The last couple of posts remind me of when I worked for London
Underground in the seventies (for about six months). Part of my job
was to get rid of the buskers at the Leicester Sq. station, but as I
was learning the guitar at the time I spent more time getting songs
and chords off them any chance I could--I still have my London
Underground diary filled with song chords. I'd let them busk and
warn them if the station master was doing his rounds.

Many of the buskers drank in an Australian pub in Nottinghill called
the Black Swan, where they could get a few drinks for singing songs
on stage, and I'd arrange to meet them there, often turning up in
full uniform to frighten other buskers who weren't in the know!