Lady Mayoress' Sleep out
6th March 2025Guildhall yard
Carolyn and I somewhat nervously made our way into London with our rough sleeping kit of sleeping bags, camping mats, canadian puffa jackets etc, having had to ditch some of things that we intended to take because it was too much to carry (Lesson no 1 of rough living - you can only carry a small amount of stuff!). No tents or air mattresses allowed, but cardboard was provided by Pret-a-Manger.
Fortunately, the weather was considerably warmer than the previous series of frosty nights, and it did not rain - about as good as we could get.
After coffee/tea (provided by Pret-a-Manger, as their Foundation was sharing with the proceeds of the event), speeches by the organisers and Lady Mayoress, (who was sleeping out) and chats with the Lord Mayor (who was not), we settled down towards midnight to try and get some sleep.
We had expected it to be quiet in the City, as very few people live there, but in reality it was quite the opposite - garbage trucks doing the rounds, police sirens and the wind whistling around the Guildhall Yard kept me awake until past 3.00am. Finally I nodded off only to be woken by the breakfast being prepared at 5.00am...however, the bacon roll was most welcome!
It was a fun experience, particularly as some of our Livery friends were doing it as well, but I am glad we do not have to do it every night. However, it gave us some small insight into how tough life can be on the streets, and hopefully the event will have raised some significant amounts of money for the Lord and Lady Mayoress' homeless charities.
An enormous thank you to everybody who has donated to our JustGiving page - so far we have raised over £1300 which is wonderful contribution to the overall total. We will let you know how much has been raised when the numbers are published.