Why this Londoner lets strangers sleep on a cot he set up on his front porch
Another wondered what kind of ulterior motive he had when he offered her a place to spend the night and a shower.
But Phillips, 52, said he's just trying to help in the small way he can when he offers people down on their luck a place to crash on a cot he set up on his front porch, enclosed in plastic to keep out the elements.
"Maybe I'm going to make a difference in that person's life. Maybe they will realize that there is somebody out there that cares or that would sit and listen and help," said Phillips.
"While they're sleeping, that's when they're the most vulnerable because they can be attacked or assaulted or robbed. This gives them a safe, dry place where they can crash. That's why I call it the crash cot."
Offering up a spot for people to sleep is something Phillips has done for about a decade. It began when an old friend showed up at his door, homeless, and asked to crash on his couch for a while. That relationship soured, but eventually, he set up a cot on his covered back deck for people who needed it.
Through trial and error, he's developed some rules: No groups or couples, just individuals, and no long-term stays — a night or two is what Phillips allows.
More recently he moved the cot to the front porch of his bungalow because he needed the back deck for something else.
Officials estimate there are 2,000 people living without a home in London. In a recent survey, 55 per cent of Londoners identified homelessness as the most pressing issue facing the city.
A hot meal, a shower
Phillips has first aid training and a first aid kit, as well as safety equipment such as a fire extinguisher. The crash cot operates on an invitation-only basis, though some people reach out to him on Facebook.
"I don't go up to the first homeless person I see and say 'Come on home with me.' We get to know each other, maybe we go down to the Tim Hortons to get a coffee, we chat, and I ask if they need a place to stay for the night," Phillips said. "Some people sleep 12, 18 hours."
Rosemary Van Gelderen's daughter is one of an estimated 2,000 people living unhoused on London's streets. Van Gelderen opened up to London Morning about what it's like to have a child living rough and what she would like to see happen to help those who are unhoused as winter approaches.
A forklift operator during the day, Phillips spends evenings and nights biking around the city with water bottles and other essentials to hand out to those less fortunate. "If I get an okay vibe from them, I offer them the cot. For others, I might just give them something to eat or just have a talk.
"I offer them a hot meal, have a shower, I'll wash your clothes, you'll get treated like a human being for the night. People don't see them. You go on Richmond Row and people just step over them. They don't realize that somebody's there, that's a person. Some of them just want conversation."
Phillips admits there have been some negative experiences, but those have just made him double down on offering the cot to only single people and make sure to go with his gut about who he offers the cot to.
"Most people have a similar story. You were a recreational drug user and now you're on the street and an addict, and then there's the pharmaceutical ones who had an accident, were prescribed an opiate, and then there was no aftercare, they were cut off, but a friend stepped in and said 'Oh, I can hook you but with something better and cheaper.'"
For Phillips, the reward comes from having interesting conversations with people and knowing that he's atoning for what he called a "misspent youth."
"You're a guest here. People are extremely grateful that they have a chance to be normal," Phillips said. For the people he can't help, he refers them to other services.
Phillips admits letting strangers sleep on your front porch isn't for everyone. He's a big, burly man, so he doesn't scare easily, he said. But it would be impossible to sit back and watch London's homeless crisis deepen without doing something, he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Globe and Mail
02-07-2025
- Globe and Mail
My apple cores brought nature to my doorstep – then some bigger guests arrived
First Person is a daily personal piece submitted by readers. Have a story to tell? See our guidelines at I usually eat an apple on the drive home from work. It makes me feel virtuous and slightly superior to eat such a healthy snack, especially as I pass the lines of cars snaking around the Tim Hortons drive-through. In addition to the health benefits, I am eating 'local.' The apples come from an orchard near our house. We live on a residential street near what used to be the border between suburbia and farmland. Increasingly, the small farms that act as a buffer between the city and the large industrial farms have been selling, and the road is full of those ubiquitous signs announcing zoning changes and coming developments. But the family-run orchard is hanging on. I try to support it. I usually time it so that I pull into the driveway just as the apple is finished. Kind of a ritual and part of the transition from a stressful workday to home. Normally, I carry the core, almost as a badge of honour into the kitchen to the bin marked 'organics.' But one day, I dropped the core as I climbed out of the car. Guiltily, I kicked it toward the hedge that divided our property from the neighbours'. I'll come back later and pick it up, I rationalized. Of course, I forgot all about it. The next morning, there was a dusting of snow, and as I brushed off the windshield I noticed animal tracks around the hedge. I recognized the tracks immediately. Two small prints in front with two much larger prints right behind. A rabbit. First Person: Love and so many memories grow in my garden I remembered the apple core and felt a moment of satisfaction that some woodland creature had found the treat that I had inadvertently left. I imagined a full belly or maybe a den of little ones with mom bringing home the treat to share. My imagination went wild, and I thought of Beatrix Potter and Richard Adams. It's only a rabbit, I said to myself. But I was grinning, and the happy feeling lasted well into the day. That evening, I dropped the core at the same spot near the hedge and could hardly wait to see if my gift was received again. Not only were there rabbit tracks but I now noticed squirrel, chipmunk and several bird tracks. I began to Google different types of critter tracks and for several months took great pleasure in identifying my visitors from the night before. I felt connected to a different world that existed all around me. It took me out of myself somehow. I also began to notice the sounds of the different birds and other markings on the ground that hinted at other species. I learned to identify bird sounds and learned that in addition to cardinals and blue jays, we had hairy woodpeckers, black-billed cuckoos, great horned owls and rare yellow rails. I didn't share my new hobby with anyone and always checked the cores were gone the next morning – they were. I knew the arguments against my seemingly innocent gifts. You're creating a dependency, and the animals will forget how to forage for themselves. You're attracting other wildlife like coyotes. You're attracting insects like ticks. You're attracting vermin like mice. I ignored all the imaginary cautionary voices and enjoyed my new discoveries every morning, learning more about all the different animals found in a suburban backyard. One day, I noticed the tracks were completely overridden by extremely large prints that looked like the largest birds I had ever seen. The next day there were more. First Person: I no longer knew how to find God, so nature became my church Eventually the entire ground around the hedge was dredged up and dirt, mud, leaves and twigs were scattered across the driveway. My husband noticed and immediately identified the tracks as wild turkeys. That weekend our dog was barking wildly. Through our front window we saw over a dozen wild turkeys clustered on our front lawn making the most piercing racket. They were huge. And hugely ugly. Our neighbours began to gather at the end of the drive. It was an event! 'Should we call the police,' asked one woman. 'Bring in all the children,' cried another. 'I have a BB gun,' said a young man. My secret happy co-existence with the wildlife around us had come to an end. I didn't say a word to my neighbours, but I stopped leaving my apples at the hedge. It was at best a precarious relationship that was bound to end. I eventually 'confessed' to my husband. He rolled his eyes. This episode was just one more in a long list of seemingly innocent attempts to lessen the divide between ourselves and the many species with whom we co-exist. It seems like living in partnership with our feathered and furred friends is a difficult challenge. I remain optimistic that we can figure it out, or at least lessen our impact. Janice Locke lives in Ancaster, Ont.
Vancouver Sun
23-06-2025
- Vancouver Sun
London's secret wartime tunnels will host spy museum, underground bar
LONDON — There is a history-rich part of London that few people have seen, where the city braced for the Blitz, James Bond's creator got inspiration and secret Cold War messages passed between Washington and Moscow. It's a network of tunnels 100 feet (30 metres) below the streets that was secret for decades — but could be the city's next big tourist destination. Local authorities have approved plans to fill the 90,000 square-foot (8,400 square-metre) site with an intelligence museum, an interactive Second World War memorial and one of the world's deepest underground bars. 'It's an amazing space, an amazing city,' said Angus Murray, chief executive of The London Tunnels , as subway trains rattled overhead. 'And I think it tells a wonderful story.' Plan your next getaway with Travel Time, featuring travel deals, destinations and gear. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Travel Time will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. The tunnels lie directly below London Underground's Central Line in the city's Holborn area. Work to dig them began in secret in 1940, when Britain feared invasion by Nazi Germany. They were designed to shelter up to 8,000 people in a pair of parallel tunnels 16 1/2 feet (5 metres) wide and 1,300 feet (400 metres) long. The tunnels were never used for that purpose; by the time they were finished in 1942 the worst of the Blitz was over, and Underground bosses had opened up subway stations as air raid shelters for Londoners. Instead, the tunnels became a government communications centre and a base for the Special Operations Executive, a clandestine unit that sent agents — many of them women — on perilous sabotage missions in Nazi-occupied territory under orders from Prime Minister Winston Churchill to 'set Europe ablaze.' A naval officer named Ian Fleming was a liaison officer to the SOE, and the subterranean HQ may have provided inspiration for the world of secret agent 007 that he went on to create. 'This truly is the Q Branch of James Bond,' said Murray, referring to the thrillers' fictional MI6 quartermaster and gadget-maker. After the war, more tunnels were added to the complex and the site became a secure telephone exchange. From the mid-1950s it was a terminus of the first trans-Atlantic undersea telephone cable. After the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear war in 1962, a 'red telephone' hotline between the Pentagon and the Kremlin was established and ran through here. Up to 200 people worked underground, bound to secrecy but with the compensation of an onsite canteen and bar. For a time, the site also housed a bunker to be used by the government in the event of nuclear war. By the 1980s, technology had moved on and British Telecom moved out. The tunnels lay largely forgotten until BT sold them in 2023 to Murray's private equity-backed group. Plans include a memorial to the more than 40,000 civilians killed by German bombing in the war, cultural exhibitions and a nightspot that Murray boasts will be 'the deepest bar in the world in a city.' It also will house Britain's Military Intelligence Museum, which is currently tucked away on a military base north of London with limited public access. Museum bosses have agreed to move a collection covering more than 300 years of history to the tunnels, bringing a much higher profile for a story they believe needs to be told. 'It's not targeted at people who already have an interest in military topics,' said the chair of the museum's board of trustees, who gave only his first name, Alistair, because of the museum's connection to Britain's armed forces. 'A heavy theme that will run through the new museum is that there are skills and tools that military intelligence has developed over years and centuries … and the fundamental one is, how do you tell truth from lies?' he said. 'That's a very big theme of now.' The museum also will flesh out the secret story of the Special Operations Executive. The museum's collection contains agent messages, supplies, weapons and sabotage equipment from the SOE's wartime adventures. 'Most of the people that worked in SOE never talked about it, either at the time or afterwards, and many of the records have disappeared,' Alistair said. 'So a lot is known about SOE, but we don't know everything, and the chances are we will never know everything.' For now, the tunnel entrance is through an unmarked door in an alley, and walking the cool, dim corridors brings the thrill of discovering a hidden corner of history. Within the thick steel and concrete walls are chunky old generators and telecoms equipment, a staff canteen with its kitchen still intact, and the bar, its 1960s orange and brown decor giving off retro 'Austin Powers' vibes Here and there are graffiti tags and a few items left by urban explorers who snuck in over the years, including a set of bowling pins with ball, and — incongruously — a bear costume. London Tunnels aims to open in 2028, and to attract up to 4.2 million tourists a year. That may sound ambitious, but Murray says the site's mix of 'history and heritage and novelty' makes it a unique draw. 'If you go home and say, 'I went to this really cool tunnel today,' then we're halfway there,' he said. 'If what's inside of it is even better, you're going to go 'Oh that's fantastic.''
Winnipeg Free Press
23-06-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
London's secret wartime tunnels are set to draw tourists with a spy museum and underground bar
LONDON (AP) — There is a history-rich part of London that few people have seen, where the city braced for the Blitz, James Bond's creator got inspiration and secret Cold War messages passed between Washington and Moscow. It's a network of tunnels 100 feet (30 meters) below the streets that was secret for decades — but could be the city's next big tourist destination. Local authorities have approved plans to fill the 90,000 square-foot (8,400 square-meter) site with an intelligence museum, an interactive World War II memorial and one of the world's deepest underground bars. 'It's an amazing space, an amazing city,' said Angus Murray, chief executive of The London Tunnels, as subway trains rattled overhead. 'And I think it tells a wonderful story.' A vast bomb shelter The tunnels lie directly below London Underground's Central Line in the city's Holborn area. Work to dig them began in secret in 1940, when Britain feared invasion by Nazi Germany. They were designed to shelter up to 8,000 people in a pair of parallel tunnels 16 1/2 feet (5 meters) wide and 1,300 feet (400 meters) long. The tunnels were never used for that purpose; by the time they were finished in 1942 the worst of the Blitz was over, and Underground bosses had opened up subway stations as air raid shelters for Londoners. Instead, the tunnels became a government communications center and a base for the Special Operations Executive, a clandestine unit that sent agents — many of them women — on perilous sabotage missions in Nazi-occupied territory under orders from Prime Minister Winston Churchill to 'set Europe ablaze.' A naval officer named Ian Fleming was a liaison officer to the SOE, and the subterranean HQ may have provided inspiration for the world of secret agent 007 that he went on to create. 'This truly is the Q Branch of James Bond,' said Murray, referring to the thrillers' fictional MI6 quartermaster and gadget-maker. After the war, more tunnels were added to the complex and the site became a secure telephone exchange. From the mid-1950s it was a terminus of the first trans-Atlantic undersea telephone cable. After the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear war in 1962, a 'red telephone' hotline between the Pentagon and the Kremlin was established and ran through here. Up to 200 people worked underground, bound to secrecy but with the compensation of an onsite canteen and bar. For a time, the site also housed a bunker to be used by the government in the event of nuclear war. By the 1980s, technology had moved on and British Telecom moved out. The tunnels lay largely forgotten until BT sold them in 2023 to Murray's private equity-backed group. Plans include a memorial to the more than 40,000 civilians killed by German bombing in the war, cultural exhibitions and a nightspot that Murray boasts will be 'the deepest bar in the world in a city.' Secret wartime history It also will house Britain's Military Intelligence Museum, which is currently tucked away on a military base north of London with limited public access. Museum bosses have agreed to move a collection covering more than 300 years of history to the tunnels, bringing a much higher profile for a story they believe needs to be told. 'It's not targeted at people who already have an interest in military topics,' said the chair of the museum's board of trustees, who gave only his first name, Alistair, because of the museum's connection to Britain's armed forces. 'A heavy theme that will run through the new museum is that there are skills and tools that military intelligence has developed over years and centuries … and the fundamental one is, how do you tell truth from lies?' he said. 'That's a very big theme of now.' The museum also will flesh out the secret story of the Special Operations Executive. The museum's collection contains agent messages, supplies, weapons and sabotage equipment from the SOE's wartime adventures. 'Most of the people that worked in SOE never talked about it, either at the time or afterwards, and many of the records have disappeared,' Alistair said. 'So a lot is known about SOE, but we don't know everything, and the chances are we will never know everything.' A unique attraction For now, the tunnel entrance is through an unmarked door in an alley, and walking the cool, dim corridors brings the thrill of discovering a hidden corner of history. Within the thick steel and concrete walls are chunky old generators and telecoms equipment, a staff canteen with its kitchen still intact, and the bar, its 1960s orange and brown décor giving off retro 'Austin Powers' vibes Here and there are graffiti tags and a few items left by urban explorers who snuck in over the years, including a set of bowling pins with ball, and — incongruously — a bear costume. London Tunnels aims to open in 2028, and to attract up to 4.2 million tourists a year. That may sound ambitious, but Murray says the site's mix of 'history and heritage and novelty' makes it a unique draw. 'If you go home and say, 'I went to this really cool tunnel today,' then we're halfway there,' he said. 'If what's inside of it is even better, you're going to go 'Oh that's fantastic.''
