Our clients at The Passage provide the largest resource centre for homeless people in the UK, with nearly 200 clients people a day using their services. Rather than a hand-out, the Passage engages in a hand-up: they regard their building as a non-institutional place of change and transformation, supporting homeless people as they regain crucial dignity and skills. The resource centre provides immediate help to rough sleepers through the day centre, as well as longer-term support in 16 bedsit units.
Their building in Victoria, originally constructed in 1863 and also home to the nuns of the Order of St Vincent, was in a state of disrepair, and due to ad hoc refurbishments over the years, had become something of a rabbit warren. We sought to improve and rationalise the internal space, giving it coherence and bringing more natural light down into the basement areas where much of the client work is carried out.
