A new exhibition titled "Criminal: The Untold History of Homelessness" opens at the Museum of Homelessness in London, exploring the origins of homelessness in the UK and how it has been criminalized. The exhibition challenges the typical focus on the 19th-century Vagrancy Act, instead tracing the "Homelessness Big Bang" to the early 1600s, when land enclosures, economic shifts, and colonial expansion began penalizing unhoused people. Staged in a meadow at Finsbury Park, the show features artists and activists including the anonymous graffiti artist 10 Foot, designer Matt Bonner, and poet Gemma Lees, with works such as 10 Foot's first sculpture "Fairie Newbuild"—a skip-shaped object made from palisade fencing containing a hawthorn tree.
The exhibition matters because it reframes homelessness as a systemic issue rooted in historical land policies and colonial displacement, rather than individual failings. Museum director Matt Turtle connects the show to contemporary far-right politics and rising homelessness rates, calling it "a cautionary tale and an act of resistance." The Museum of Homelessness, founded in 2015 by Turtle and his wife Jessica, is building a national collection on homelessness and also operates as an emergency cold weather shelter in winter, underscoring its dual role as cultural institution and social service provider.