Man sleeping in tent near Sainsbury's sets up makeshift living room

A pink-haired man sleeping in a tent near Sainsbury's has insisted he is 'houseless, not homeless' after setting up a makeshift living room with a 'Welcome' doormat, coffee table and stack of BBC Shakespeare DVDs.

People in the Nottinghamshire town of Beeston have been left bewildered and amazed all because one man has set up camp by the wall of a Sainsbury's supermarket.

The surroundings of a small, blue, one-man tent have been spruced up by a liberal and bohemian '60-or-thereabouts'-year-old man called JJ - the inhabitant - who said he set up camp about four weeks ago in the spot.

JJ was born in Oldham near Manchester but moved to Nottingham some years ago.

JJ said: 'I'm sorry but unfortunately I don't want a house. I've got a home,

'I'm houseless. But I'm not homeless. Because that's a home.'

The bohemian liberal said when he arrived he didn't have so much but that as time had gone on, his collection of belongings had grown and grown.

Some local business owners scattered within metres of his living quarters expressed contempt at his presence with one saying 'it's like a living room' in reference to the loud music-playing and drinking which goes on later in the evening.

This comes as other locals have made accusations of JJ and his 'people' using a nearby side-alley as an en-suite bathroom. 

JJ denied any wrongdoing and insisted he 'goes to Wetherspoons'.

He added: 'Eight am, it opens, I go for a number two and get a coffee. I don't do it anywhere else. That's not me. I'm a man and I'm proud and I've got more self respect than that - I will not do that on my own doorstep. If I need a wee in the middle of the night, I go round the corner and out of the way.

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'Alright, I have a pee. But I'm always hidden. No one sees anything. It's behind a damn bin. Look, we've all done it. We're lads. You've done it. 'Course you have. If you have to empty your bladder at 3am what do you do? Do you find somewhere that's open? There's nowhere. If you see a bloke having a pee, so what? It's not the end of the world. Get on with your damn day, for God's sake.'

Others in the area were more complimentary with one shop saying 'he's actually a really nice guy.'

They added: 'He comes in and buys coffee and he's quite friendly.'

JJ said he had accumulated an eclectic mix of mostly homeless companions adding they are all 'beautiful people' and together a 'small community'.

'I have friends and we drink. That's not excessive.

'We drink as much as anybody who goes to Wetherspoons, for goodness sake,' he said.

Previous stints on the street have led JJ to the Lace Market, on London Road and in Hockley - to which he returns three times a week to check old pals are 'still alive'.

In total, the nomadic soul said he had been on and off the streets for 40 years. 

He recounted a previous life as a lecturer, flying 'between continents' to teach in High Victorian Culture, Shakespeare, Jacobean Tragedy, Anglo-Saxon and Early Middle English.

JJ also referenced a stint as a bare-knuckle boxer in the eighties, and as a concert pianist before an elbow injury ended that.

Before Beeston, JJ was living in a private rented property, in Carlton. 

But he said he had got banned from the area for a crime he did not wish to go into the details of, and that he couldn't go back, so stopped paying rent and was told to get out.

He added there was no rush to find somewhere else: 'Look, if I get a place, it will be for my stuff.

'That's my life. But I would still sleep outside because I want to wake up and see that thing - it's called the sky. Not a blooming ceiling,' he said.

Heaps of possessions have been transported to the area in the meantime in the last few weeks by friends as JJ said he could not go to Carlton, and would send others in a taxi to collect what they could, and bring it back.

Furniture of his and antiques remain in the house but JJ lamented these would have to go and he would just buy them again as he had previously: 'It gets tiring,'

'Very tiring indeed,' he said.

The rack of DVDs can be identified as a boxset of BBC Shakespeare plays, on closer inspection.

JJ also said he had a number of sofa cushions 'for anybody else who might need it for the night,' and the ashes of his adopted 'nephew' Paul, who died in May, as well as other 'special stuff that nobody touches.'

CDs from classical composers and 'stuff until the nineties when I gave up on blooming music', as well as books - mostly poetry by Hardy are also in the camp.

These were kept on a bookshelf which JJ said 'came out of a damn skip' as he described himself as a 'skip rat'.

He pointed at some food items and a bottle of milk, refrigerating in the shade saying that was his 'larder'.

A shoe rack, cutlery, a bin - and a brush to sweep the area clean and on a little makeshift shelf, a can of deodorant and a toothbrush are other items that make up the camp.

When asked whether he brushed his teeth he said 'of course I do, I'm not a flipping tramp.'