Tour guides? Yes, some homeless and poor people with a flair for storytelling and anecdotes are turning into excursion guides throughout Britain. Excursions also appear to be the rage in Moscow as hard-pressed pensioners are organizing their own tours around parks, graveyards and palaces. StreetSense decided to examine this rising trend which partly reflected a growing fascination with attempting to rediscover our own history as well as aspects that are largely unexplored.
.
At times you are completely exposed to the elements in this city. The grey overcast sky with clouds threatening a downpour, a chilly and icy wind which mercilessly assails your body—and daunting treacherous slopes where you feel you might stumble and fall can combine to make the old town of Edinburgh the ideal place for scary excursions! This city boasts about countless legends of ghosts, and of poor 'witches' who were strangled and burnt at the stake on the royal mound as well as sinister body snatchers.
Specialists in folklore can be forgiven they have found a priceless treasure trove. So it comes as no revelation that this attracts many companies and individuals who organize their own excursions around the city. Some of the homeless who display a flair for telling stories brilliantly, passionately and ardently, have jumped at the opportunity to become excursion guides.
For instance, Maggie Dickson a vivacious guide, can take you on a special 'Witch route' that informs you about the tragic fate of many women and men who were cruelly persecuted for alleged 'witchcraft.' It is worth noting that homeless people can have a distinct advantage while offering a tour of the city. Having slept rough in parts which locals rarely venture, they can know the city like the back of their hands. They retain useful insights into spots which most people prefer to shun. And some who are 'patter merchants' {Glaswegian slang for having a way with words} excel at being apt excursion guides.
Realizing the potential talents of some homeless people, a social enterprise called 'Invisible Cities' employs the homeless and former homeless as excursion guides.
The project 'Invisible Cities' has as its main goal not only to help some of the homeless use their untapped talents through employment, but to raise awareness of their plight by campaigning to empower them. The director of the social enterprise states, 'Raising awareness of homelessness and breaking down stigma, Invisible Cities raises awareness about homelessness through our tours, we aim at changing perceptions and breaking down the stigma that exist around it. We also do this through innovative events aimed at a wider or different audience. The idea is the tour revenue will be invested in providing support for our tour guides who have been affected by homelessness.'
This project began in 2018. Since then, it has expanded to encompass other cities such as Glasgow, York and Manchester.
The organization also collaborates with other companies such as Social Bite, a chain of sandwich shops where one in four of its staff come from a homeless background, as well as the homeless newspaper, The Big Issue, which promotes the cause.
Angus, one of the tourist guides stated, 'I have experienced homelessness in Edinburgh since health problems brought most of my previous career paths, including : gravedigger, kitchen porter, combat engineering, forestry, fencing and best of all, knocking down stuff of an unwelcome nature , came to a creaking end.' Angus saw an advert in the Big Issue for excursion guides and decided to apply. It looked to be right up his street. He stated, 'It was not a high brow architectural tour but a great opportunity to share my passion for history and mixed opinion about Scottish planning.'
And a former homeless person who also hails from Edinburgh, Sonny, stated, 'My tour is based on crime and punishment I have experienced prison myself { Edinburgh is full of stories of murders, gangsters and prisons.}. Sonny explained that 'A few years ago, my life took a bad turn and I was homeless on the streets of Edinburgh. My girlfriend {Biffy} and I were addicted to heroine, but we are now clean and very much looking forward to what the future is bringing.'
In Manchester, one of the cities where the first industrial revolution was born, Andy, who is a guide, told how he became homeless when he ran away from his foster parents when he was a young child. He recalled, 'As a young child I saw the city center as my playground. Manchester and homelessness has always been a big part of me.'
So Andy's tours are very unique. He noted, 'I was not aware of the historical significance of it , its old drinking spots. The stops on my tour will help spread awareness of the simultaneous link between alcoholism being 'a cause' and 'caused by homelessness.' {Of course this is an old hot chestnut because many homeless activists are at pains to explain that the main cause of homelessness is not addiction but is largely due to an unjust social and economic system. A Russian specialist who helps addicts recover claims that often a trauma lies behind the roots of addiction and after all the physical treatment this requires some kind of subtle and special therapeutic treatment.}
More recently, Invisible Cities launched a whole lot of new 'Witches trails' throughout Glasgow, Edinburgh and Culross last Halloween. The aim of those tours was to remind people of how Scotland's history has been marred by the persecution of alleged witches where between the 16th and 18th century an estimated 5000 were tried for witchcraft and perhaps an estimated 1000- 2000 were executed through being strangled and burnt at the stake. An estimated 75% of those victims were women, over 50 and unmarried. The number of persecutions of witchcraft stood at 4 times the European average.
There is no doubt that such tours can prompt widespread interest given the rising popularity of Harry Potter and Halloween in Scotland.
And what about the excursion tours in Moscow? I myself was on some excursions in parks, graves and around the city center. Over the past ten years I have noticed that more and more people are organizing excursions with and without enterprises. I constantly come across excursions all around my locality and in nearby parks. Many of those excursions are free and some ask the audience to donate if they want to or not by passing a bag around or just appealing to the audience. I soon found out how excursions could suddenly soar.
When Natasha, a 20-year-old art historian and an organizer and tourist guide decided to embark on a tour of the German cemetery in Moscow, and asked me for a little help, we found quite a bit of interest. The tour inspired other planned excursions. For instance, one geologist gave an excursion around minerals, and another woman was eager to give her own tour of the saints who were buried in the German cemetery.
Natasha and I, after one tour of Lefortovsky Park, met an old pensioner who told us "I organize my own tours via promotion on the Internet. I charge each person 300 rubles and I get a fair number of people on my tours."
He seemed to be doing pretty well! In Russia, as well as Britain, there is a huge thirst for historical knowledge. Many people in Moscow attend history lectures and people eagerly purchase books. History books are among the best selling books in bookshops. This and the fact that in Moscow you have a huge number of highly educated and cultured people make the city an ideal magnet for organizing potential excursions!
Not everyone can be a successful excursion guide. Some do not even try to be. I think what helps to become a good guide is some skills in storytelling, a deep passion for your topic and an ability to interact with your audience by prompting questions from them and making them feel at ease.
Time management is also imperative. For some poor and homeless people this can be a dream job! Whether this is a lucrative job or not would be another question…but in terms of using hidden talents and skills it can boost a person's self-esteem and harness positive energy.
Some homeless might come into their own thing by becoming tour guides! Who knows?!