Typography & design by
Richard Wolfströme

Exhibition and installation
by Standard 8

Website
Words William Shaw
Design Richard Wolfströme
Photography Kenny Laurenson

Publishing consultant Adrian Driscoll

An Unmadeup Production

That was the first time he ever slept rough

The pavement, Portland Street

"You can’t sleep here."

Not if people wake you you can’t. Dave rouses himself from the warmth of his sleeping bag and duvet and emerges into the winter chill. It must be this man’s carport he’s been dossing
under. "Why?" asks Dave.

"I don’t want you peeing in my drain."

There is a trickle of liquid on the grating. "That’s not me," says Dave, offended. "That’s just water."

He came down from Dudley three weeks ago looking for work. Housing benefit paid his rent and he had enough to go out Saturday nights. Rest of the time he sat at home doing nothing, gradually vegetating. The trouble was he was getting used to it.

So he decided on Brighton. At Clapham Junction on the way down, the connection was packed with commuters. "I ain’t getting in that." Instead he went to the pub; it was half-eleven by the time he got here.

That was the first time he ever slept rough – under the metal stairs by Travis Perkins in Trafalgar Lane. They woke him with a cup of coffee and told him to get on his way. After four nights the security guards told him not to come back. That night he slept in a shelter next to the Peace Statue, rain soaking his bedding.

After that he sold his phone for a night in a B&B. On the Monday he turned up at an employment agency. "Oh, if you don’t have a phone, we can’t help you."

The other rough sleepers gave him tips and cigarettes, showed him where the soup kitchens are, small acts of unexpected kindness. You can’t judge a book by its cover.

Finally, last Wednesday he found a job in a call centre; his first in five months. It feels like the end of the beginning. He’ll move into a backpacker’s hostel soon as he can, but for tonight he’s laying out his bedding again, trying to keep clean for work in the morning.

The same guy from this morning spots him there but tonight he doesn’t say anything.