Why are the council not tackling the growing camp in central London?

[Eesha]

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16036293/Tents-endless-thefts-local-shopkeepers-bathing-street-Romanian-Bulgarian-beggar-encampment-blighting-heart-London.html

I know its the Daily Fail but ive been past this area and its become really shocking. Its a huge camp now. Why aren't the council doing anything?

I think it's because rough sleeping has been decriminalised

I appreciate that for an individual, it's terrible to be criminalised because you're forced to sleep rough

unfortunately, the relatively new law doesn't seem to cover encampments. That would have been an easy thing to cover.

i'm an ex Londoner, so I'm very familiar with the group that you mean

And they have been a problem for years, and every so often the authorities would go in and clear the camp. This is now much harder to do. Not impossible - but much harder.

editing to add - it's not an area I tend to hang around myself! But every so often I've had to go there for work and I would say from the ages of 20 something to 47, I'm very aware of their presence.

I believe this is a problem that is only going to increase as a result of the new law.

I look at those pictures and count my blessings that I am not one of those people. Nobody would choose that life, it is very sad for everyone involved.

I genuinely think it isn't safe there, they are camping on the central reservation area. Its not families, its just people who have set up home there. The council needs to move them along. I mean where are they even using for washing

I don't have much sympathy I'm afraid, I wouldn't choose to go to another country to beg and camp out, they could easily do the exact same thing in their own countries. These are not the nurses and teachers of the windrush generation, they're a gang.

The council aren't allowed to move them along anymore though.

it's exactly the same along Euston Road. I've seen that one with my own eyes.

Apparently, they're also between Tottenham Court Road and Goodge Street and lots of other locations all over London but I try not to go to London these days.

I live in London and have not seen this or seen anything about it in local news media, so I had a bit of a google as I do not trust the Daily Mail's 'journalism'. The only evidence I could see was this article, GB'News' and an article about Westminster Council applying for an injunction to remove a camp from Hyde Park in May 2025. In none of the articles was the camp described as huge (the maximum I saw from these defamatory sources was 40). It is not ideal, but I think London councils have bigger worries.

This is weird, if you literally go to the road they mention on the article you can see the camp with your own eyes. You don’t need to verify sources etc, it’s literally a road in London available to anyone to check

@mugglewump if you live in London, you can see it for yourself

In all the time I lived there, even if I was just going past on the bus, there they are. (I was living in zone 5 mostly).

I imagine they don't attract much media coverage because they're just always there. There's maybe coverage when they are trying to disperse them. The Evening Standard used to report on that a lot.

It’s ridiculous if the decriminalisation of homelessness results in camps like these. I’ve seen them in Paris and it’s really horrible. I wonder who they are/how they got here, and what the possibilities are to return them to home countries?

This article dates them back to 2014

https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/park-lanes-tent-city-is-being-dismantled-but-londons-homelessness-crisis-isnt-going-away/

You know you're getting old when you remember stuff that you can't find articles for 😂

There have been Eastern Europeans camping there since the 90s. I agree that they should be moved on and if they don’t have settled status here in the IK they should be sent home.

To be fair we dont actually know what’s going on do we? Im sure they didnt want to be living on a roadside camping 🤢 because as you said, theyd just do it in their own country. Lots of trauma and addiction, so bloody sad.

It was an incredibly obvious result, and many of us wrote to our MP about it.

They never listen to us. There are plenty of ordinary working people who have to walk through the area and it's pretty scary

but exactly the same thing is now happening on the Euston Road, and it's very obvious to any workers or patients coming out of UCH (University College Hospital) and heading to the station.

@EmeraldRoulette exactly, I was near UCLH and im sure it wasn't this bad a few years ago. There's just so many along the central reservation

The UCH one seems to be post lockdown.

BTW I used to volunteer with homeless people and was on chatting terms with a few near my home and work when I lived in London. I wouldn't dare chat to any of these at Park Lane! They are aggressive and scary.

@zurigo thank you for confirming that. The 90s sounds about right. But that's when I became an adult mid 90s - so they've probably been there longer.

I walked along the Euston Road two weeks ago and didn't see encampments.

I was at the bus stop opposite this camp the other day.
I kept thinking about the pollution. That road is so busy.

They should remove these camps. The people are aggressive and steals from nearby shops. It’s also unsanitary. I hope London doesn’t become like Paris who have people sleeping everywhere now.

You're quite naive if you think people dont actually choose to live like this

Aren't here bye laws that prevent people setting up tents in public areas? If I decided to have a family holiday in London and just put up a tent in a park I'm sure there would be some law against it.

The decriminalisation of rough sleeping has NOT removed powers to clear tent encampments. I was the Rough Sleeping Lead for a local authority for several years and we never took criminal action to move people on from unsafe tent encampments - we took civil action. Those powers are still very available. I don’t know anything about this site but the biggest barrier I had was private property owners refusing to work with us. If it was council or public land it was straightforward but if it was private the property owners had to take action and often refused due to cost (even if we offered support) or concerns about public perception.

Should have gone to
Specsavers.

It’s right by Warren Street Tube.

By the over and underpass near Fitzrovia? Only got as far as Bloomsbury. That's quite a dangerous place to put up an encampment. How many tents did you count?

Why would I count the tents? That’s asking for trouble.

@Enterthewolves can you tell us more about this please? I was under the impression that you were no longer allowed to use civil action to move them because of being homeless. There has to be an offence committed even to use the civil action - that’s what I thought? And homelessness is no longer an offence. As I said, it’s harder now, it’s not impossible but it’s harder. I was very careful about saying that because that’s my understanding of the new law.

@placemats there isn’t an underpass near Fitzrovia? (Though that depends on your definition of near) It’s the Euston Road section that you would use if you were crossing from the mainline station to UCH.

The TCR/Goodge Street encampment seems to start up at night as one of my shiftworker friends told me. I don’t think you’ll see it around the restaurant during the day, but as soon as everything closes up for nighttime there they are apparently

I have no reason to disbelieve her. Also, there are day centres they can use during the day. She’s obviously worried about it because it’s not a great walk to the Tube station. I would imagine the Euston Road one is a lot less visible during the day as well? Especially as the road is a lot busier. But I’ve seen a few tents during the day.