There’s not much to report really, as I wrote in detail about my experience last year. Sure there were some obvious changes such as the location, which was the soon-to-be-demolished London Arena, but apart from that it was pretty smooth.
The shelters were open, as always, from Friday 23rd to Friday 30th of December. I didn’t manage the entire week of the Open Christmas this year, as family obligations meant that I was in Jersey until Tuesday night. I did help out in the main shelter for the last three days, however.
The site itself was a far better design for the shelter than the Millennium Dome, which is where we were last year. As the venue was smaller, there was much more of a ‘community feel’ to the shelter whereas last year all the services had to be set out almost in a straight line – as I recall, it was close to half a mile from one end to the other in the Dome (and we only used a fraction of the building!).
For two days my main task was to ensure that there were sufficient volunteers positioned throughout half of the shelter while another Key Volunteer, Helen, did the same for the other half. I made some mistakes on the first day; stationing female volunteers outside the male showers for example (a misdemeanour that quite rightly earned me a very vocal scolding from a guest), but as far as I know things went fairly smoothly…
My third day was also the final day of the Open. I was stationed on the main gate, essentially overseeing the kicking out of guests into London’s wintry streets. I suppose I shouldn’t phrase it like that, but it’s not a nice job, especially when someone tells you they don’t have anywhere to go. To make things worse, it was bitterly cold; rain was intermingled with sleet.
As a small consolation, guests were given a shoulder bag containing various useful presents (radio, etc).
There were a couple of incidents where people didn’t want to leave, but there was no point in them staying as, from 10am, the shelter was literally being dismantled. Coaches were laid on to take guests to various destinations around London and most of them took advantage of the ride.
When all of the guests had left, we joined the other volunteers clearing up the venue. At 4pm, we were de-briefed and we headed for the pub.
I ended up in a curry house on Brick Lane at 1pm talking to one of the volunteers I’ve got to know over the years. The conversation was one way traffic, however, because after seven straight days working in the shelter, he fell asleep at the table!
New Year’s Eve was a quiet one as usual.
