Tour Guide At The Spike Has Insight Into Poverty Being Homeless Himself For Five Years

Published on: 5 Jun, 2019
Updated on: 8 Jun, 2019

Having suffered being homeless and sleeping rough for five years gives Dennis Hughes, a volunteer tour guide at The Guildford Spike Heritage Centre in Guildford, an insight into poverty past and present.

Visitors who go on the tours he leads at The Spike, the preserved casual ward building of what was the Guildford Union Workhouse, hear how it once offered a bed for the night to tramps and vagrants, in a locked cell! And the arduous tasks some had to do the morning after – before they could go on their way.

Dennis Hughes is one of the volunteer tour guides of the former casual ward of the Guildford Union Workhouse, now preserved as part of The Spike Heritage Centre in Warren Road.

Dennis also gives his audience an insight into the life he once led and how he coped spending nights sleeping in the open air in all weathers.

He was made homeless in 1995 when, due to circumstances beyond his control, he was evicted from his flat in Hanwell, west London.

He says: “I had no choice. I was given a letter explaining what was happening and I took it to my local police station to see if they could help. They told me to go to the homeless unit at my town hall. 

“When I arrive there was no-one there. By then I’d had enough of everything, so I crossed Chiswick Bridge and slept the night on the river bank.”

Dennis had a window cleaning round and knew he could continue to work to earn money when the weather was fine, even though he did not have a home to go to each night.

“I didn’t need to claim benefits,” he recalls. “I stored my ladders and cleaning materials in a yard in East Sheen on the edge of my regular rounds. I worked each day and found somewhere to sleep rough each night.

“It wasn’t safe to sleep in town centres, too many youths and drunks, so I would sleep on a park bench on Richmond Hill. It was fairly secluded and out of the way of people coming out of nightclubs. In the morning I’d go to McDonalds for breakfast.

“I had bought some camping equipment from Millets and in an attempt to keep dry I wore two cagoules. One morning when I woke up someone had left me a Himalayan jacket to wear. It was really warm and helped a lot.”

Dennis recalls that as time went on he felt the need to get away from other people as much as possible and to be alone. “London expands at weekends,” he says. “More people come out to places like Richmond. I needed greenery, so I came out to Surrey.”

The bus shelter at the Burford Bridge Hotel near Dorking was a place where Dennis often slept at night during the weekend. In the mornings he would use the toilets nearby and have his breakfast at the cafe popular with bikers at the foot of Box Hill. He would then return by bus on Monday mornings to his window cleaning in west London.

He says: “One time while at that bus shelter a man came along on a mountain bike. He told me he had been living on £1 a day for two years. He said he ate pilchards, bread and sugar water and that he liked sleeping out although he did have a home

“By chance I met him again one morning some years later in Chiswick High Road. I’m sure he must have been retired by then.”

On his guided tours of The Spike Dennis Hughes gives his audience an insight into the life he once led and how he coped being homeless.

Dennis owned two sets of clothes, and using laundrettes to wash them, then changed once a week while out in the countryside. “I liked to change in privacy,” he recalls. “I did not need much as I could meditate for hours. It was good to be away from people and have a rest.”

Sometimes he sought shelter further into the undergrowth. He explains: “Bracken is good to bed down into as it acts as a windbreak. It was especially good on Petersham Common.”

Dennis also found his way to West Clandon. The bus shelter near the crossroads on the A246 being another secluded place for him to spend the night. 

As time went on, life was taking its toll on Dennis. When he had no window cleaning work to earn money he would sit outside a supermarket with his hat on the ground. He says: “I got by and sometimes I was given up to £10 a day.”

However, often being wet through was certainly getting him down. He remembers: “I was becoming frightened by thunder and lightning. I was on Barnes Common and could see bolts of lightning near the River Thames.”

His five years of being homeless was soon to come to an end as he recalls: “I was in Guildford and I had slept on a bench in front of Holy Trinity Church in the High Street. It was autumn time and the heavens opened. I was standing in Baker’s Yard and I just flipped. The police were called and they realised the situation I was in and that I needed help. They took me to Farnham Road Hospital [a mental health hospital] and while there I was diagnosed with schizophrenia. 

“I was an in-patient for three months and during that time I was able to go back to East Sheen were I stored my ladders and a barrow, but they had disappeared.”

Re-housed, Dennis has since made Guildford his home. On one occasion when his brother visited him he brought a tent and Dennis gave him an insight into being homeless. He recalls: “My brother pitched his tent in woodland near the Clandon crossroads, but he said it was uncomfortable as the ground underneath was stony. I used the bus shelter, but that time I found it difficult to sleep.”

It was 10 years ago that Dennis dropped into Voluntary Action South West Surrey’s bureau in Castle Street looking for something to occupy his time. 

He says: “There was a voluntary role for a gardener locally, which I didn’t really fancy, or as a volunteer tour guide at The Spike. That sounded good as I knew I could make the connection with my own homelessness.

“When I started at The Spike I shadowed another tour guide for about a year. Then one Saturday we were busy with a lot of visitors, I led a tour myself for the first time – being thrown in at the deep end, so to speak. And I have continued to lead tours ever since.

“Being a tour guide gives me a platform to talk about my own story, letting people know what it is like to be out in all weathers – just the same as it was for those who came to this building as it was in days gone past.

“I am also very compassionate and feel strongly for homeless people today. Those I see in Guildford I often stop and speak to and ask them how they are feeling.”

Entrance to The Spike Heritage Centre.

The Spike, Warren Road, Guildford GU1 3JH is open for guided tours on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 10am to 4pm. No need to book, just go along. adults £6, children (five to 16) and concessions £5. Under fives free.

Group visits can also be booked on others days, these are popular with schools, history societies and so on.

See a working cell and what a vagrant had to do to earn his keep. Explore the lives of the Spike inmates and ‘types’ that stayed there. Learn about the treatment of the homeless, past and present. Experience the sights, sounds and smells of a casual’s ward in the 1900s. See the exhibition of pictures and artefacts that trace the story of the Guildford Union Workhouse infirmary into St Luke’s Hospital.

Experience life as it was for paupers and tramps at the Guildford Union Workhouse’s Casual Ward.

Click here for more details on The Spike’s website.

Read the reviews on Trip Advisor.

Or call 01483 598420.

The community centre part of the preserved building can also be hired for parties, meetings, events, and so on. Details on the number above.

Share This Post