Happy 30th birthday to us!

Thirty years after vendors first got a hand up from The Big Issue we look back on what’s been achieved since September 1991. Over 220 million magazines have been sold since we first hit the streets. If you stacked them on top of each other that would reach far beyond the International Space Station – end to end they’d travel one and a half times around the planet!

30 moments that made us

Take as trip back in time as we look back on the significant moments that defined The Big Issue. From being namechecked by Oasis to a street cat joining his owner on his pitch, it’s been quite a journey.

Why don’t the homeless just go home?

Our first cover asked this question. Its writer Nick Hardwick was director of homelessness charity Centrepoint in 1991 and we caught up with him to find out what he thinks has changed – or not – in the last three decades.

I was a Big Issue vendor, now I’m a…

Over 105,000 people have sold The Big Issue since 1991, each with their own personal story and unique circumstances. Many used us as a stepping stone to move onto other things and we profile some of them. There’s senior firefighter and our ambassador Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, furniture restorers, theatre director and the former vendor who not only became “London’s happiest bus driver” but is now bringing clean drinking water to Nigeria.

What The Big Issue means to me

Famous faces have their say about how The Big Issue has impacted their life – from Benedict Cumberbatch to Aisling Bea, politicians to charity chiefs.

Monica in London

For this week’s My Pitch we speak to Monica who, like the magazine, has turned 30 this year.

These are just a few of the highlights in this birthday magazine. Next week to continue the celebrations we let vendors themselves take charge of the magazine with all of the content coming from them!

Please support your local Big Issue vendor on their pitches in England, Scotland and Wales. If you cannot reach local your vendor, you can still click HERE to subscribe to The Big Issue today or give a gift subscription to a friend or family member. You can also purchase one-off issues from The Big Issue Shop or The Big Issue app, available now from the App Store or Google Play.