A new exhibition exploring social attitudes to homelessness over the centuries will be on display at York Castle Museum on 5 October from 1pm – 3pm.
Historical Perspectives of Homelessness Exhibition was created as part of a Good Organisation (Social Ventures) CIC local history project, by those currently experiencing homelessness and/or substance addiction whilst accessing support services at Bowes Morrell House.
Bowes Morrell House, is a Grade II* listed building dating back to 1396, on Walmgate in York, and has been a base for numerous homelessness support charities since 2012, but has a much longer connection to homelessness within the city.
In the Victorian era, the building was a cheap lodging house used for travelling workers, and was locally nicknamed the ‘doss house’, with a sign above its door reading ‘good lodgings’ despite its reputation for poor-quality accommodation.
In those days, the accommodation usually consisted of ‘twopenny hangovers’, where homeless people would be expected to sleep hanging over a rope, or ‘fourpenny coffins’ where they could spend the night in a coffin shaped box.
The building was partially restored in 1932, when the property was acquired by York Civic Trust, and was renamed after one of its founders, John Bowes Morrell.
Bowes Morrell himself worked alongside Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree, whose pioneering and influential research into poverty in 1901 was undertaken in the surrounding Walmgate neighbourhood, which was a notorious slum during that period.
The exhibition, which coincides with the 200th Anniversary of the Vagrancy Act 1824, also inspired the participants to create a comprehensive timeline of legislative responses to homelessness, from ‘The Statute of Cambridge’ in 1388’, which is considered to be the first formalised piece of legislation to address homelessness in England, through to the use of modern day regulatory interventions such as the use of ‘Public Space Protection Orders’, which continue to present homeless people as being problematic, rather than homelessness in itself.
The project was funded by Historic England as part of its ‘Everyday Heritage’ programme, enabling local people to share untold stories about the places where they live, and encouraging communities to examine and tell their own stories in their own ways.
The exhibition is free, with lunch and refreshments available. If you would like to attend, then please book in advance via https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/historical-perspectives-of-homelessness-tickets-1021577986257?aff=oddtdtcreator or you can email mail@goodorganisation.co.uk