do so is to visit the C4WS homeless Project website and on the home page (top Right) you will find a Crowdfunder button, which will also allow you claim gift aid, if appropriate. Thank you!