Drugs & Poo
I love Tottenham Court Road underpass. It's clean, fresh, and well maintained by Camden Council.

Acually, no it isn't. It stinks of piss, is generally flooded by some grotty substance or other, and the ceiling leaks.

I walk through it every morning, and usually 2 mornings out of 5 there'll be a group of crackheads hanging around. Sometimes they beg for a bit of money, sometimes they will be walking around in a blank-eyed state, sometimes they will even stand and have extremely loud and in some cases violent arguments about who owes who what for what (in all cases, I suddenly become very interested in my shoes, for some reason).

But, more than the above, you'll see a group of people huddled around a crack pipe at half past eight in the morning... Squatting in the rivers of urine and taking that horrible, acrid smoke deep in to their lungs, before collapsing backwards in to catatonia.

I know that their lives must be horrible, and God knows that an addiction to crack must be one of the toughest things imaginable to kick, and I know that my life is positively top-notch compared to theirs, and yet every time I walk past and see this, I can't help but think

"yes, but isn't it a bit early for crack?"

The other morning, one of them had a poo on the steps that go up to New Oxford Street.
( Devil_In_Tights the *real* DiT!, Mon 18 Feb 2008, 16:17, 16 replies)

ROFL while clicking
So very, very true.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Mon 18 Feb 2008, 16:19, closed)

wonderful
thats a click just for the title. Two of my favourite topics of conversation.
(Bazongaloid, Mon 18 Feb 2008, 16:21, closed)

clicky
just for the oh-so-British attitude.

I agree that only an uncivilised dog of the most unwashed ilk would succumb to crack BEFORE breakfast.
(Greencloud Wanted to go fishing on, Mon 18 Feb 2008, 16:25, closed)

I know the group of which you speak
I also used to go through Tott. Court Road at around 8.30am every day to get to work, it's a horrible place. Later in the day, the junkies would relocate to the paved area in front of my office (where I used to work with the lovely Grandmasterfluffles before I quit), and spend the day sleeping, squabbling, begging and waiting to meet their dealer. Occasionally they'd get abusive if we refused to give them money. They were the least subtle junkies I've ever seen: from our 1st floor window, we could practically see down their crack pipe as they huddled in the phonebox on the pretext of making a call. It was really quite sad to see them like this, day after day.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and one day one of them just pissed himself as he lay on the ground, he couldn't get the energy together to even sit up.
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Mon 18 Feb 2008, 16:26, closed)

Agreed to the pre brekkie crack consumption.
At least wait until brunch!
(Bear Pookie The Frankly Challenged. Halloween is coming to town., Mon 18 Feb 2008, 16:48, closed)

A bit of advice for would-be drug addicts
Do not start taking a drug that's named after part of your arse.

That is all.

*click*
( Scaryduck LIKES EGG, Mon 18 Feb 2008, 16:54, closed)

But it's ALWAYS crack o' clock!

(LordMatthius http://www.justgiving.com/marathon-matt2009, Mon 18 Feb 2008, 17:18, closed)

Sun over the yard arm?
(which is lying broken on the floor so technically it is at sun-up)

Break out the pipe & rocks! I think the '06 this morning Jeeves, it's so...more-ish....

Crack. Ugly, horrible, nasty thing. Bleugh.
( Fathter Puddytat Kill Kill dat widdle boid is mine on, Mon 18 Feb 2008, 17:51, closed)

Crack clown video.
I watched some 'Yoof TV' type magazine show ages ago where they were reviewing a video/dvd of some crackhead making a fool of himself for rocks.
They showed a clip where he was cuffed to a signpost by the ankle and stretching out for a rock that was out of his reach, among other things. It was a bit sadistic but pretty funny.

Has anyone the foggiest idea what I'm on about - I'm losing track myself, it must be time for another rock!
(Greencloud Wanted to go fishing on, Mon 18 Feb 2008, 18:03, closed)

That's exactly why
I never walk through that particular underpass. Yuk.
( Afinkawan Yes I can hear you Clem Fandango, Mon 18 Feb 2008, 19:56, closed)

Underpasses
are made for peeps to squat in filth. Sad but true.
(Bear Pookie The Frankly Challenged. Halloween is coming to town., Mon 18 Feb 2008, 20:15, closed)

Chester has some horrible underpasses too
There's a network of them that don't really go anywhere.

There's even a nice little park/wasteland thing in the middle of them. Exclusively for the use of crackheads, it seems.

A friend of mine got headbutted by a crackhead down there. He was trying to steal a Mars Bar off my mate. Didn't get it, though. :)
(pharmatron Death or Scunthorpe? CHOOSE!!, Mon 18 Feb 2008, 21:18, closed)

Why build
parks in underpasses?
Sitting in the middle of a maze of noisy, polluted roads. Lovely!
(Bear Pookie The Frankly Challenged. Halloween is coming to town., Mon 18 Feb 2008, 21:33, closed)

Amusingly enough
underpasses, well, under bridges and arches have ALWAYS been this grim. The triumphal arch in ancient Rome was plagued by scum and prostitutes, and became synonymous with vice. The old latin word for an arch is 'fornix' - and yes, this is where the word fornication comes from. The association was so strong that when the next triumphal arch was built it was called an 'arcus' or a bow (like a rainbow - aww) by the authorities - hence the word we use today - arch! Mmmm, ancient rebranding...
( Hampster Squared has stuff at www.tilla.co.uk, Mon 18 Feb 2008, 22:42, closed)

@ bearpookie
I'm not sure, really. I have wondered.

Presumably so smack heads have somewhere to do smack?

It's all very odd.
(pharmatron Death or Scunthorpe? CHOOSE!!, Mon 18 Feb 2008, 23:45, closed)

I work near there
and a few months back, I was having a fag with a colleague when a man asked to borrow my mate's lighter.

He gave it to him, and the man proceeded to start toking on a crack pipe madefrom a plastic Smirnoff minature bottle.

We started to shuffle away, and my friend decided to ask for his lighter back...

He didn't get it back.

There's never a copper around when you need one
( Joe Scaramanga with a G-double-O-D vibration, Tue 19 Feb 2008, 8:50, closed)