Unseen Tours 2024 Summer Fundraiser

Aim: Let's break the cycle of homelessness! Fund the training of tour guides with lived experience of homelessness.

What we do... 

Embark on our journey to break the cycle of homelessness. As a not-for-profit social enterprise, Unseen Tours empowers vulnerably housed individuals to lead captivating walks through London, revealing hidden gems from their unique perspectives.

Why we're raising funds... 

We're on a mission to increase understanding of homelessness, one step at a time. Support us in providing training to people with experience of homelessness to curate their own walking tour. Our training will facilitate up-skilling, a pathway to paid work, social confidence and a sustained life outside of homelessness.

Your contribution will also help us train our current guides who've experienced homelessness, enhancing their skills so that they can become even better at what they do. With your support, we not only sustain our current guides, but empower two new storytellers to create impactful walking tours, expanding the reach of our mission.

What we’re about… 

 At Unseen Tours, we believe in giving our guides a platform to tell their own stories on their own terms. This is especially important since those with experience of homelessness are routinely sidelined and overlooked by the tourism industry. Every aspect of our tours have been co-constructed with the guides themselves, making the Unseen Tours experience a genuine joint venture from the ground up. 

During training, for which new guides get paid London Living Wage, we will focus on confidence building and working with new guides to explore how they can best share their experiences of homelessness in a way that is respectful and not retraumatising or voyeuristic.

Unseen Tours operates as a not-for-profit social enterprise. The majority of ticket revenue from our public tours (60%) is paid directly to the guides, with all remaining revenue used for essential operational costs. Any profit we make is directly reinvested back into the enterprise to engage more guides and widen our reach.

Loved by long-time Londoners and tourists alike, our tours shine light on the hidden gems and untold stories of London. Dedicated to changing public perceptions of homelessness, we offer public tours, and more bespoke walking tours tailored towards secondary schools and university groups, as well as team tours for organisations. We have tours operating in King’s Cross, London Bridge, Soho & St. Giles, Canning Town and Brick Lane, and would love to welcome you! 

Our Story… 

For over a decade, Unseen Tours has stood by our guides through thick and thin. Unseen Tours was born in 2010 from the inspiring work of The Sock Mob, a volunteer network that engages with men and women living on the streets of London. They use the ice-breaking power of a pair of warm socks to engage rough sleepers and other vulnerable groups. In this way, meaningful interactions are created between people from different walks of life. Unseen Tours took this model a step forward, by supporting vulnerably housed individuals to develop, curate, and lead guided walks to different neighbourhoods of London. Since the summer of 2010, we have worked with more than 27 guides and offered walks in eight different areas of the city. Each year, we run more than 500 walking tours.

Thank you!

We would love for you to be a part of our journey! Browse our rewards to help us reach our target. Gift cards will be sent via email within 72 hours of your donation. Rewards must be redeemed before August 2025.