STORY: Stefan Gordon spent three years in a homeless shelter in London after a family rift left him without a roof over his head.

Now he is using his past experience to tell the often hidden story of one of the capital's wealthiest areas...

...'through Unseen Tours, a charity that aims to reduce the stigma around homelessness.

“Well, my view of homelessness is, is a person without a home. And just because they don't have a home, well we can still do stuff.”

Unseen Tours' director of communication, Charlotte Cassedanne, said the guides research their own tours and can incorporate their personal stories into their walks.

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“Unlike other tour guiding companies, we don't use generic scripts again and again. We are really led by the people who have this lived experience of homelessness and they design the tours.”

Gordon, who is autistic, has been leading groups around Canary Wharf and West India Quay since February.

He gets paid 60% of the value of each ticket while the remainder is reinvested into Unseen Tours.

“Historically Canary Wharf was actually a very, very poor area with lots of poverty and lots of people used to sleep in lodging houses. And the hostel where I slept was an emergency lodging house. So I kind of related a lot to that. It was very, very tough back then. It's still tough now."