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Canopy next to Kentish Town Tube station |
It’s carry on boozing at £180,000 shelter
Makeover fails to discourage drinkers
A CANOPY next to Kentish Town Tube station that attracts street drinkers is struggling to shake off its reputation – despite a £180,000 council makeover.
One year after Town Hall bosses announced the Victorian shelter was to become a “gateway to the community”, neighbours say it continues to be “a school for alcoholism”.
Kentish Town street policy project manager Tom Allen told the New Journal last July the shelter’s budget included “crime opportunity profiling” to “qualify the area with legitimate use”.
Improved lighting, self-cleaning glass and individual seating “will encourage street drinkers not to come to this location,” he said at the time.
But council attempts at psychological profiling have failed, according to Roberto Rossi, barista at the Bean About Town coffee stall next to the shelter.
He said: “There’s a homeless centre round the corner and in the afternoon and evening groups come here to drink – the same as they did two years ago. Last month we had the float stolen from the shop. We try to sympathise with them and say hello because they come every day. The place does look nicer, though.”
One member of the public sitting on the bench, who described herself as an “ex-alcoholic”, said: “It doesn’t seem to have made any difference. You still see people drinking here. There’s not so many now because it’s a drink-free zone. Before you would never go without a drink on this seat. It was a school for alcoholism.”
Council officers claim the shelter’s new benches were “not installed to tackle street drinking” but to deter rough sleeping.
A Town Hall spokeswoman said: “We are aware that residents have concerns about street drinking in the area. The local Safer Neighbourhoods police team patrol the area and work with the council’s outreach service, the Safer Streets team, to address this problem. The new benches are single seats in line with the council’s public seating policy to deter rough sleeping, and were not installed in order to tackle street drinking.” |
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