Market trader Petticoat Lane c.1936
Jeanette Darrell on the beach at Southend with her parents, c.1954
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It took about ten years for my mum and dad to accept Noel. It took that long for them to get to know the person and not just see the black face.
Jeanette Darrell
He’s never been back from the time he left. He must have been settled and happy here.
Jeanette Darrell
The best job my brothers and I got was the building work. The paddy will always get the hard jobs. We worked in East London for the demolition. We stayed at the National Hostel, run by the government. That was strictly legit. Everything was clean, everything was above board, because inspectors would come down, and make sure they were not abusing whatever foreigners was there. So it was really good.
Shaun Mooney
Petticoat Lane, bagel seller c.1915
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I had to start learning English. How do you learn when you’ve got no money? You can’t go to school, so radio and newspapers are what youuse. I taught myself to read, write and speak sufficient English so people can understand me. Then I had to start going to work.
Lotte Tendler
Preparation for a Roman Catholic procession in Rook Street, Poplar c.1912
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There was a big Irish presence around Cuba Street and Manila Street on the Isle of Dogs. They used to take their front windows out, and decorate them with lace curtains and a photograph or painting of the Virgin Mary, Jesus with the bleeding heart, and religious statues. Then local priests used to come round and visit the shrines. There was great competition amongst the Irish families to see who would have the best shrine.
George Thurgar
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FACT: 3,000,000 of today’s Londoners were born in countries where English is not the first language.
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The Battle of Cable Street happened in the middle of a basic struggle that was taking place in the East End of London. There was the battle against unemployment, with millions of people out of work. There were hundreds and thousands of people that were living in over-crowded conditions in the East London area. It wasn’t merely a question of the Jews alone. The trade union and labour movement, the dockers and engineers and others, helped to ensure that the movement was not fragmented. This was what helped us to win the Battle of Cable Street, where the fascists couldn’t march through Cable Street and Whitechapel. At the end of it, the Blackshirts had to disperse on Tower Hill.
I was secretary of the Mile End branch of the Young Communists, and we went out early on that Sunday, October 4th 1936, in order to ensure that the barricades and everything went up around Gardeners Corner at the corner of Commercial Road.
Max Levitas
When I came to the East End I did find it difficult, because the cockney accent was so quick, almost too fast to understand. But I made plenty of friends, I was all right in that respect.
Margaret O’Carroll
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Police pursue anti-fascist protesters. The Battle of Cable Street, 1936.
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The Battle of Cable Street 1936. Attending to one of the injured.
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FACT: The first Act of Parliament on Migration was the Regulation of Aliens Act in 1793. This was in response to French Huguenots seeking refuge in England
from religious persecution.
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I found out who my real friends were when I started going out with Noel. My best friend got married, and I wasn’t invited to her wedding, because she didn’t want a black man in her wedding photos, so please herself. Gradually the friends drifted away. I found it a bit hurtful when my brother walked past the baby, in the pram. I didn’t think you could have got much lower than that. But it didn’t bother me, because I wanted to be with Noel. And my mum and dad were starting to accept him.
Jeanette Darrell
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 Jeanette Darrell on her 21st birthday and her son Junior’s christening the same day, 1971
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Russian shops protecting their interests from retaliation against Germans during the First World War. Corner of Solomans Lane and Commercial Road C.1915
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Its like a cycle. Lots of people moved out and now there’s lots of different people moving in. They say history repeats itself, because now we’re getting all the Polish and Russian people in that were exactly like my grandparents when they came at the beginning of the last century. But I must emphasise, when my grandparents came, there was no National Health, there was no Income Support. The rules were, you work, you eat, you don’t work, you don’t eat, and that’s when the community helped each other.
Marion Davies
Caroline Patterson, carer at Violet Court.
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I have two homes. I have two homes because when I’m here I’m home and when I go to Barbados I’m home. I like the idea that I can leave one home and go to the next and vice versa.
Caroline Patterson
I was born in Calcutta. The exact birth date is unknown because my parents came from Iraq, Baghdad to India. They were illiterate, they never ever spoke English and we spoke to them in Arabic. Fortunately, they were very good parents and they sent us to school and that’s where I became very ambitious to learn. I wanted to educate myself.
Tabitha Samuel
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I regard my community as everyone. I would consider meeting with and staying in touch with and mixing with everyone. My heart is where my children are.
Mrs Bharti |
Caribbean families waiting to go through customs at Southampton, c.1960
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I was about ten years old when my mother was coming to England from Barbados to join my father. She came here in 1964 and then afterwards, there were seven of us, she started to get us here one by one or sometimes two by two, because in those days £75 was a full fare to come to England. So if you could get your kids here early before they reach sixteen you only had to pay a half fare. By 1970 she had all seven of us here to join her.
Caroline Patterson
I found that coming to England you had more opportunity.
Caroline Patterson
It was nice moving from the country to a big city. What you never see, you see, what you never hear, you hear.
Wilmina Denys |
I was born in Brunswick in Germany. In 1938 we were arrested because we were Jews. We were transported to the border of Germany and Poland to an old army camp. I was there for seven and a half months. They gave us straw to lay on. They gave me three days to clear out through Germany to England, which I did. So I came here in May 1939.
Lotte Tendler
There were the skinheads down the road. They appeared to be not that friendly, but proved to be the opposite. They helped us. There was a skip outside the house, and we needed to move a lot of stuff. Dad ended up asking the skinhead boys to help. We’d always thought that they hated us, that they were racist. Then one day mum came back from the shops, and we were wondering how she managed to carry all those big shopping bags from Plaistow station. It was a skinhead down the road that had carried it for her.
Navjeet Bharti |
Lascar sailors from India and the East pull anchor on a British ship.
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Stepney was always a racial mix. In the 20s there was always what we called Lascars, they were the dark sailor people that came to live there.
Caroline Wheeler
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Aldo Caira in his barber’s shop in Plaistow.
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I came to London because of the condition in Italy. If you worked there for ten or twenty hours, you still earned the same. It was slavery in them days, so I decided to emigrate. By luck I had a relation, aunts and uncles that lived in London. I decided to open a shop for meself, got married, and I came here to Plaistow on the 1st of September 1968. Twenty days later my daughter was born.
Aldo Caira
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Lil Murley’s family. Mum & dad, 2 aunts, nan, uncle, and brother.
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I wanted to get away and get a bit of excitement. In Mayo it took two hours to get to town on a donkey and cart! The minute I got a chance to come here I came.
Lil Murley
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