EUSTON ROAD IS a busy dual carriageway. Where it runs near Warren Street Underground station, there is a central divider, a few feet wide.

There are twenty to forty small tents pitched on the narrow divider strip. They have been there for several years, maybe since 2020. These tents house homeless people. They are these peoples’ homes. Some of the tents contain no more than simple bedding – mattresses and blankets. Others are more elaborately furnished with domestic equipment in addition to bedding. None of the tents could be described as desirable residences. Yet they are home to people hailing from a variety of places including Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, elsewhere in Europe, and Britain.

The tents can be seen clearly from the west bound bus stop near Warren Street station. Behind these barely adequate dwellings are recently constructed high-rise office blocks as well as luxury apartment blocks.

Seeing these inelegant tents and their inhabitants, whose impoverished circumstances can easily be imagined, reminded me of street dwellers I have seen on the pavements in prosperous districts of large cities in India.

What is to be done about these tents and their inhabitants? I have no idea and it seems that our politicians are also without ideas about them.