Black London E-Book

Avril Nanton

• Herausgeber: Old Pond Books
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Seitenzahl: 191

Beschreibung

Discover the people, places, and landmarks that have rewritten history! Black London is a complete guide that shines a new and much-needed light on the rich Black history of London's inhabitants and beyond. From Cleopatra's Needle on the Victoria Embankment, the Nelson Mandela Statue in Parliament Square, and the Stuart Hall Library in Westminster to the Memorial Gates in Constitution Hill, the Wayne Marques corbel on the London Bridge, the Black Lives Matter mural in Woolwich, and so much more. This must-have travel guide showcases over 120 historical sites worth visiting and revisiting. Author Avril Nanton is a qualified London tour guide and Black history historian. Jody Burton is a librarian and bibliophile with a particular interest in Black history and art.

Leseprobe

BLACKLONDON

Avril Nanton & Jody Burton

First published in Great Britain in 2021 by Inkspire

Inkspire is an imprint of Fox Chapel Publishers International Ltd. 3 The Bridle Way, Selsey, Chichester, PO20 0RS

Project Team

Publisher: Helen Brocklehurst

Designer: Tom Whitlock

Editor: Nick Fawcett

Proofreader: Katie Stockermans

Maps: Lovell Johns

Text copyright © 2021 Avril Nanton and Jody Burton Maps copyright © Fox Chapel Publishers International Ltd. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Fox Chapel Publishers International Ltd, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.

ISBN 978-1-913-61819-3eBook ISBN 978-1-913-61820-9

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from The British Library

Cover design: Tom Whitlock

Standing on giants’ shoulders

CONTENTS

Welcome to Black London

London Plaques

Black History Timeline

London’s Black Events

Central and East London

West London

North London

South London

South-East London

Further Information

Index

WELCOME TO BLACK LONDON

London has a rich multicultural history of which we should all be proud. Historically, black people have been here for a very long time. Royal ‘blacke trumpeter’ John Blanke, for example, arrived in Britain as part of the entourage of Katherine of Aragon in the early years of the sixteenth century.

This book is a historical guide to black global history in London, as well as a compendium of information about things to see, from Cleopatra’s Needle dating as far back as 1460 BCE, to the Black Lives Matter mural painted in Woolwich in 2020, which celebrates familiar heroes such as Mary Seacole, Ignatius Sancho and Marcus Garvey, and highlights other people, places and events that deserve wider recognition. There are also stories in these pages of black and white resistance and the struggle for freedom and equality, ranging from the Sons of Africa and Granville Sharp in the sixteenth century, to race protests in the twentieth century. Learn the stories behind the plaques, monuments, murals, statues and artworks.

London’s role as a Roman colony and Britain’s later role in world trade enslavement during its Empire period have, in turn, made the UK a diverse land and London a global city. These connected histories are reflected in the city’s place names, statues and other historical artefacts and landmarks, illustrating the diversity of an all too rarely told British history that stretches back long before the arrival of the ship HMT (His Majesty’s Transport) Empire Windrush in 1948. Windrush is an important chapter in black Britain’s history and heritage. It marks the commencement of modern black Britain.

To cover this vibrant history, we have arranged the key London boroughs into five areas. Some are particularly rich in black history and others less so. Evidence of the black presence is particularly abundant in central London, the East End, Brixton, Tottenham and Notting Hill. Each of these neighbourhoods has a particular history, links to the black community and layers to the past. Ultimately, the landmarks, people and places you will read about here demonstrate the significant black contribution in shaping London’s history.

HISTORY OF THE SHIP HMT EMPIRE WINDRUSH

In 1930 the Motor Vessel Monte Rosa was launched as a passenger liner and cruise ship in Germany. Owned and operated by the German shipping line Hamburg Süd, she was used during the Second World War as a troopship by the German navy. Subsequently, the British took the ship as a prize for defeating the Germans. They decided to name it the Empire Windrush and continued to use it as a troopship. Operated for the British government by the New Zealand Shipping Company, the ship docked at Kingston, Jamaica, on 24 May 1948 only to pick up servicemen who were on leave, but people from all over the Caribbean had heard about its arrival and many had purchased tickets to England. Having heard so much about the UK, they wanted to see what the Mother Country looked like, so by the time the ship left Jamaica it was packed not only with returning servicemen but with citizens (the British Nationality Act 1948, according citizenship to all British subjects with links to the United Kingdom or a British colony, was going through Parliament at the time) who were curious, seeking adventure and looking for work.

The ship finally arrived in the UK on 21 June 1948, docking at Tilbury, but the passengers were not allowed to disembark until the next day as it was so late. Of the 1,027 onboard, 802 gave the Caribbean as their last place of residence, although the official figure was recorded as 492. The majority of passengers were men. Eighty-six were children aged 12 and under.

Nearly 16 years later, in what proved to be the final journey of the HMT Empire Windrush, an explosion and fierce fire in the engine room killed four crew members as the ship was travelling from Hong Kong to Britain in 1954. The ship sank but the remaining crew and passengers were all rescued.

LONDON PLAQUES

Plaques serve as important historical markers. They are permanent signs in public places commemorating noteworthy people, organisations and events linked to that location. The sites generally relate to a birthplace, residence, workplace or occasionally place of death. The signs can be made of ceramic, stone, metal or other materials.

Familiar to most will be the celebrated blue plaque scheme - the oldest plaque system in the world - inaugurated by the Society of Arts in 1867. After subsequently being administered by the London County Council and then Greater London Council, responsibility for the scheme was taken on by English Heritage in 1986. An important criterion for English Heritage, which oversees the scheme via a committee, is that the nominated person must have been dead for at least 20 years. In 2016 the organisation launched a diversity initiative to address the lack of plaques commemorating those from an African Caribbean and Asian heritage. Two black male trustees joined the charity’s board in 2018: Kunle Olulode, director of Voice4Change and a national advocate for the black and minority ethnic voluntary and community sector; and David Olusoga, historian, broadcaster and film-maker.

Most London boroughs have their own schemes and many are voted for by the public. Their plaques come in a variety of colours, blue being the predominate choice, but also including green in Islington and brown in Camden and Hackney. Unlike those of English Heritage, Southwark Heritage Association’s plaques - which are also blue - commemorate living people.

Since 2004, the Nubian Jak Community Trust, headed by Jak Beula, has recognised the contribution of important black figures and raised the awareness of black history in Britain through its commemorative plaque and sculpture scheme. The trust works in collaboration with local boroughs and organisations, its plaques recognising past and living people as well as events.

In 2016 historian David Olusoga presented A Forgotten History, part of the BBC’s Black and British season that highlighted local and global black history. A number of Black History Project plaques were unveiled in London, elsewhere in the UK and across former British colonies and the Commonwealth.

TIMELINE

Before the Common Era (BCE)

1460 BCE

– The Obelisk is carved in Egypt. In 1878 it is moved to London’s Victoria Embankment, flanked by two faux sphinxes. It becomes known as ‘Cleopatra’s Needle’.

Enlightenment

1492

– Christopher Columbus lands in the Caribbean. Britain and Europe wage a continuous battle for control and colonisation of these lands. The native Amerindian population, including the Taino, Arawaks and Caribs, is virtually annihilated. However, some native people still survive in the Caribbean. Dominica has a territory inhabited by the Kalinago – formerly known as Carib Indians – and the Jamaican Coat of Arms depicts a male and female Taino.

Tudor

1511

– John Blanke is a court trumpeter to King Henry VII and Henry VIII.

1562

– Merchant John Hawkins makes the first slave voyage to the Guinea coast, in Africa, sponsored by Queen Elizabeth I.

1578

– England grants Sir Humphrey Gilbert a patent to explore and colonise North America.

1579

– English navigator Francis Drake lands on the coast of California at Drakes Bay, and names it ‘New Albion’.

1587

– Walter Raleigh names land in North America ‘Virginia’ in honour of Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen.

1601

– Queen Elizabeth I issues a proclamation ordering the expulsion of black settlers from England.

Stuart

1604

–Othello, by William Shakespeare, is first performed.

1619

– The first enslaved African is taken to the British colony of Virginia, USA. The 13 British colonies are established using African enslaved labour. The country’s native American Indians are decimated and forced out on to reservations.

1655

– Britain claims Jamaica from the Spanish. It establishes a settlement and develops its lucrative sugar plantations.

1660

– The Royal African Company is formed by the Crown and London merchants to exploit gold fields in Africa. It also monopolises slavery in the Gold Coast and goes on to ship more African people to the Americas than any other institution in the history of the Atlantic enslavement era.

1662

100 years of the British enslavement trade.

1698-1720

– London becomes the leading slave port in Britain, followed by Bristol and Liverpool.

Georgian

1714

– During the Georgian period numerous British newspapers advertise ‘runaways and rewards’ for black slaves who were bought and sold in England.

1730

– First Maroon uprising in Jamaica.

1760

– Population of black Londoners estimated at between 10,000 and 15,000, including servants, slaves, seamen, and free men and women.

– Slave revolts and uprisings in Jamaica (Tacky’s War).

1762

200 years of the British enslavement trade.

1772

– Lord Mansfield judges the Somerset case and rules against enforced removal of black individuals from the UK.

1775-83

– American War of Independence: some states revolt against British rule. Free black men and slaves fight on both sides.

1780

– The anti-Catholic Gordon Riots occur in London. Rioters include some identified as ‘black’ or ‘mulatto’ (white and black).

– The London Society of West India Planters and Merchants is founded. The organisation of British sugar merchants, absentee planters and colonial agents was instrumental in resisting the abolition of slavery and maintaining a plantocracy.

1781

– Lord Mansfield judges the Zong case in which 133 live slaves were thrown overboard from a British ship. Insurance claims for loss of ‘property’ were filed.

1783

– Following Britain’s defeat in the American war of Independence, thousands of ‘black loyalists’ who fought on the side of the British arrive in London but are denied pensions and face poverty.

1789

– In France, the monarchy is overthrown. This leads to revolution in Haiti.

1791

– Slave uprising in St Domingue (Haiti), led by the black general Toussaint L’Ouverture.

Victorian

1802

– The West India Docks are opened at the Isle of Dogs. Built by the West India Dock Company for trade with the West Indies in tobacco, rice, wine, brandy and rum.

1807

– Slave Trade Act 1807 passed. This act only prohibited the slave trade; it did not stop it. The acts of slavery continued until 1833 when the Slavery Abolition Act made the purchase and ownership of enslaved people illegal within the British Empire.

1820

– Cato Street Conspiracy. A small group of radicals plotted to assassinate the prime minister and members of the British cabinet. They include William Davidson, the son of the Jamaican attorney general and a black female. He and four other conspirators were tried, hanged and decapitated.

1831

– Major slave revolt led by Samuel Sharpe in Jamaica.

– Nat Turner leads a slave revolt in Virginia, USA. He is caught and executed along with 18 others.

1833

– Slavery Abolition Act. Although slavery is abolished throughout the British Empire, it is replaced by an enforced ‘apprenticeship’ of six years. The British government paid slave owners compensation for the loss of their slaves.

1834

– Britain begins recruiting indentured labour, mainly from India and China, to work on Caribbean plantations.

1838

– The British Parliament ends the ‘apprenticeship’ system. Enslaved people become free on 1 August in theory. However, in practice there was no economic freedom, equality or suffrage. Newly freed people refused to work for low wages but had scant alternatives.

– Britain maintains control in all areas - including political, economic, legislation, land and resources - in Africa and the Caribbean. This also includes the imposition of a British educational system and a hierarchy of divide and rule based on colour, class and religion.

1857

– The Dred Scott decision in America makes slavery legal all over the USA.

1859

– The last known slave ship, Clotilda, arrives in the USA carrying between 110 and 160 enslaved people.

1865

– The Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica is led by Paul Bogle.

– Slavery is officially abolished in the USA.

1884-85

– Congress of Berlin: Britain and several European countries plan the partition and control of Africa.

1897

– A collection of over a thousand bronzes known as the Benin bronzes is looted by British forces from the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin.

20th century

1900

– First Pan-African Conference held in London: delegates petition Queen Victoria to investigate the treatment of Africans in South Africa and Rhodesia.

1907

100 years of emancipation.

1914-18

– The First World War: soldiers from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean volunteer and enlist. Black sailors and a small number of African and Caribbean students also serve as merchant seamen.

1919

– Race riots in London and other UK cities.

1924

– King Tutankhamun’s tomb is opened by Howard Carter.

1924-25

– British Empire Exhibition is held at Wembley.

1931

– Dr Harold Moody forms the League of Coloured Peoples.

1936

– African American athlete Jesse Owens wins four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics, witnessed by Hitler.

1938

100 years of British colonial rule.

1939-45

– The Second World War: soldiers from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean volunteer and enlist.

1941

– Ken ‘Snakehips’ Johnson is killed, aged 26, at the Café de Paris, London, during a German air raid. He was the leader of a West Indian swing band and a regular on BBC radio.

1944

– Jamaica gains universal adult suffrage (voting rights).

1948

–HMT EmpireWindrush arrives at Tilbury Docks. Of the 1,027 passengers, 492 come from the Caribbean. The Trinidadian calypsonian stage-named Lord Kitchener was interviewed at the dock and sang ‘London is the Place for Me’.

– The NHS is founded.

1955

– Rosa Parks is arrested for sitting in the white section of a segregated bus in Alabama, USA.

1957

– Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast) is the first African country to gain independence from Britain.

– Winifred Atwell becomes the first black woman to have a number one record in the UK, selling over one million copies.

1958

– The Notting Hill uprisings break out after white youth attacks on black people.

– Claudia Jones founds the West Indian Gazette newspaper.

1959

– The precursor to the Notting Hill Carnival is established but is known simply as a Caribbean carnival.

1960

– The Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa.

1962

– Jamaica gains its independence from Britain. Its national motto, ‘Out of Many, One People’, represents the population’s multiracial roots.

– The Commonwealth Immigrants Act restricts black entry to Britain.

1963

– Doctor Martin Luther King delivers his ‘Let freedom ring’ also known as the ‘I have a dream’ speech at the civil rights march on Washington, DC.

– Paul Stephenson leads the Bristol Bus Boycott after the bus company refuses to employ black and Asian people.

– Jomo Kenyatta becomes the first black prime minister of Kenya.

1964

– The Africa Centre opens in London, Covent Garden.

– Dame Jocelyn Barrow and David Pitt are among activists attending a meeting with Martin Luther King, who made a short visit to London en route to Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. They help to establish an umbrella group of associations under The Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD). The organisation lobbied for legislation outlawing discrimination in all areas including housing and employment. It challenged the colour bar against black people working in Oxford Street and various well-known streets such as Carnaby Street.

– Cassius Clay, the boxer, renames himself Muhammad Ali.

– Jamaican singer Millie Small gets to number two in the UK and USA with her single ‘My Boy Lollipop’ - the first record to popularise Ska music.

1965

– Martin Luther King leads the Montgomery marchers over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.

– Malcolm X is assassinated.

1966

– The New Beacon Bookshop opens in Finsbury Park the first black bookshop in the UK.

1967

– Norwell Roberts from Anguilla becomes the first black policeman to join the London Metropolitan Police. He served for 30 years and was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal in 1996.

1968

– Bogle-L’Ouverture Publications is founded by Eric and Jessica Huntley.

– Martin Luther King is assassinated at the Lorraine Motel, Alabama.

– Student protests start at Columbia University, USA, creating a wave of student activism that spreads across the globe, including Paris and Mexico.

– Students also riot in Jamaica in support of political activist Walter Rodney.

– A Black Power protest is staged at the Olympics in Mexico. Two black American athletes give a raised-fist salute on the winner’s podium in support of the Civil Rights Movement. It becomes an iconic image.

1973

– Sybil Phoenix becomes the first black MBE in recognition of her community work, particularly with young women.

1976

– Notting Hill Carnival riots in north-west London.

– Soweto Massacre in South Africa.

1977

– The Battle of Lewisham. The right-wing National Front party is prevented from marching through New Cross.

– The American slavery serial Roots, based on Alex Haley’s book, is aired on British TV.

1978

– Viv Anderson becomes the first black British footballer to play for England.

– Some 100,000 people take part in a Rock Against Racism march from Trafalgar Square to Victoria Park in Hackney, where an anti-racist concert is staged, featuring both rock and reggae music and musicians.

1979

– Professor Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu helps to establish in Brent the first nurse-led UK Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia Screening and Counselling Centre.

1981

– Brixton riots are followed by the Scarman Report, which concludes that the police force is ‘institutionally racist’.

– The Black Cultural Archives is founded in Brixton.

– The New Cross fire breaks out, in which 14 young black people die.

– Black Peoples Day of Action. Around 20,000 people march in reaction to the public and media response to the New Cross fire.

1982

–The Voice, a British national black weekly newspaper, is founded. Distribution goes monthly in 2019.

1985

– Riots ignite in Tottenham after Cynthia Jarrett is killed by police.

1987

– Three black MPs (Labour) make history by becoming the first to enter the previously all-white House of Commons, including the first black female MP, Diane Abbott.

– Black History Month is established in Britain.

1990

– Nelson Mandela is released from prison

1992

– South Africa votes to end apartheid.

1993

– Teenager Stephen Lawrence is murdered in Eltham, south-east London.

1994

– The Stuart Hall Library is opened.

1996

– Nelson Mandela visits Brixton. He also meets the Lawrence family.

– The MOBO Awards are launched. The first black awards show in Europe, it represented music (of black origin) and urban culture.

– Operation Black Vote is launched.

21st century

2000

– The BBC series Millennium is shown and includes the history of the fourteenth-century ruler Mansa Musa, from Mali, reputedly the richest ever person in history.

– Labour MP for Haringey, Bernie Grant, dies of a heart attack and is replaced by David Lammy MP.

2004

– Andrea Levy’s book Small Island is published; it is later adapted by the BBC and staged at the National Theatre. Levy died in 2019 and her archive of work was acquired by The British Library.

2005

– The first Annual Huntley Conference is held.

– Frank Bowling becomes the first black artist to be elected to the Royal Academy of Art.

– John Sentamu is named Bishop of York. Born in Uganda, he is the first black bishop in the UK.

2006

– UK Black Pride Day is established by Phyllis Akua Opoku-Gyimah, aka Lady Phyll, to celebrate black LGBTQ+ people.

– Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia’s new president. She becomes Africa’s first female elected head of state.

2007

– 200 years of emancipation.

2009

– International Nelson Mandela Day is established.

– Barack Obama becomes the first black president of the United States.

– Michelle Obama visits an Islington school.

2011

– Riots commence in Tottenham after Mark Duggan is murdered by police. They spread throughout London and the rest of the UK.

2012

– London Olympic winners include Team GB’s first female boxer Nicola Adams, runner Mo Farah and heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis.

– Trayvon Martin, aged 17, is murdered by George Zimmerman in the USA. Zimmerman is acquitted of his murder and released.

2013

– The protest movement Black Lives Matter is founded in the USA and becomes the Black Lives Matter Global Network in the same year.

2014

– A jury decides in the Mark Duggan case that he was killed lawfully by the police.

– Lewis Hamilton wins the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix. He goes on to win the Formula 1 World Title later in the year. In 2020 he receives an MBE and is awarded Sports Personality of the Year by the BBC.

2015

– Chi-chi Nwanoku founds Chineke, Europe’s first majority black and minority ethnic orchestra.

– Prime Minister David Cameron visits Jamaica, but, rather than offering reparations, he provides funds to build more jails, which causes a furore.

– Loans taken out by the British government to compensate slave owners in 1833 are finally repaid.

2017

– London Bridge is attacked by terrorists. Black PC Wayne Marques helps to save lives.

– Edward Enninful becomes the first black editor of British Vogue magazine.

– The Jhalak Prize is established to celebrate British black and Asian writers.

– Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race is published. It wins the Jhalak Prize in 2018.

– The first Diaspora Pavilion exhibition, at the 57th Venice Biennale, showcases the work of 19 established and emerging black artists. They include The British Library by Yinka Shonibare MBE and a photography collection entitled Dwelling: In This Space We Breathe, by Khadija Saye.

– Fire ravages through Grenfell Tower, a block of flats in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Seventy-two people are killed, most of them black and minority ethnic. Artist Khadija Saye and her mother, Mary Ajaoi Augustus Mendy, are among the victims.

2018

– Amber Rudd resigns as Home Secretary following the Windrush Scandal.

–