‘It’s draconian’: Outrage as TfL bans busking for 10 days during national mourning for the Queen

Self-employed musicians say they have ‘effectively been forced to take 10 days’ unpaid leave’

Musicians have reacted with outrage after being banned from busking across Transport for London’s network while the nation mourns the Queen’s death (Wilfy Williams/Matthew Speed)

Musicians have reacted with outrage after being banned from busking across Transport for London (TfL)’s network while the nation mourns the Queen’s death.

Licensed buskers will be unable to entertain passengers on the London Underground or in TfL-run railway stations until the 10-day period of national mourning ends.

Several have hit out at the decision, which comes as many are still recovering from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and struggling amid the current cost-of-living crisis.

Author Philip Pullman also added his voice to those publicly criticising the move, writing on Twitter: “What a miserable, mean cast of mind this reveals.”

Singer-songwriter Wilfy Williams, who once played at a garden party hosted by King Charles, slammed the measure as “draconian” and suggested the new monarch and the late Queen would not have endorsed it.

He told The Independent: “They haven’t taken us into any account as buskers. By shutting the scheme, we’re 300 self-employed buskers so we’ve got to take 10 days now without any money basically.

“I mean the cost of living… food’s gone up tenfold, heating your home’s gone up.

“It feels very draconian and, as Philip Pullman said, it’s mean spirited. I can’t believe the Queen would want that.”

The musician said the 300 licensed buskers signed up to the London Underground busking scheme received an email at 6.30pm on Friday informing them of the temporary ban.

Have you been affected by TfL’s temporary busking ban? Get in touch at chiara.giordano@independent.co.uk

“At first it was just the weekend, which we all understood,” he said.

He added: “Everyone is really cross about it, it’s just…you just can’t do that to people. Are they going to pay our wages? No.”

Busker Wilfy Williams slammed the “draconian” measure and suggested it would not have been endorsed by King Charles or the late Queen (Wilfy Williams)

Benjamin Teacher, who was invited to join Coldplay onstage at Wembley Stadium last month after frontman Chris Martin saw a video of him performing one of their songs, said he hoped TfL would reconsider their decision.

The 38-year-old, who relies on busking as his sole means of providing for his family, told The Independent: “Not just being a busker, but being a physically disabled and legally blind busker, it [the ban] is definitely going to be challenging.

“I’m in a personal position where I’m unable to acquire any other employment given my disabilities so I solely rely on busking to be able to provide and survive.

“It’s a very unfortunate and yet very delicate situation given this is a very sad and deeply tragic time for our country.

“But we don’t really understand why this has happened because the only sole reason we were given for this was a fear of overcrowding at Tube stations but, while that’s understandable, we’ve busked throughout large-scale events such as the Olympic Games and European Championship finals and were able to perform throughout those without any issue.

“I’ve always been appreciative to TfL for the busking scheme but this seems like a knee-jerk reaction.”

The musician said he would understand if busking pitches at specific stations such as Green Park and Westminster were suspended during the period of mourning as they were more likely to be overcrowded.

Musician Benjamin Teacher, who is physically disabled and legally blind, relies on busking at London Underground stations to provide for his family (Matthew Speed)

“I’m just hopeful we can come to a resolution because TfL management have always been good to us,” he added.

Another busker, who goes by the pseudonym Miles Mavis, said: “When the ban was supposed to be just for a weekend initially, I think most of the buskers were disappointed but understanding and it seemed in line with some of the other elements of the entertainment industry.

“But then we got another email that same night to say the scheme was going to be closed until after the Queen’s funeral.

“It just doesn’t seem to have any logical sense; they were talking about crowd numbers but we were allowed to play during the Queen’s Jubilee and during the Olympics so I didn’t think it was in line with that.”

The 32-year-old, who has a young child, said he relied on busking as a major part of his income.

“For me personally, it’s a massive part of my income, sometimes more than half, it depends on the week, so I’ve just lost 60-70 per cent of my income for this weekend and I obviously didn’t have a plan for this so I’m just kind of sitting at home now,” he said.

“As self-employed musicians we’ve effectively been forced to take 10 days’ unpaid leave.”

Twitter user @orpheuscat wrote: “Please @TfL review your decision to suspend the busking scheme for the next 10 days. Buskers are grieving too, and are experts at reading the room - or tunnels - and it’s a long hard winter ahead.”

Matt Jones said: “I’m a busker on the London Underground with a daughter to support and rent and bills to pay.

“More than quarter of my monthly income gone, along with many others. Doubt her Maj would have approved.”

TfL confirmed the busking suspension would affect underground and railway stations throughout the period of national mourning, which will end after the Queen’s funeral on 19 September.

A spokesperson told The Independent: “During the period of national mourning, we have taken the decision to pause the busking scheme across our network, and we will reopen the scheme following this.”