In 1969, at a time when skyscrapers were not the usual backdrop of the London skyline, the Centre Point tower loomed large over the city. For years this building was left deliberately empty whilst the capital faced a housing crisis, and whilst petitions were made for tenants to rent single floors of the building, they were refused – with the developer holding out for a single tenant for the building instead.
That same year Reverend Kenneth Leech opened a night shelter for young people in the basement of his church in Soho, which sat in the shadow of what he called an “affront to the homeless”, and as such Centrepoint was born.
