Nearly 5 million people over 45 in the UK live alone.

In the backstreets there are locals of a certain vintage living lonely lives. These are people who grew up a long time ago, playing amongst bombed-out houses in their youth – the gaping wounds of the Blitz amongst high rises still living in the shadow of the war. It’s so far removed from todays sanitised and ugly ‘Me Me Me’ culture. They see London through different eyes.

First they were dockers whose world fell apart, then it was boys on the print at Wapping. That went too. They lived in a world of black and white, scratching around trying to make a living in a collapsed London of 3-day weeks with a bleak future. Yet not long before they were told ‘Britain’s never had it so good’

Decades later, people in the autumn of their lives are marginalised, not marketed to and seen as a burden on the state. They are an invisible silent population but between the cracks they exist.

The only social outlet some have is the pub. Some go to the Darby & Joan but many just sit at home; isolated and forgotten. That’s no way to live and it pains me when an area doesn’t have a pub for them anymore.

The Carlton was the last in the area and whenever I used it old boys were predominantly the patrons. As it was unlawfully demolished it has had to be rebuilt as a pub. It is pleasing however, back on the market and there is great hope that an operator will take on the lease. During the time it has closed due to demolition, rebuild and its current state of flux the local area has been denied access to this vital community asset. A place they call home!

If pubs aren’t open people sit at home smashing cans in the dark, with only the cathode from the box projecting imaginary friends on the walls.

In the prime of life it’s easy to forget some people are painfully lonely and dislocated from society.

In a transient world, with family often displaced, one day that could be you with no support network.

A survey in 2019 found over ¾ of respondents – average age 63 - said they felt lonely and 71% said their family would be astounded to hear this.

Consider that the next time you encounter an old boy at a bar who is clingy and lingering a little too long after a casual polite exchange. Other than bar staff, you could be the only person he talks to all day