Floating family: navigating childhood growing up on a boat in South London
Growing up on a boat in South London
There is a shift within childhood, where you transition from carefree happiness and uninhibited self-expression to a heightened awareness of your surroundings, where children often begin to present this common desire to fit in. As a child, I vividly recall the beginning of this “awareness”, which was projected in shame and embarrassment of how and where I lived. For the first 18 years, my childhood was spent on a 20-foot fishing boat west of London.
I now write this at 23, having graduated from University and moved back home like many graduates struggling to afford otherwise. Having spent the past four years away from the only life I knew, I feel a sense of retrospect towards this life and the upbringing I experienced.