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Black History Month: The African-Caribbean Community in Post-war Stepney
History of the African-Caribbean Immigrants
1. 1780
1. Copy of St. Dunstan's Church Parish Register, showing Christening in 1780 of 'John Wilkes, a Negro Black of M.E.O.T. [Mile End Old Town], Aged about 28 years.
There are records which testify to the presence of African-Caribbean residents in Stepney for at least several centuries. One such example is this extract from the Parish Registers of St. Dunstan's Church in Stepney. On the top right-hand corner can be found the record of a christening of a John Wilkes, "a Negro of M.E.O.T. Aged about 28 years". This christening is dated 10 September, 1780.
African-Caribbean Immigrants in Stepney before the War
2. 1941 3. 1947
4. c. 1953
2. Detail of Map of the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney, 1941
3. Letter from the Colonial Office to Edith Ramsay regarding African stowaways, 1947
4. Good Friday procession along Cable Street, led by Father Williamson, c. 1953
Before World War Two, there was a relatively small African-Caribbean community in the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney (created in 1900 as part of the County of London - in 1965 it became part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets), mostly occupying the area around Golding Street, Greenfield Street and Cable Street. The majority of this community were men who had come to England aboard trading ships.
When huge swathes of the population were mobilized for the army and hundreds of civilians were evacuated, the population of Stepney fell from 200,000 to 60,000. The availability of unoccupied housing coincided with the revival of the shipping industry and a gradually increasing influx of African-Caribbean seamen. Many seamen only stayed for the duration of their shore leave, but an increasing number stayed to seek employment.
As World War Two came to an end and hostilities ceased, many were left jobless in their own countries. As British subjects, West-Indians and West-Africans thought they would be welcome in Britain.
War-torn Houses as Homes
5. 1950s 6. c. 1940
5. Map of Land Use in Stepney c. 1950, published in 'The Coloured Quarter' book in 1955
6. Winston Churchill examining bomb damage, c. 1940
The African-Caribbeans who opted to stay in England, mostly seamen and stowaways (by all accounts all chiefly male), naturally chose to settle in the Cable Street district, where others had before them.
This part of war-torn Stepney was an impoverished and working class neighbourhood. The houses, many afflicted by bomb damage, were neither comfortable nor clean.
An article from 'The Times' outlines the effect of World War Two and the conditions new settlers endured:
"Before the war there was a large Indian population in the area, but it disappeared during the bombing. About 1943 the immigration from West Africa began, the men occupying the empty houses. Coloured American and Canadian troops went there on leave and since the war stowaways from West Africa and the West Indies have tended to drift there as well as the seamen who are casual residents. There is now a fairly big male colony of different nationalities, and they do not all mix well. A great many are unemployed and are all living in squalor".
('Coloured Men's Needs' published in 'The Times' on 31 January 1950).
Neighbourhood Friction
7. 1957
8. c. 1950 9. 1947
7. Cable Street, 1957
8. Map of Immigrant Settlement in Stepney c. 1950, published in 'The Coloured Quarter' book in 1955
9. Copy of statement of Young Epiae of 32 Brushfield Street regarding a violent racial attack in 1947
Due to the bad condition of their housing, the new African-Caribbean settlers often met in the local cafés and bars during the evenings. These venues were often frequented by young English women hoping to befriend the seamen. An article from 'The Sunday Dispatch' of 27 February 1950, highlights further the friction between different ethnic groups as tensions come to a head:
"A crowd of more than 200 roamed the East End of London to attack coloured men on Friday night, Detective-Inspector F. Barnes told the Thames Magistrates Court yesterday.
Fines of 20s. each were imposed on John Pearce, 32, and Phillip Ellul, 24, for using insulting words and behaviour.
Both men were stated by the officer to have been jostling coloured men off the pavement in the Cable-street area. Ellul (who pleaded not guilty and said he was talking to a friend when the police car pulled up beside him) had a piece of cast iron in his pocket."
Colonial House
10. 1980s 11. c. 1950
12. c. 1953 13. 1949
10. The former Colonial House (centre, with 'To Let' sign) in the 1980s
11. Extract from the Minutes of a Meeting of the Committee investigating problems concerning coloured people in Stepney, c. 1950
12. Father Joseph Williamson showing children a model ship, c. 1953
13. Letter to Edith Ramsay regarding the closure of Colonial House, 1949
In July 1942, the Colonial Office had opened a hostel in Leman Street that provided recreational facilities for the African-Caribbean community and sleeping accommodation for thirteen seamen. Officially this was a seamen's hostel, but in reality the residents were often shore workers. However, by December 1949, this hostel, 'Colonial House' had become run-down and was closed by The Colonial Office. The reasons given for the closure were quoted in 'The Times' as "that social services were adequate and the men should be integrated with the local community and that money for colonial warfare should be spent in the colonies" ('Coloured Men's Needs' published in 'The Times' on 31 January 1950).
After repeated remonstrations from the African-Caribbean community and a wide range of supporters including Edith Ramsay, M.B.E., an Educationalist and Community Worker who served on the Colonial Office Advisory Committee, Colonial House was at last reopened in 1951 by the London County Council.
Charlie Phillips was nine years old when he first travelled from Jamaica to England aboard the 'Reina Del Pacifico'. He talked at a Reminiscence Conference on the History of West Indian Seamen about his experience at Colonial House:
"My first attraction to Docklands was in about 1956. My father was also had [sic] connection with the docks and seamen. Every Saturday we used to come down to Leman Street. They had a building there called the Colonial House. It was one of the first Afro-Caribbean centres for people from the Commonwealth, seamen, guys who used to stow-away. After they had served their twenty-one days in jail, they'd all meet at the Colonial House".
'The Coloured Quarter'
14. 1955 15. c. 1953
14. 'The Coloured Quarter' book, first published in 1955 by M.P. Banton
15. Father Joseph Williamson, Vicar of St. Paul's, Dock Street, leading a service, c. 1953
M. P. Banton's book, 'The Coloured Quarter', from which much of the content of this exhibition is drawn, was first published in 1955.
In the 1940s and 1950s, there were very few African-Caribbean residents in London. 'The Coloured Quarter' highlights a little-known fact, namely that a large majority of these were concentrated around the Cable Street area in Stepney. According to M. P. Banton's book, the numbers of African-Caribbean settlers peaked in 1949 and from then on declined gradually but steadily.
Black or Black British residents now constitute around 6.3% of the total population of Tower Hamlets, according to 2009 Office of National Statistics estimates.
Sources:
The Coloured Quarter, by M. P. Banton (first published 1955)
Edith Ramsay Papers (P/RAM), Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives
Joseph Williamson Papers (P/WLM), Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives
Cuttings and photographs from Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives
