Museum of Homelessness (New Exhibition 2026)

Criminal: An Untold History of Homelessness, Resistance and Survival, is FREE to the public 3 days a week for 10 weeks only; 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 resistance, with Surfing Sofas Publishing House offering people an alternative to social media. Examples of how people are challenging homelessness and housing injustice today from around the world will provide inspiration. Crucially, we will share how people have resisted criminalisation. Featuring some of the UK’s foremost activists and artists, Criminal will give both the facts and the feelings and will tell you what is really going on both in the past and now.