Our Story

ShowerBox was born out of the human need to feel good and lead a safe life.

I’m Sarah Lamptey, a former volunteer for various homeless organisations and the founder of ShowerBox. ShowerBox was born from a conversation I had with a guest at a winter shelter a few years ago. I was told of the huge need for showers in London, as they have in other parts of the world, indeed, as they used to have here. I published an article on this on HuffPost in July 2018, after thinking about how powerfully transformative a shower can be and the positive impact of feeling good about yourself, both physically and mentally.

Whilst researching the HuffPost article, I met Andrew McLeay, who runs the Ealing Soup Kitchen. He told me that he’d known of individuals who had passed away from preventable illnesses on the streets, simply because of an inability to get clean. Other homelessness workers discussed the stigma received in public by individuals being unable to maintain good personal hygiene. There have been free and low-cost public showers across Europe for decades and a small number of mobile showering facilities have launched across America. Closer to home, since the Ealing Soup Kitchen installed a shower in 2017, guest numbers tripled in size in the first two years.

I wanted to help. After a successful fundraising campaign thanks to many generous donors, I was able to buy an old shower trailer and renovate it. For a week over the Christmas period of 2018, the ShowerBox trailer was in residence at the American International Church winter shelter, giving showers to 20 guests. Since then, it has serviced winter shelters across London and in 2019, myself and a small group of volunteers began a weekly shower service at St Giles Church, near Tottenham Court Road tube station. Fast forward eight years, and one four-bay shower trailer later, a much larger group of volunteers and myself offer showers, toiletries, hot drinks and other essentials to around 300 – 350 guests each session.

In April 2024, we launched our Birmingham shower service, from our converted shower van. Every Tuesday, our group of volunteers run the showers next to St. Philip’s Cathedral in Central Birmingham, and we now welcome over 70 individuals for showers, underwear and toiletries. We have had guests who have showered with us each week since we began. 

At the end of 2024, we launched our third service and our first ever static shower unit, in partnership with London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and Barking Churches Unite. Each Friday, our guests come to shower at our double shower unit just behind Barking Learning Centre.

When guests leave our showers, talking of feeling “human again”, and ”alive again”, our resolve to support as many people as we can grows even stronger.