A few nights on a bus in the early hours of the morning was a
revelation for Robert Wilkins, documentary-maker and director of a
short, eye-opening Guardian film on the scores of homeless people who
would clamber aboard London's N29 night "bendy bus" to find shelter and
sleep in the early hours.
Rather than the stereotype rough sleeper - the gaunt, grizzly wino in tattered clothes - he found people who had to their surprise been tripped up by joblessness, eviction and relationship breakdown and had fallen rapidly on hard times. Some who travelled the buses every night were reluctant to even accept that they were homeless. As Wilkins says:
He spent several nights filming passengers on the N29 route, which wends its way from Trafalgar Square in the centre of the capital out to Enfield in its northern suburbs and back again. Up to 70 homeless passengers would board the vehicle on any one trip. Once it reached its final destination (about an hour later), they would get off, and jump on the next bus heading south. More Read
Rather than the stereotype rough sleeper - the gaunt, grizzly wino in tattered clothes - he found people who had to their surprise been tripped up by joblessness, eviction and relationship breakdown and had fallen rapidly on hard times. Some who travelled the buses every night were reluctant to even accept that they were homeless. As Wilkins says:
He spent several nights filming passengers on the N29 route, which wends its way from Trafalgar Square in the centre of the capital out to Enfield in its northern suburbs and back again. Up to 70 homeless passengers would board the vehicle on any one trip. Once it reached its final destination (about an hour later), they would get off, and jump on the next bus heading south. More Read
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