We live in caves, makeshift sheds & freezing tents in UK’s second dearest city…we fear being killed as we sleep at night

BRISTOL is known for the Clifton Suspension Bridge, colourful rows of sumptuous houses and its imposing Cathedral. 

But the homeless crisis in the city has spiralled so far out of control people have resorted to living in CAVES in the woods.

But beneath the attractive tourist hotspots, the city has a devastatingly high number of homeless people struggling to survive sleeping on the streets.

The situation has become so dire, some of the people who’ve found themselves sleeping rough, have resorted to living in caves in the woodland overlooking the Avon Gorge.

The Sun paid a visit to one of the caves known to be used by homeless people.

The trek through woodland and onto the edge of a cliff was dangerous, past an open cavern, with narrow, steep footpaths leading to a cliff edge with a foot-wide path leading to the cave entrance.

An umbrella attached to a metal gate signalled we were in the right place, and a tour of the cave showed how clean and well-equipped the makeshift home is.

Just inside the mouth pots and pans hung neatly on a fence. Lower down a kitchen sink hung above a pool of water, with fabric pushed into one side, presumably to filter any debris from the water.

There is a kitchen area with shelves housing pottery, cups and jugs, iron grates to cook on, lanterns and candles. Piles of firewood are kept in the outer edges in the drier areas of the floor. There is a notable absence of any litter and, poignantly, a child’s polar bear teddy sits on a rock.

At the rear of the cave is a two-person tent, which looks unused.

One man, who has slept in the cave on and off for six or seven years, gave an interview to a YouTuber known as Joe Fish and explained he was a former outdoors pursuits trainer before becoming homeless.

He said: “People have this idea that the system sorts it all out…but if you don’t have an addiction, a disability or you can’t be classified as having a mental health issue, you can’t get anything sorted.

“I’ve got mountaineering experience from around the world, people come out (to the caves) and think it’s brilliant. It’s alright until suddenly it becomes winter.

“I don’t stay here all the time but I do pop back, stay here for a bit, see some people I know and generally take care of the place.

“It’s a bit of a trek in. The average person would have problems, you don’t want to be so far out that you become disjointed from society, but at the same time you need somewhere out of the way, so you have your own space.”

Lost everything

Several decades ago in the 1950s a community mainly made up of veterans of World War II inhabited the woodlands and many caves around the Avon Gorge.

Today Bristol has the third highest concentration of homeless people than any other city in the UK and is the second most expensive city to live in Britain, after London, according to 2023 figures.

Lee Griffiths, 49, was 13 years sober when he was dealt a devastating blow with news from his parents.

The breakdown that followed cost him everything and he found himself homeless.

Ironically, he said he was working in the mental health sector, supporting people in the position he now finds himself in.

He invited us to film him as he smoked the crack pipe he is now addicted to.

Lee said: “I’m a qualified mental health worker. Mad, isn’t it? I found out in the same week my mum and dad both had terminal cancer.

“I had a mental breakdown and lost my job, lost my house – everything. 

“I’ve been on the streets for about three years now and to survive I beg, borrow and steal. When you’ve got to survive you lost all morals.

“I’ve never robbed anyone, but steal from shops like Tesco, Morrisons. I steal every day from them.

This is my life and I’m not ashamed of it

Lee, 49

“I beg, but I don’t ask anyone for nothing. I sit up against a shop and if people give me things, they give me things.

“People won’t speak very often and it’s hard, but this is my life and I’m not ashamed of it.”

Lee typically sleeps in garages or flats, if he can ‘get in’.

He has friends who sleep in caves in the nearby Leigh Woods, which stretches from the end of the Clifton Suspension Bridge along the side of the River Avon Gorge.

He says some also pitch tents in the dense, 2km square woodland area, which is on the South West side of the river, opposite the posh Avon Gorge Hotel on the edge of the affluent Clifton Village area of Bristol.

Lee said: “The way it is, I’ve got to get myself out of this situation. The government or the council won’t help me.”

Shanty town

One homeless woman was looking for cigarette ends she could smoke as she waited on the pavement by a building offering ‘free tents’, near the Jamaica Street Project, which houses the homeless.

Kiran Anwar, 39, says: “I was thinking about getting a tent and going out in the country, the One25 (a women’s charity) gives us help with clothes and showers.

“There’s a bakery on the corner and they’re a godsend to me. They put out a bargain basket which is a £1 and they let me just take one thing. There’s a lot of community support. There’s also a vegan place where they give me coffee.

“My parents gave me a great upbringing but I became homeless when I was evicted from a shared council property for something I didn’t do.

“I want to save some money to go and see my son who lives in Manchester, he’s 19. I also have a daughter who lives with my mother.

“My partner died ten years ago so things have been tough since then. 

“I’ve been attacked a couple of times and had cash taken off me. Someone was following me and took me to the ground and stole my money.

“Recently I was sticking up for a friend because they were trying to take her money and someone smashed my nose into the shop, but luckily the police were there to stop it.

“To get a bed for the night it costs £15 or £20. I get the money but it’s embarrassing. I just ask people for change or beg. I could shoplift, lots of people do it, but I use the places which are there to help.”

Closer to the city centre, workers on their lunch breaks and groups of friends basked in the sunshine on the grass at Castle Park.

But around the edges of the park rough sleepers had pitched tents to shield them from the cold evenings and rainy autumnal weather.

At one entrance to the park, a disused car park housed a makeshift shed made out of pallets, which appeared to be home to an older gentleman who sat drinking and shouting to himself nearby.

Stabbing terror

Fellow street dweller Shelby Torr turned to heroin at the age of 14, and has been homeless ever since. This year he suffered an attack by a gang of young men.

Now, 43, he says: “I got stabbed in the back with a knife earlier this year, which hit an artery and punctured my lung, and I was lucky to live.

“They hit me with crash helmets as well and broke my jaw. It was caught on camera and one of them got eight years in jail.

“I was in a coma for a week in intensive care before doctors bought me round. 

“I sleep on the street every night but everyone’s got knives now so I worry I’m going to be stabbed while I’m asleep and I’ve been threatened by a gang of kids that they’ll set me on fire.

“My tent got burnt down in Castle Park, luckily, I wasn’t in it. It’s dangerous on the streets but I prefer to stay in town, although I know people do camp in the woods and on the [Clifton and Durdle] Downs.

“I’m banned from the hostel because someone attacked me with a D-lock so I hit him with it, someone tried to attack me with a knife too.”

We have all this empty land…but we’re not using it

Joe, 34

Joe, 34, left home at 16 after turning to drink and drugs.

He camps in the city centre, on the pavement, away from the areas popular with the rest of the homeless community.

“I prefer to stay away from the rest of them. Fights break out and I prefer to be on my own.

“You also get trouble from the drunks on a weekend but that’s what you have to deal with.

“I could get a bed but I’m used to living outdoors now. I’m a drug addict and I get money from shoplifting, begging and drugs.

“There should be a place where there should be caravans and tents in Bristol. We have all this empty land but we’re not using it.”

Bristol City Council did not respond to our request for a comment.