Fitzrovia coffee shop lets you donate a drink to a homeless person

A Fitzrovia coffee shop is allowing customers to buy discounted hot drinks and pass them on to a homeless person in need.

Black Sheep Coffee has put up a 'free coffee board' outside its store, and offers customers the option to buy an additional drink for half price when they get their coffee. They can then put a post-it note up on the board for a homeless person to take and redeem a free hot drink.

The shop owners said that as well as giving a homeless person something to drink, the idea is that the project will also provide an opportunity for some social contact, to help with loneliness and isolation.

Since putting up the board last week, they said a number of homeless people in the area have now become regulars at the shop, and they have now expanded it to their Aldgate branch as well.