A Southall Story

A Southall Story about immigration, homelessness and community action

My friend lives in a particularly busy and fairly unpleasant part of Southall. Her block of flats lies opposite the main Gurdwara, (Sikh temple) which you’d think might provide some respite from the chaos and lunacy of daily Southall life, but this is in the centre of what I call ‘crack corner’ as there is so much blatant dealing going on - not a salubrious place at all.

She was telling me about a tramp that was living outside her block. She said he didn’t speak English and because he was an illegal immigrant he couldn’t get any help, or work or do anything to improve his situation, so he slept outside her block with the rats crawling over him. She said that in the summer she’d got so fed up with seeing him and smelling him that she’d hosed him down, not just once but on about four different occasions. I asked what he did, and she went on to say that the police were there at the time and they just laughed. They said she could be done for assault, then she said ‘You’re not going to do that are you?’
And they said ‘no.’