One Saturday afternoon in September last year, Nino, a regular busker around the city of Greenwich, was singing in his usual spot by Cutty Sark when he was approached by a civil enforcement officer.

“They walk around with, like red shirts, and they have body-worn cameras and stuff,” Nino said. “You can’t busk here without a license,” they told him.

Nino asked when this was introduced, and they said it was officially implemented three or four days ago. The enforcement officer asked him to move along unless he could show he had a license and an allocated time slot booked in that spot.

Nino offered to apply for this there and then. “I’ve got my mobile phone on me, so I’ll do it right now,” he told the officer.

But it’s not that simple. To apply for a license, you need proof of ID, a passport, and public liability insurance of up to two million pounds. Nino looked directly at the officer’s body-worn camera and explained how unreasonable it was to introduce a scheme without any notice, and then enforce it before people had had a chance to apply for it. He did not want to make a scene, so he started to pack away his equipment. The crowd of people Nino had attracted with his singing got quite upset. They told Nino: “Well, we’re really enjoying it!” Nino had to then explained what he had just been been told. “Some people get quite aggressive with these officials,” he said. 

Nino has been busking for two years as a way to make some extra cash outside his day job doing what he enjoys the most – music. “I started busking, as much as anything, for my mental health, to get out, and kind of, you know, do what I enjoy doing,” Nino told South London Lines.

Before he began busking, he played small gigs in bars and pubs around London prior to Lockdown, but when these were shut, Nino took to sharing his passion and love for music to the streets. Unsurprisingly, Nino said: “I found I got really good response… people just really appreciated the ability to be able to hear live music. And so, you know, got a lot of encouragement and stuff, and I enjoyed it, and people seem to appreciate it.” I nod in agreement, thinking: yes, I do appreciate buskers who share their talent and music on the streets for us all to enjoy when out and about, either running errands, passing by on the way to work, or even just enjoying the city atmosphere. Don’t we all? 

“The idea of busking is it’s a kind of, like, spontaneous, unregulated activities,” Nino said.

“The entire tradition of this practice gets completely stripped away when councils come in, and introduce regulations, causing restrictions to a culture built around freedom in a community.

“This is not just something that has been introduced by Greenwich council either.

“There’s been a trend across London that there are now about three or four boroughs that have introduced a licensing scheme.” 

“So much for centuries of people just spontaneously performing on the street, to entertain, and to, obviously, earn a bit of an income,” said Nino.

The busker explained that he was part of the Musicians’ Union therefore he had the insurance and references required. But for the majority of people who use busking as a way to earn a bit of extra cash, this isn’t so easy. Nino told me that the fee for a six-month license is £30 and buskers would have to reapply after half a year.

After weeks of waiting and chasing, being told the payment system is down, Nino finally got his license.  Nino said he was quite lucky – he did not rely on busking as his main source of income and mainly did this for fun. But for others, this could be an important source of income, and for people who rely on this, £30 every 6 months, is a lot of money, especially during the cost of living crisis. Not only that, but these people may not have a passport and insurance, let alone a reference. All these restrictions, as Nino put it, are “basically British Council saying, look, we’d prefer people not to busk so we’re going to make the system as difficult as possible to try and deter people from busking.”