Windrush: Portraits of a Pioneering Generation – collaborative approach reveals the people behind the paintings: Scotland’s first Black professor, Sir Godfrey Palmer, described the Windrush: Portraits of a Pioneering Generation exhibition as “an acknowledgement that we are the same people from the past … who wouldn’t have [had] our portrait put up in this way”, …
Reclaiming Windrush Square: why urban development projects need to heed local voices: Windrush Square is a vibrant public plaza at the heart of Brixton, in the London borough of Lambeth. It was first named in 1998 in commemoration of the arrival of the Empire Windrush, which docked in Essex in 1948, carrying 1,027 passengers, at …
Download our latest e-book: 75 years of Windrush: June 22 marks 75 years since the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush at London’s Tilbury Docks. Many were veterans of the second world war, invited to Britain to help rebuild. They brought with them a rich culture, shaping the future of British music, sport, literature and …
Unravelling the Windrush myth: the confidential government communications that reveal authorities did not want Caribbean migrants to come to Britain: In the twilight hours of June 21 1948, a weathered five-deck troopship transporting 1,027 passengers moored off Gravesend on the south bank of the river Thames. That evening, immigration officials would begin carefully processing those …
How the Windrush generation transformed music in Britain: There was a black musical presence in Britain many centuries before the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush at London’s Tilbury dock. In the Tudor period, it was fashionable for wealthy households to employ and enjoy black musicians, particularly within the royal courts. The most well known …
The Black-owned publishing houses that shaped the Windrush generation: The story of Britain’s Black publishers is one of endurance and monumental creativity in the face of repeated attempts at persecution and denigration. Luminaries such as the authors and intellectuals C.L.R. James and George Padmore had been educated in some of the Caribbean’s elite colonial schools. …
How the fashion of the Windrush generation shaped British style: The outfits that new Caribbean arrivals to Britain wore as they disembarked the HMT Empire Windrush – and all the other boats that followed – served as a reassurance of their sense of self. They had left their previous home behind and, at this stage …
How cricket helped Windrush arrivals build a sense of ‘home’ in Britain: Cricket was played extensively in Britain in the 1950s, in towns, villages and cities, both in workplaces and as a social activity. And the sport had also become a ubiquitous cultural pastime in the English-speaking Caribbean. Indeed, cricket was a key part of …
The forgotten migrant ships that came before Windrush in 1947: Wind back the hours, the days and months, a year – and out of fog, Ormonde sails like a rumour, or a tale about how what’s too soon forgotten will rise again – light up, awaken engines, swing her bow through half a century, return …
How the Windrush generation changed stories of Britain forever – ten recommended reads: The 800 West Indians who walked down the gangway at Tilbury to make new lives in England in June 1948 had been encouraged to think of the country as their motherland. The literary contribution of the Windrush generation is just one example …
The Windrush dance revolution that transformed Britain – from Birmingham’s basements to Notting Hill carnival: Reggae, dancehall, and identity: how Jamaican music transformed British society. Canva Growing up in Birmingham in the early 1960s, I am part of the African Caribbean generation that migrated to Britain between the 1940s and 1980s. Commonly known as the …
Ivor Cummings: the forgotten gay mentor of the Windrush generation: The most familiar version of the story of the Windrush generation excludes LGBTQ+ people. It describes how (presumed) heterosexual men from the Caribbean, seeking economic opportunity, arrived on the HMT Empire Windrush and later spawned – literally and figuratively – the generation of black Britons …
Invisible Windrush: how the stories of Indian indentured labourers from the Caribbean were forgotten: Labourers and children of Indian heritage walking down a street in Guyana in the early 1920s. The Field Museum Library, CC BY-SA My father never spoke to us about Guyana, the country of his birth, when we were growing up because …
The Windrush generation: how a resilient Caribbean community made a lasting contribution to British society: As a young boy in 1962, I remember arriving in England from Jamaica on a BOAC jet plane. It seemed to me like I was going to the moon – the air hostess who accompanied me was the first white …
Voices of Preston’s Windrush generation – when I first arrived, I said: ‘Really? I thought there were no slums in this place!’: From the earliest arrivals of what would become Preston’s “Windrush generation”, the status of the Caribbean diaspora was hotly contested in this post-industrial Lancashire town, as elsewhere. Discrimination and prejudice dogged the daily …
Windrush compensation scheme: how the UK government is failing its citizens with this ‘belittling and horrible’ process: The Windrush scheme was set up in 2018 to provide documentary confirmation of British citizenship and residency rights for the Windrush generation and other commonwealth citizens, and their children. This came in the wake of the growing scandal …
Windrush, music and memories: how songs of resistance and celebration have shaped who I am: Bob Marley & The Wailers in concert in the 1970s. Almay Like me, you’ve probably found that listening to old songs can transport you back in time. Memories associated with the music flood your brain and so too can the …
Windrush generation: the history of unbelonging: PA Archive Many people from the Windrush generation have been told recently that they do not belong in Britain. Some have been detained and faced deportation. But they are no strangers to feelings of unbelonging. These often feature strongly in their stories of early life in Britain. Most travelled …