Euston station to turn into a homeless shelter to feed hundreds on Christmas Day

Off-duty rail team will help to serve the festive spread

Euston's concourse will be considerably less crowded on Christmas Day (Simon Calder)

London’s Euston station will host 200 homeless people for dinner on Christmas Day.

Volunteers from Network Rail and charity workers will lay on a festive spread on the station’s concourse from 11am on 25 December, which will be decorated for the big day.

The guests have already been invited by homeless charities, St Mungo’s and Streets Kitchen.

“Working on Christmas Day is pretty much par for the course for many of us," said Steve Naybour, of Network Rail, adding: "This year, because I wasn’t scheduled to work, myself and a handful of colleagues came up with this plan to feed some of London’s homeless instead,"

Praising the charities for their help, he said that there had been "lots of interest" from his colleagues to "volunteer to come along on the day to help out."

He added: “All of this is possible due to great support from the station team, British Transport Police and local and national suppliers including the Pret Foundation Trust, Blacks outdoor clothing, Virgin Trains and Abellio.”

The 200 diners will be drawn from a number of London boroughs. Everything has been donated, Network Rail said.

“Many people become homeless because of relationship breakdowns so Christmas can be a particularly lonely time for some of our residents," said Beth Norden, of St Mungo’s.

Around 307,000 people are now categorised as homeless in Britain, housing charity Shelter said earlier this year.

This is roughly equivalent to the population of the city of Newcastle.