Current temperature in London:

An illustrated comic strip. Panel 1: An eclectic oil filled radiator, giving out heat. The text reads: “It’s so hard to stay warm in winter. I use an oil heater and just heat one room. Panel 2: The exterior of a house. The text reads: “I sometimes go and spend time in the house of someone I care for. Her house is always warm. Panel 3: Two stylised houses, one looks warm and one looks cold. The text reads: “It’s exhausting living between two homes. One warm, one cold.”
An illustration of an eclectic oil filled radiator, giving out heat. The text reads: “It’s so hard to stay warm in winter. I use an oil heater and just heat one room.An illustration of the exterior of a house. The text reads: “I sometimes go and spend time in the house of someone I care for. Her house is always warm.An illustration of two stylised houses, one looks warm and one looks cold. The text reads: “It’s exhausting living between two homes. One warm, one cold.”

Interview 21

person Participants: K lives between two homes – house 1 is the house of godmother who she cares for and house 2 is her daughter and grand daughter’s house
distance Location: Croydon
apartment Housing type: Semi-detached house
receipt_long Heating costs: £345/month

K lives between two houses and provides care in both. The first house is owned by S, who is 73 years old, and has her heating on at all times (her logic is that switching it on and off costs more money). This makes the home very cosy for K, who is happy to take care of S and in return, not worry about the heating bills. K also goes to the other house, where her daughter and granddaughter live, and here she uses a combi-boiler as well as an electric blanket and oil heaters as the current radiators are very old and need to be replaced.

Coldest memory?

It has to be the 1970s when we moved here and were not used to the severe cold weather and there was no heating. I remember the fires in the living room and then came the fan heaters and the hot water bottle.