The Big Tramp: take a night-time tour of London for charity

Fancy a stroll with a difference? On September 6 London-based theatre group Cardboard Citizens will stage ‘The Big Tramp’, a night-time fundraising hike through town as part of their wider programme of projects aimed at helping the homeless.

The one-off walking tour will take participants through some of the most famous locations in the history of life on London’s streets, including the original ‘Cardboad City’ and the church where Dickens was moved to write about the problem of homelessness in Victorian times. The tour will end with a screening of Charlie Chaplin’s 1915 classic ‘The Tramp’ at the Kennington workhouse where he lived as a child.

Walkers will be accompanied on this unique trek by homeless members of Cardboard Citizens, who will share performances and their own vivid observations of life on the streets, all led by experienced walking guide Henry Eliot. Snacks and breakfast are kindly laid on by Pret, and rucksacks are banned; instead, walkers are encouraged to carry any possessions in a black bin liner and carry a blanket for warmth.

Registration is £29 at cardboardcitizens.org.uk/big-tramp. The walk kicks off at 11pm from Cardboard Citizens HQ (77A Greenfield Road, Aldgate East, SE1 1EJ)  and finishes nine miles away at The Cinema Museum SE11 4TH.

Find out more about The Big Tramp. 

By Andy Hill