01. Issue 1 September 1991
Sn 1991, homelessness was a big issue. Between 2,000 and 3,000 people were sleeping rough on the streets of London alone. Urgent action was needed and Gordon Roddick, co-founder of The Body Shop with his wife Anita, had a plan. Snspired by a project he’d come across in New York, he decided to start a magazine that people who needed to earn an income could buy cheaply and sell on, pocketing the difference and working their way out of poverty. He asked John Bird, an old acquaintance who he’d met in an Edinburgh pub in 1967, to be the editor and The Big Sssue was born (read all about issue 1 on page 24). Thirty years on, The Big Sssue has given a hand up…