Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
A The semi-detached caravan sits in a beautiful garden in the courtyard of a former gated house. The soft interior is decorated with a cornucopia of art: blue pastel colors, bright decorations, bright rugs, colorful cushions. Next to it is a small display of pristine china. It feels like a chic escape or a chi-chi escape from the Chelsea flower show.
But look deeper into China, and you will see that it is decorated with the headlines of the Sun against the Gypsy and Traveler camps. “STAMP ON THE CAMP” shouts one. Another shows a burning trailer from the infamous Dale Farm eviction in 2011, which ended a 10-year dispute between Basildon council and the Traveler families, who bought the former green belt site and set up their caravans there.
It’s all part of Criminal: Untold Story of HomelessnessResistance and Survival, a small but complex collection of setups, collaborations and infographics that hits you in the gut like a flyweight boxer. A large alfresco feature in the garden of the Museum of Homelessness in London, it highlights how homeless people and migrant communities have been victimized and marginalized over the past 400 years.
The celebrations here are well documented by government documents related to the nomadic areas, starting with the Egyptian law of 1530 (the Romany people, who migrated from the Indian subcontinent, were mistaken for “Egypt”, the etymological origin of the word “Gypsy”) and ending with the police, the police force, and the police. the power to deal with peace and crimes against “illegal” camps. Hand-embroidered embellishments enhance the theme, and beauty worthless a list of travelers through the ages. There are cushions with the words “Home Sweet Home”, covered with hot sunny themes: “CARAVAN CHAOS” and “I want to buy my dog for 250 pounds”.
The Museum of Homelessness was founded 11 years ago, but for the rest of its life it did not have a brick and mortar building. That changed in 2023, when it found a place in Finsbury Park’s Manor House Lodge, a former keeper’s cottage. In many ways, Criminal is of its time. In London, homelessness is at an all-time high. According to the Combined Homelessness and Information Network, commissioned and supported by the Greater London Authority, outreach groups have recorded more than 13,000 people sleeping rough in London in 2024-2025, a 10% increase on last year and a 63% rise compared to a decade ago. This does not include the hidden “homeless”, such as those squatting on sofas or living in squats. So the Museum of Homelessness is not just a museum; it also provides a variety of color options and doubles as a winter shelter.
From Georgian England to deal with the increasing number of people forced to live on the streets after the Napoleonic wars and the Industrial Revolution, the Vagrancy Act of 1824 is an old law that makes it a crime to sleep rough or beg in England and Wales. It also inspired the infamous “sus” (or “suspicious person”) stop-and-frisk law of the 1970s and ’80s, which disproportionately targeted blacks and ethnic minorities. Although previous administrations promised to end this practice, the practice is still in place, although the current government has committed to abolishing it.
However, even before this happens, being seen as a nomad can lead people to resist forced labour, detention and travel. Today, binary concepts of the deserving (hard-working families, “locals”, homeowners) and the deserving (unemployed, foreigners, travelers) still shape public and political opinion in an unequal race to the bottom.
As you wander through the garden, the Criminal timeline includes closed spaces, American and Caribbean criminals, as well as the events of Elizabethan “bad” writings – pamphlets that write “unwanted” human behavior that planted and accepted antisemitic, anti-Gypsy and racist trope. The story takes in Victorian institutions, maps of poverty, soup kitchens and distractions today, where homeless people have become agents in the politics of “cleaning cities”, their lives without thinking chose to click and be famous. Photographer Matt Bonner and Dutch-Polish design company Studio Boloz collaborated on a series of infographics in bold colors that incorporate furniture, encouraging people to slow down.
Throughout, there is a great tension between the quiet, bucolic stability and the often difficult subject matter. There are many artful and subtle distractions: a sign that incongruously proclaims “Yes, roaming”, a hawthorn tree enclosed in a shiny metal fence, designed by the artist 10Foot, and ropes of flag Tibetan Buddhist “air horse”. published by ASBIs (prohibition of anti-social behavior – 306 in total, the number issued by councils between 2021 and 2025).
Inside the museum, exhibitions featuring campaigners and groups aim to present a vision of the future, turning things on their head. They also include the Greater Manchester Law Centre, which offers advice against evictions, and Tokyo’s Nora group, a group of homeless women living in a “village” of blue plastic tents, who work together to improve their communities and the world’s perception of them.
“We hope it will change people’s attitudes and perceptions of homelessness,” says Jess Turtle, co-founder of the Museum of Homelessness. Even so, they are considered victims; at worst, as a form of threat to society. So we wanted to show the skills and wisdom that is in the community.
