New Exhibition at Museum of Homelessness
CRIMINAL: AN UNTOLD HISTORY OF HOMELESSNESS, RESISTANCE AND SURVIVAL
21st may- 25TH jULY 2026
A historical exhibition exploring 400 years of criminalisation of homelessness and featuring new work from 10Foot, Gemma Lees, Matt Bonner, Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives, and Surfing Sofas
Today, Museum of Homelessness announced a ground-breaking exhibition that will open in May 2026 for 10 weeks only. Criminal: An Untold Story of Homelessness, Resistance and Survival.
What is it about?
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 subversive action, with Surfing Sofas Publishing House offering people an alternative to social media and information disorder. Leading UK activists and artists have created new work especially for the show, including the first ever sculpture by 10Foot, the UK’s most prolific graffiti writer.
As enforcement ramps up around the world this exhibition is timely and essential.
“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.”
Open for 10 weeks only, the exhibition is free to visit on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 21st May. Put it in your diaries now!
We look forward to welcoming you.
