A FREE historical exhibition exploring 400 years of criminalisation of homelessness featuring new work from 10Foot, Gemma Lees, Matt Bonner, Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives, and Surfing Sofas.
Criminal: An Untold History of Homelessness, Resistance and Survival, is free to the public 3 days a week for 10 weeks only;
The exhibition, staged in an English perennial meadow at the museum’s site in Finsbury Park, will show that how we think about homelessness today comes from ideas that were created long ago. When people talk about the criminalisation of homelessness, it’s usually the Vagrancy Act of 1824 that is the focus. But there is much more to this story.
Researchers at Museum of Homelessness have identified the Homelessness Big Bang in the early 1600s and the exhibition starts there. Criminal explores the intertwined histories of people made homeless and transported from England, Ireland and Africa to the early plantations. Visitors will be taken on a journey exploring land enclosure, rebellion in the colonies, Elizabethan Rogue literature, Victorian institutions, resistance movements and modern-day disinformation. The museum’s interior will be transformed into a space of resistance, with Surfing Sofas Publishing House offering people an alternative to social media. Examples of how people are challenging homelessness and housing injustice today from around the world will provide inspiration. Crucially, we will share how people have resisted criminalisation.
Featuring some of the UK’s foremost activists and artists, Criminal will give both the facts and the feelings and will tell you what is really going on both in the past and now. Museum director Matt Turtle said: “The rise of the far right all over the world is being matched by increasing rates of homelessness. This exhibition matters today because criminalisation as a ‘solution’ to homelessness has never gone away. Right now, in 2026, it is ramping up in many places on earth. In 2025, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade advocated for homeless people to be executed via involuntary lethal injection. We have put this exhibition on as a cautionary tale and an act of resistance.”
The Museum will be open 3 days per week on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays (12.30pm – 4.30pm), and will be FREE with no booking required for groups of less than 8 or individuals. For groups of more than 8, we have 2 types of booking.
A special events programme and further information on group bookings can be found on our What’s On page:
https://museumofhomelessness.org/whatson
