The Prince and the Paupers

The Queen's grandson spent the night under a bridge

Prince William, second in line to the British throne, drew attention to himself and the problems of beggars by spending the night as a tramp. The other day it became known that the prince accepted an offer of cooperation from the charity Centrepoint and first met the dawn near garbage containers in one of the disadvantaged areas of the British capital. As the prince himself stated, he agreed to this action in order to better understand the problems faced by homeless young people his age.

As Lenta.ru reports with reference to the British press, a cardboard box became the prince’s temporary shelter. Taking a sleeping bag, William settled down near London's Blackfriars Bridge. This bridge has long been notorious, and now homeless people often spend the night near it. The prince was accompanied by the head of Centrepoint, Seyi Obakin, during the overnight stay. True, the prince also took his personal secretary with him. The protesters, according to Mr. Obakin, took the most careful precautions. They slept behind the trash cans. “But there was no protection from the frost,” said Seyi Obakin. He complained that the night was “extremely cold” - the thermometer dropped to minus four degrees Celsius. “In addition, we were almost run over by a harvesting vehicle, the driver of which simply did not notice our small group,” he added. But, despite the cold and misadventures, the prince and company still waited for dawn “at the bottom.”

Prince William has sponsored homelessness charity Centrepoint since 2005. According to Mr. Obakin, human rights activists “did not expect that the prince would respond to a request to take part in such an action.” The eldest son of the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, himself stated that he “did this to draw public attention to the problems of people who, day after day, suffer from poverty, isolation and wild conditions of existence.”

In the morning, as Obakin reports, William walked through the streets of the West End and saw with his own eyes the life of the lower strata of British society. And later, as a guest of honor, he attended Centrepoint's 40th anniversary reception. Having lived in the shoes of a homeless person, albeit just for a night, Prince William called for everything possible to be done to cope with the problem of homeless youth in the British capital in the next ten years. "After one night, I can't imagine what it's like to sleep on the streets of London every night," he said.

Various charity events in support of the homeless are held in London every year around Christmas. As a rule, concerts are organized, the proceeds from which go to help the homeless. In the capital of a country with such a developed social system, there are thousands of people who find themselves on the streets. The names of those who die on the streets of London are read out each year in the run-up to Christmas at a memorial service at St Martin's in the Fields. This year there were more than 200 names on the list.

Daria LUGANSKAYA