South London pub opens soup kitchen for homeless – even as it expects bills to soar

The South London boozer will be offering free meals to the homeless

Mr Irwin and Ms Tarleton said the idea for the kitchen came from their relationship with a local homeless man in the area(Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)

A South London pub has opened a weekly soup kitchen for homeless people in the area, despite the fact it’s expecting bills to soar in the New Year.

Ray Irwin, 46, and Bonnie Tarleton, 29, both run the Guy Earl of Warwick pub in Welling, Bexley. The couple started running a soup kitchen last week that will run throughout Christmas on Monday mornings for homeless people in the area.

Mr Irwin said: “It’s just about getting a bit of normality back for them. You can come in, read the paper, charge your phone and do whatever you need to do.”

READ MORE: Croydon pubs say punters ‘stop coming on Mondays and Tuesdays’ as they save up to get drunk at weekends

The pub managers are also hosting a toy drive in free Christmas dinners for people in the area(Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)

The managers said that the idea for the kitchen came from their relationship with a local homeless man in the area. Mr Irwin said: “We always talk to him and pass the time with him, just saying hello. We got really friendly with him so we said, ‘Can we do something that might make you feel a little bit better at Christmas?’ So that’s where the idea came from to start with.”

Taking over the pub in February this year, Mr Irwin and Ms Tarleton are also running a toy drive for children in Bexley. Ms Tarleton said: “I think it was in Tesco, you know how they do food [donations]? So then I thought that we might as well do it with toys. We advertised it and the next day the trolley was literally full.”

Mr Irwin and Ms Tarleton took over the pub in February 2022, with the space being closed since before Covid(Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)

The couple also plan to host free dinners for those who have to spend Christmas Day alone this year. Mr Irwin said: “Say your local neighbour is going to be on their own and you’re with your family. You can just donate a Christmas lunch to try to get them in and together with people, because it can be lonely at Christmas.”

The soup kitchen runs from 10am to 1pm every Monday, when trade for the pub is quiet. The couple said that aside from homeless people, they have also noticed the ongoing cost of living crisis hitting the spending habits of customers.

The Guy Earl of Warwick soup kitchen will be open every Monday from 10am to 1pm over the Christmas period(Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)

Mr Irwin said: “It’s becoming more of an issue, sort of in the last month or so. Because now people’s bills are starting to go up. So it’s a little bit distant in the middle of the year whenever you haven’t got your heating on and your lights on all the time. But now, it’s becoming more of an issue and from listening to customers talking, it’s become more of an issue for them too.”

The couple said they expect to see bills rise for them in the New Year, but still plan to run the soup kitchen for as long as it’s needed. Mr Irwin said: “At the minute, the plans are to just do it once a week on a Monday. But we’ll see how we go, we can do more of them if we feel there’s a need for it.”

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Mr Irwin and Ms Tarleton have described their charitable actions as ways of “getting pubs back to what they used to be, part of the community”.

Mr Irwin said: “A pub is pretty much the only place you will come into and you have a conversation with someone who’s not filtered in some way to like what you like or do what you do or whatever you want. It’s somebody completely random, you just happen to be there in the same place at that time.”

Have a story you want to share? Get in touch joseph.coughlan@reachplc.com.

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