Transcripts on Social Landscape

Alice’s Story by Ansar - Swadhinata Trust

Alice

0:00:00

Shopping was a mystery to me because there didn't appear to be any shops. So, um, that was a big thing. Then I discovered there was Tesco's at Bromley By Bow, where I've been going to ever since. So that's your local... That's my local big supermarket, yes. Which is, so it's great because that's also got history because it's got seven mills there. There's that wonderful 18th century millhouse. And it's where the film studios are and all that. And it's on the river, on that amazing complex of canal things, which is so fascinating and historic from the point of view of docks and everything.

Ansar

0:00:42

It goes through Olympic Park probably. Did you go there during the Olympics? To the Olympic Park or that area?

Alice

0:00:44

Yes, yeah. I went to look at it, of course. And I went to one pre-match, whatever you call them, you know. I went to one, something or other. I did go.

Ansar

0:01:03

You went and watched it? - Yeah. - Do you think the Olympics had as much of an impact on us, East London, on the landscape.

Alice

0:01:17

Well I know they tarted up Whitechapel Road, which was a great, a very good idea.

Ansar

0:01:25

Yeah.

Alice

0:01:25

And that's, and I always, every time I walk up and down Whitechapel Road I always think that's because of the Olympics that we got those houses done up, you know, the ancient houses, the 18th century houses were done up, and that's a good legacy. And then moving the V&A here and all sorts of things and loads of stuff is going to be there. And the landscaping of the park I'm interested in, and I hope that will turn out mature and beautiful, in the Olympic Park, the landscaping, I'm interested in that.

Ansar

0:01:58

Is it not done already?

Alice

0:01:59

It is done but I want to see how it matures. Yeah, because new parks are new parks and they haven't got...

Ansar

0:02:06

Have you been there?

Alice

0:02:07

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I walk around a lot, yeah.

Ansar

0:02:11

Yeah. And it's looking impressive?

Alice

0:02:14

I must go back and have another look this year and see how it is. I do hate the, what not, Mittal Tower, the Helter Skelter thing. I really loathe it. Oh, the little tower? Yes, I really loathe that. You've not attempted to? Never. Have you done it? No, I'm scared of heights. I wouldn't dare to. I think, well, I think maybe there's lots more young people moving in and renting and it's more vibrant.

Ansar

0:02:52

Yeah.

Alice

0:02:53

Of course, you know, the old indigenous white population has more or less vanished because they died, you know, because there were lots of old people living here who'd lived there all their lives and they've died. Yeah, local people. And I know a few still and they're wonderful people. They tell you all about the area. It's fantastic. I know I've got quite a few friends, especially in Litchfield Road.

Ansar

0:03:27

They've always lived here?

Alice

0:03:28

Yeah, all their lives, yeah.

Ansar

0:03:30

So what's happened to their children?

Alice

0:03:32

Well, they've moved on because they can't afford to live here so they've had to move.

Ansar

0:03:36

Okay.

Alice

0:03:37

It's the same old story because I couldn't afford to live where I was born. It happens every generation you can't afford to live where you're born.

Ansar

0:03:44

So local people are moving out of here. Yeah. And who is moving in then?

Alice

0:03:48

Renters and extremely rich people because you have to be very rich to be able to buy here now. So there is quite a lot of rental stuff.

Ansar

0:04:00

So it's changing the makeup of the population, the local.

Alice

0:04:06

Yeah, and think of all the new built flats that are going up everywhere. Everywhere you look, you blink and there's another block.

Ansar

0:04:13

None here though, is there?

Alice

0:04:14

Well, yes, when you go to Bromley, just up the road by the motorbike, A12, there's a whole village of new tower blocks.

Ansar

0:04:25

You mean before the flyover?

Alice

0:04:27

Yeah, well just after the flyover.

Ansar

0:04:29

Okay.

Alice

0:04:30

Other side of the Blackwall tunnel where the boat showed. And there's, I mean there's one after another. And I think they're quite expensive. I think students are renting them and sharing them.

All audio transcripts (22)

Alison and Jen’s Story by Alison - Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

Alison

0:00:00

You've been here for a lot longer.

Jen

0:00:02

Yeah, I've been here 50 years, so I've lived here all my life.

Alison

0:00:05

What changes have you seen?

Jen

0:00:08

I'd say massively, obviously in the Stratford area. I had my first job in the old Stratford, so there was nothing beyond that. My grandparents used to live in Hackney, so we used to drive through Temple Mills, it was just fields either side. So the change in the development there is amazing. So, yeah, massive changes, massive changes since I was young.

Jen

0:00:41

Yeah, so all the football pitches at Temple Mills, the AstroTurf, the floodlit section wasn't there at all then. No, no, it was literally fields. Like you'd drive through from, so I'm talking like from Cranfield Road, Leyton High Road, and you'd drive up Temple Mills and there would be fields either side with horses. I always remember that as a kid. And then there was a nightclub there that we used to go to at the end of Temple Mills

Jen

0:01:02

and then we'd drive through to Hackney like for my grandparents. You can't do that route now. But yeah, it's massively changed. When I first got the job at LLDC and we was on the 10th floor at 1SP and looking out the window I could not get my bearings of where everything used to be and stuff like that.

Alison

0:01:25

Yeah, the skyline's completely changed hasn't it?

Jen

Yeah, completely.

Andy’s Story by Eileen - Carpenter’s Community

Eileen

0:00:00

Have you ever wished you'd live somewhere else?

Andy

quite often

Eileen

and whereabouts would you like to live?

Andy

I think i would like to live somewhere like Epping okay how long how long have you lived where we are now where you are now? i think it's 26 years.

Eileen

How has it changed over the years? And don't worry about how much information you want to give, it's not a problem.

Andy

0:00:39

It's changed quite a lot because a lot of the people that originally were here have either passed on or moved away. with the estate coming under a rebuild, a pull down and rebuild I would say it's really got worse, that it's took a turn for the worse.

Eileen

0:00:55

And do you miss anything about the way it used to be?

Andy

Just nice people that used to live on the estate.

Calu’s Story by Joe - Solo Researcher

Calu

0:00:00

Queer Union came out out of a need. When we moved in, I identified there didn't seem to be a lot of representation. We, a few more of us, like two more people, we did it together, so close friends. It's like, we don't see many flags, we don't see many organizations. what can we do about this? So how can we contribute to our borough being more LGBTQ+ friendly? And it happened at precisely the right time where there was a change in local government which then allowed some funds to be more available for sort of marginalized communities which wasn't the case before that. And so, since then, in lots of different ways, we've managed to access some funding and to carry out lots of different activities. We, not just through council funding, but also, yeah, just generally trusts and whatever funding is available at National Lottery. and so we've read everything anything that helps us like race awareness from like queer cinema that we did that for a year we did lots of conversations that spoke about the intersection between like queerness and faith queerness and race queerness and and all these other aspects of our identity queerness mental health and just to also bring their language. And that first big exhibition was with this huge banners with the LGBTQ+ , and expanding on what does the L stand for. that was each of these letters, what they stand for, some references of some high profile, prominent figures, and also walks of life. and the challenges that they still face globally. And that's when we tour around all the libraries together, with different workshops, where the idea is to facilitate conversations, to normalize the topic, to invite people to ask questions. We also did a wonderful embroidery project, which we took around the progressive pride flag, and we worked at libraries and got chatting with people, but also stitching words of encouragement, or just, yeah, how people related and what they wanted to put in this flag that then got exhibited in a town hall. And yeah, we still bring it out from town to town because it brings together the skills of the community and then the topic of LGBTQ plus identity. And so it allowed us to have lots of conversations with members of the community that wouldn't probably have approached us there wasn't a stitching element to it. There's lots of queer venues that are closing because of gentrification, which is a big problem because where are LGBT people going to meet? Where are these safe spaces? Where can you go and find out? about yourself and lots of things which not necessarily what we do that nightclubs or people that there are places that sell alcohol so that's already problematics and and it's a big issue in the community so it is sad to have losing more and more places. So even though we might be heading in the right direction when it comes to occupying more space, being more visible. Newham was the first council to raise the progressive pride flag some years ago. There was a point in the elections where there were like seven LGBTQ+ councillors that was unprecedented. So there is a lot of change and there's also a lot that needs to be done because when it comes to like funding or like what's happening at schools like are there any like LGBTQ+ clubs, like young people, so I definitely see that because of the work that we do and the partnerships and the collaborations, there is change and not more needs to happen.

Joe

0:05:04

Yes.

Calu

0:05:05

So, I've questioned myself this before because my activism is sort of very linked to New right now and what if I can't afford to live here anymore? So I think that's very precarious and I still feel like I'm personally in a very privileged position but that's not the case for a lot of people. So if I feel I don't have security I can't even imagine others where that's more on a like month-to-month basis. When are we going to ask to leave and when are we going to get that sort of notice because of how there's all these big developments just there you have Sugar Island or the more buildings being built here therefore that's going to raise yeah the price of all of the land and the rent in all of these places that though we're not benefiting from whatever it is that they're doing, they're doing their best. Yeah, and then there's this ongoing fight for the people in this place across the road, the E15 group. And so, yeah, it's the awareness of what makes a neighbourhood a neighbourhood, what ends up being local. If we no longer have independent shops, or if people who've lived here most of their life get forced to move away. So at the end of the day we're going to have a whole bunch of homogenized bars or high streets, which you already see. And that's why it's important to do this work, to have this conversation, to bring awareness, to find ways to support local talent, local initiatives, local businesses.

Homelessness by Discover Children’s Story Centre

0:00:00

Homeless adults, homeless kids, homeless people everywhere. It's really sad sometimes thinking of what they must go through. I went to West Ham Park and saw the saddest thing. A homeless child not asking for money, not begging for food, she was just lifelessly sitting there, with her dog, her doll and a ladder going into a tree. I guess that was where she slept, but as well as everything else, she had a special object from her mum and dad: a heart to remember her mum's large heart and a marble to remember her dad's strength. And that's my story about homeless people. And now every time I go to West Ham Park I have a look to see if she's still okay and there.

I Can See Westfield by Discover Children’s Story Centre

Group

0:00:00

I can see Westfield.

Each sentence new voice

0:00:02

I can see fashionable clothing surrounded by security guards and employees. A flood of people's footsteps. I can hear a stampede of people's voices. The salty golden chips from McDonald's KFC. I can taste the decadent fried chicken. I can feel the fake air of Westfield. It feels like a bubble, like I'm being pulled into another world. It feels like a place for everyone. There's different styles of shops for football fans to hot trend hunters. I can hear the music vibrating in my ears, coming from every shop I pass by. I can smell the aroma of rose petals when I walk by the free samples ready to try. Crispy doughnuts leading the way, even behind a path of truth. I can see the exit but I don't want to leave. I can see Westfield!

Imtiaz’s Story by Beth - Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

Imtiaz

0:00:00

just after Covid itself. But just before that I gained a really, really invaluable experience. So during Covid basically the company that I was working for, everything just went so again, all the jobs went, the company went down. So during that time some people that I knew, basically they started running some hostels and hotels for asylum seekers and refugees. and many people know about it right now but they hear the negative side of it rather than actually the truth of it that's what I'd say so I ended up managing one of the hotels for for this group for this company which was housing 350 asylum seekers a hotel in Wembley it was basically managing everything from their food to their living conditions to the medical to the medical requirements dealing with the Home Office, did that.

0:00:50

And then one of their most political, I'd say, residencies was the Army Barracks in Folkestone. So they said to me, Imtiaz, we've got this opportunity down there, we think you've got the skills for it, do you wanna go there and manage the Army Barracks? In a way, basically go there and try and sort it out. So me being me, I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll go and do that. Driving up and down 70 miles a day, but it's an eye-opener, a complete eye-opener in terms of, first of all, I've never seen an army barracks, didn't know what intel, what they were like, anything like that, that's all, dealing with refugees in terms of what they've actually been through, when you hear some of the stories, the harrowing stories of what they've actually been through, you know, coming through different countries, what they've endured, been shot at, some people losing their, basically some of their actual limbs, you know, some of them selling their lungs or their lungs being taken out, kidneys being taken out, just simply because, you know, along the route, that's what people actually used to do to them.

0:01:54

But they never used to tell you, it's only afterwards that you find out from charities, I was working with charities who were down there as well, we used to come and help these people in terms of give them clothing, just talk to them, give them different things they can actually do. So that was an experience in itself. And one of the things I would say, I learned this about us and knew when growing up, people need to find out what these people endure. You get a lot of stories about what they've actually been through.

0:02:18

No one really has a clue of what they've actually been through, what they've endured. Even the Channel Crossing, we normally think, hold on, it's only a one hour journey just across, they actually go around the outskirts and the reason why they're doing it, if you ask any person they'll tell you I'll never do it again, but there's a reason why people go through all this trauma and tragedy and you know put their lives at risk and endure so much pain, it's because they're just trying to better their lives, probably what my mum did and dad did many many years ago but they came through an official route where the UK at the time needed people to come through. These persons their countries are ruined there's nothing there they're just trying to get them you know trying to better their lives and I met gosh I met engineers I met college principals, lecturers I still remember there was this I can't even pronounce it, some auto, God knows, physicist or whatever it was, people with so, so many skills, so, so many, and just people like us, but they were just trying to, you know, trying to better their lives, that's all it was.

0:03:26

So that was quite an opener, for a short time there, but it was a very massive opener.

Kathy’s Story by Johnny - Newham Community Project

Kathy

0:00:00

Nothing is forever, is it, okay? Everything changes. Life changes. We change as we get bigger. You've got to expect change, okay? The population in this borough has changed dramatically in my lifetime. We're talking a long while, right? So when I was a kid, when I was a kid, at school, okay, it was the majority of white local kids, okay, majority. The very occasional, very occasional, there might be a child from an Indian family or a West Indian family. This is when I was little, you know, like when I was, you know, seven or eight, going back in the 50s. Over the years, I've seen that gradually change. Like you see a school party come out from school, they're going to the library and what have you. So now the kids, a majority, majority, well not so much now, maybe it's changing again, because the majority were Asian parents. But, you know, in the last 10, 12 years, many, many Eastern Europeans have come into the borough. You know, it sort of, it just keeps changing, keeps changing. They use the word Forest Gate. Forest Gate, when I was in my teens, Forest Gate was absolutely an Irish area. Absolutely an Irish area. Not no more, is it? And Jewish. Before that, before me, right, before I was on the scene, Forest Gate was a very wealthy and very Jewish area. Very, very Jewish. And parts of Upton Park as well. Synagogues. There's no synagogues in the borough now is there? But there was... You know, up on... You go up to the traffic lights, see, on the Barking Road, turn left, yeah? Turn left. You know the yellow shop? The car spare shop on the right-hand side?

Johnny

0:02:20

Yeah.

Kathy

0:02:21

And then on the corner, there's the small building, which is like a mosque and then next to it is an African church, you see? Well that building that's the mosque used to be a synagogue when I was little. Yeah, so things change, change, change. And I don't know if it's good, I don't know if it's bad, it just happens, doesn't it? Populations move on, move out. You know, people, a lot of people who came here, you know, like sort of, you know, like the, in the 50s from the Caribbean, and they come, you know, worked in the docks or on the railway, nurses, what have you, and they've grown up, they've had their families, a lot of them moving on. A lot of, you know, sort of Asian people that came over to, to, to, to, to, to, to, moving out. So other people come in. And now, now we're getting to the stage where some of the people coming in are not the poor people like everyone else. They got a little bit of money. So what's going to happen in ten years time? Will we all be shoved out? Are we going to be a, a rich White borough? I don't know, it might happen. You look at Stratford, you look at Silvertown, it's not for the likes of me and you know the kids round here. They can't buy them properties down there. So, it's like the sea, isn't it? It just keeps going round and round.

Linda and Adrian’s Story by Deborah - Our Parklife (Part One)

Adrian

0:00:00

I think we can start from the station, the Stratford station. It was, when it was raining, it was always leaking. And then there's like a section of it is a flood, obviously from the rain. And then you don't really want to walk through there. In the 1980s, that time of period. And then the corridor was also dark, or the subway, I think, was quite different from now.

Linda

0:00:32

And grey because it's just so dull and nothing for you to look at and focus on. Everything, and there's no green, it's more to do with pavement, pavement, pavement, and people seem to not too bothered about it. And I was a bit shocked, I say, you know. I don't know. I just feel that it's not... What's the word for it? Why can't people make an effort, you know, to make the place...Because it's a home. It's a... Well, I mean, I'm an outsider to come in. Why can't we make it better for people wanting to come and see us? Why do we always have to be lumbered with the term "East London" as if we are, a part of us, whether historically we are always being told, I've always been told it's a poor borough, people don't want to progress and all these, which is quite negative in a lot of ways. So I say, as one person, I can't make any changes, but I'm determined, wanting to see the end product, the beauty of it in time. Ugly duckling will become a swan one day. I always believe in that.

Deborah

0:01:54

The area was going through a very difficult period with the docks closing. How aware were you of those bigger developments?

Linda

0:02:07

All I could hear is the people that were coming in as patients complaining, this and this. You know, everything is so negative about the way that people talk about it. I mean, this is from the accounts from different, because we are coming into contact with so many patients every day and things and then the things that coming from how how depressed they were and how things not done right and it's all negative things and at one stage I thought we are really not going anywhere how come nobody see this is such a nice place because Stratford has always, I always believe that then, then we were known as Stratford Town, it's a town. And then with the Olympics successfully going through and up to now, then we have what we call Stratford City. Then from City from the E15, now we have E20. And I'm talking about these are the stages of the progress over time, the Olympic legacy delivers with, these are what I consider as very good things for the local people. Not everybody agree with what I, it's not important because I'm entitled in the sense of that I live here, I live here, I work here until my retirement. So I really will see the progress through with the passage of time.

Adrian

0:03:48

...Is the Eurostar.

Deborah

Yes.

Adrian

And then Stratford was earmarked for the second station.

Linda

Terminal.

Adrian

Or whatever. And then at the same time, we are also bidding for the Olympics for 2012.

Adrian

0:04:05

So I think there's a lot going on there. So finally we got successfully bidding for the Olympics. So from then onwards, I think the progress was quite tremendous.

Linda

0:04:35

Yes, it started moving, isn’t it? It started moving, and then we keep on seeing different people, different big developments coming in and we would say, my God, these big shots are coming, I hope they better do a good job out of it, otherwise I put them all to shame.

Deborah

0:04:37

We were at home. We were at home. How, how...

Adrian

0:04:40

Watching the telly, waiting for the results.

Linda

0:04:43

We were waiting, we were waiting. I said, I hope we get it, I hope we get it, the sort of anticipation thinking that we can't fail, come on, come on, how could we fail?

Adrian

0:04:57

Well we really shared and...

Linda

0:04:59

Wow, the excitement that day I must say.

Deborah

And when they said the words “London”, what did you do?

Adrian

We jumped up from the chair!

Linda

I said my God, I'm sure my dream is coming into, slowly, now I said, aha, now we can put Stratford on the map. I said now we can stand up even taller the spirit you know like, all this year we've been seeing, now we finally having the opportunity maybe there's a lot of hard work to come through but it doesn't matter. The foundation, the stone, is now placed in there. The opening ceremony, when the park was open, remember the parade, wasn't it beautiful? We’re always here, whatever things coming, we’re always here.

Linda and Adrian’s Story by Deborah - Our Parklife (Part Two)

Deborah

0:00:00

So looking ahead to another 10 years, in 2032, what do you think the park will be like then?

Adrian

0:00:13

I think the park will be...

Linda

0:00:16

Forever...

Adrian

0:00:17

Blossomed and it will be more developed, the trees will be more mature. But we just hope that they will preserve more green area because we have seen a lot of high-rise going up, invading a lot of space. I hope that they will consider that to preserve more green in the surroundings. The surrounding areas that we are a bit worried about because every little space they tend to build more apartments going up. But the park itself I would say will be saved.

Linda

0:00:58

And the latest one is the COVID memorial, isn't it?

Adrian

Oh yeah, the Blossom Garden.

Linda

That is a different part of it and it's always something about the history being a dedicated part of it for some really event, or sort of heart, you may say it's heartbroken or whatever, but it's always signify a hope. So I don't think it will, I'm sure it will become more beautiful whichever way I can see in my own head.

Linda

0:01:42

I would just say that in every big establishment,they must have time to allocate a community setting, whereby the people in there to have a chance to be even get together. Because it's only the people will tell you how things are not so good, how things are so good, and they then can formulate a better structure or scheme to get it even better. So I always say that with every big development, these, the big boss coming, they must allocate a certain allocation even in terms of funding. They must support the local network to get our people, some of these youngsters because we, the East, what do you call the East? - Here East - Here East, look at what we can attract all these younger, not younger, all these other different personnel, business, the art side of the things, everything to get them to coming together and share and to get things. I wouldn't know how, there's so much things we can do as a, become a centre of excellence in a lot of, I'm ambitious, I say centre of excellence in a lot of way, leading. I'm quite a competitive person, I always say we have to lead, we have to lead. So what are we going to lead, on what ground we can lead people to, to make it more successful, more people can come together and move, move to make, not just Stratford itself, we can set an example for a very little, a knowing little place, unsavoury place people used to associate, to become, to put us on the map. I live in Newham from '81, I see the progress even in the hospital itself for many, many years. And then so I couldn't, we don't have legacy, legacy as such, but Olympic is something different because it was the in thing, 2012, we actually got it, but we should make it even better as the year goes by. The days go by, it's important. The years go by, it's even a decade. Now it's 10 years down the line. Look at 10 years before and 10 years now. It's in a way, it's measurable to see all the buildings comes out and all sorts of the beauty of it, the shopping side, the story, and the transport link is wonderful and accessible and things. That's only just part of the progress with the development. But to carry on to make it even better. I think we can do it. We can become even better.

Marcus’ Story by Alexis - Deep Boroughs

Marcus

0:00:00

I would say definitely the infrastructure as night and day from what it once was before. And then there's just also this, there's this sense of like, it's like an apocalypse or a cataclysm has happened in terms of the old Stratford's just been swallowed up and now this new Stratford has all this hope and possibility and people from all over the world. I might walk down the street and I can visibly see someone that's on holiday and I'm like, oh my God, we're in Stratford. I'm like, 20 years ago, you would not holiday to Stratford and be that excited to take a picture. "Oh my God, I'm in Stratford!" So it's like, everybody now has, you see, for me, myself, I'm someone that I'm quite interested in having global experiences. So I got the distinct impression that London is very different from the rest of the UK and the reason being is because the immigration It's almost like like a landing pad for every nation coming from wherever and we will just congregate into this like Paella kind of thing here and I thought to myself I would like to use that as an opportunity for me to experience different cultures and travel to different places because if I go to Poland, I actually know someone that's from there. So they can say to me, go here, go there, or they can meet me there. I've done that because of the virtue of me being in such a multicultural city. It's given me an opportunity to visit other types of places in the world to the extent where I've decided to myself I would like to go somewhere else for good, maybe Uganda where I'm from, somewhere else, but I think growing up in East London being so non-homogenous, being so mixed, offered me the opportunity to understand that there's more to life than just these, just what's local. And I think that, though that was my mindset, I think the way Stratford has changed, kind of physically adapted to the way I think.

Marcus

0:02:06

I've been thinking like that.

Marcus

0:02:07

But Stratford now is just like a 3D kind of incarnation of the fact that yes, London really is a super, it's like a country of its own in a way. And then East London on top of that being even more diverse than other areas, it's like a real, it crystallizes that concept. So in the changes now, I feel a lot of possibility. I feel like if I'm walking in Stratford and I come to the Gantry Hotel, I'll wind up doing something I've never done before, which is literally what's happening right now, sitting with people, discussing things, topics, concepts that are very new because the area was so deprived for so long. So there's inequality that's now happening, which is showing different levels of money are now in a tight space. Different cultures are now in a tight space. Different languages are now in a tight space. So I think that that represents to me an opportunity to expand my horizons, both physically, through who I meet, intellectually, career-wise, language-wise. I could be walking in Westfields and walk into like, Beyonce, like, it's not that unrealistic.

Alexis

0:03:29

It's great, she was just here the other day. She was just like walking about.

Marcus

0:03:33

I could see Burna Boy, Wizkid, I could see whoever.

Alexis

0:03:35

Actually, the Burna Boy concert was a sellout.

Marcus

0:03:38

Yeah, just there. So to think that, and he's a big star these days, to think like a big international star would come and perform in Stratford. Like the hope and the possibility for me is definitely there, whereas before, there was anything but hope. It was hopelessness, and that's where a lot of, let's say, I identified to where grime culture was at that time, because grime culture was very much a culture of just like youth club kids that didn't have an outlet or anything else to do, that type of thing. Whereas as an older, so in my late 20s, and I grew through the era of looking at Newham as being like just destitute, nothing's going on. At least this side of Newham, I'm looking at it like, yeah, there's all the hope and possibility in the world, because where I live in Custom House, that building of infrastructure hasn't changed much. There's Excel right near where we live, but Freemasons Road, just on the other side of that bridge, is like the old Newham. So now, because I live in that old Newham, when I come here I know that there's more possibility because I can see the stark juxtaposition between the two. So the change is definitely opportunity, hope, broadening your horizons and the opportunity here to pioneer things.There's a lot of opportunity to do stuff that isn't being done, or it hasn't been done.

Michael’s Story by Lynette - Badu Digital Hub

Michael

0:00:00

I live here but I wouldn't say I've done anything in the community to help East London. Or like, not even, I don't think I've attended an East London community day, but I've just met bare people from East London, I don't think I have.

Lynette

0:00:17

Okay, um, but I guess to feel a part of the community, I guess community is an interesting word because you really feel very connected to your community in your area. - Yeah. - You feel connected to your church community. So you do mentoring, there's so many things you've done that you do. I guess it's interesting, I guess it means what is community to you? And yeah, what is community to you?

Michael

0:00:56

To me, I'll probably split it up in two things. So there's the inner community and the outer community. I'll say the inner community is the ones that I'm more comfortable with, the ones I come across day in, day out. And it's like I've shared most life experiences with my inner community but then with outer I say that East is a big place I probably haven't been everywhere in the east to even know most communities there so I'll say that our community is just like everything's on a whole and yeah I'll say it's more modern and it's more like techno- is that the word technological yeah there's I feel like there's just so much technology in East now. Like when I was young, oh I would say, one thing that has changed is I don't see a lot of children play outside no more. But like everyone's just on like a computer or Playstation. Like when I was young, everyone would be outside playing like sports or something. But now, everyone's inside playing games and stuff. So it's changing like the technological aspect. I would say from being from East, you learn to be confident and to always talk to someone like, even if you don't know them, like get to know them. And so I feel like it's made me become a more confident and more social person. So I'm able to try and communicate with everyone, anywhere I go.

My Face is Like a Map by Discover Children’s Story Centre

1

0:00:00

My face is like a map. My eyes are Westfield Shopping Centre and Whitechapel Market. Each eyelash is a bridge or shop or cafe. And my eyebrows are rainbows concealing the treasures underneath, like the delicious, fresh, scrumptious foods throughout the market.

2

0:00:20

My mouth is London Stadium, full of seats, goals, locker rooms, and my tongue is the field. But my teeth represent the blocks of flats nearby. Each flat tooth contains floor after floor of families, food and furniture. My nose is the Shard pointing up to the sky reminding me of my confidence and achievements. My cheeks are Olympic Park and West Ham Park, offering spaces to play picnics and perform my relaxation in the sunshine. My ears are West Ham and Abbey Road stations providing transport, balancing me along the tracks as I hear trains moving and screeching, people chattering, announcements, vending machines, barriers, dogs barking and babies crying.

3

0:01:16

My chin is the bells of Bow, helping me speak and be who I am today.

Obin’s Story by Val - Swadhinata Trust

Obin

0:00:00

I've been living here in the East End in Tower Hamlets for 40 years, but before that I've been associated with the place since 1979, because my mother, who's passed away recently, was a youth worker, working mainly with Bengali young women. And I remember in 1979 going on a trip to Dorset, where she drove a minivan all the way to the seaside and that was my first introduction to young Bengali men and women from the East End of London.

Val

0:00:36

Oh, that's a nice memory.

Obin

0:00:39

That was my first memory of the East End. Three, four years after that, after leaving university, two friends of mine, two English friends, I came to the East End not because of the Bengalis or via the Bengalis but via English friends, two friends of mine from university, they were squatting a property in Bromley by Bow and when they got evicted, they were very lucky in the days when this could happen, they were offered a council flat in Ocean Estate opposite Queen Mary College and they invited me to live with them and it was a wonderful experience. The happiest period of my life was living in a council flat with two friends and far better than being in university. And I started working as well with the housing department as a community worker and I was also a part-time Bengali language teacher in adult education as well as a part-time youth worker in my mother's club called Shejuti. All in all it was a wonderful period and I was extremely happy. That was before the dance revolution changed everything in 1988. So we're talking about 1986, which is really a watershed before 1988 when things turned completely different.

Val

0:02:14

Your mother brought you up, did she bring you up speaking Bengali at home? - Yes, we were never allowed to speak English at home. - That's important, yes. So you only spoke Bengali at home? - Yes. - and she made sure you learnt to to write write in Bangla as script as well?

Obin

0:02:35

As a Bengali teacher herself there was no way we could have evaded the fact that we had to become literate as well. - Right right yeah so you had a very good grounding in from your mother in in in in Bengali language. - Yes, very good grounding. You could read and write. Unfortunately, I haven't kept up over the years, but I can still read and write passably well, and it's been a skill that's been very helpful.

Val

0:03:03

Yes, yes, yes. Now, I think that's an important part of your upbringing. So, yeah, so carry on.

Obin

0:03:14

Language-wise, it's been quite different, because I'm a non-Sylheti person, living in the East End, and everybody else who is Sylheti speaks Sylheti, which is quite radically different from standard Bengali, which is what I speak. So that's a very important thing to consider and also the fact that it led to a certain isolation because I wasn't a Cockney, I wasn't English and I wasn't a Sylheti either. So it was a very interesting position to be until I made lots and lots of Bengali friends, Sylheti friends, through music. In 1988 there was a world revolution in sounds. It was the dance movement and what was happening all over England and all over the world, it's a little microcosm that was happening in Tower Hamlets and that was the Asian-influenced dance music sound of Joi [Bangla] and it was wonderful to be part of it and we partied all the time and I mean all the time and it was very very enjoyable, very very good fun and very very influential. Joi later went on to get a recording deal with Peter Gabriel who used to sing for Genesis, his record label called I don't know what and they released a few records which were very well welcomed but sadly Haroon died in 1998 I think and the sounds disappeared almost completely. However there were other musicians in the Asian underground like Sam in the state of Bengal, Coco Verma and Earth Tribe and Fundamental and others and they were all okay but really the magic had been lost because Haroon had died.

Paul C’s Story by Eileen - Carpenter’s Community

Paul C

0:00:00

I was born and grew up in Forest Gate. I moved to Stratford, I think when I was ten or eleven with my family. And to be fair, I've pretty much been here ever since. I, to be honest with you, I mean, I've always loved being here. Well, I say always that it's... When we moved here originally, before all the regeneration, it was a vastly different area. But, to be fair, I mean, looking at it now, it has everything. And it seems like it would be stupid to move away after living here for so long, going through all the noise, all the problems and everything else. I would prefer to stay here and actually get some of the benefits of all the trouble that we've actually been through over the last 20 years here.

Eileen

0:01:02

So how do you think it's changed over the years since you've been here?

Paul C

0:01:07

Oh, massive, I mean literally like chalk and cheese. I mean when we got to Carpenters in, what, the 90s? It was in the mid-90s I think we moved onto the estate. And it was a completely different place. Absolutely completely different. There was no, well to be honest with you, there was pretty much nothing. It was almost a no-go area. But, um, I mean now it's gentrified, isn't it? You know, there's, um, there's now a lot more people that, you know, there's a lot more people with money here, um, but there's also a lot more, because of those people coming along, there is also a lot more facilities around here now. - Do you miss anything about how it used to be? - Yes. To be honest with you, once people started getting moved out, the area seemed quite bare and quiet and it has been replaced by more noise from a group of people that I don't really agree should have ever been allowed to come onto the estate. But other than that, the majority of the noise now coming from our estate is from young people who basically are only here for temporary reasons. But I will say this, the fact is that this estate has always notoriously been a dumping ground for people. It's not very often, it's only once now that we've got all of this Westfields and the stadium and everything else, it's the only reason that money is coming in here now. It's the only reason that anything is happening here now. And like I said, it does feel very much like it's just a case of everyone just being pushed further and further. They don't want families, they only want this whole area, all these places for students. And middle class people who don't actually stay here.

Eileen

0:03:35

So you mentioned earlier about gentrification. Does that mean that you feel that the area is becoming gentrified? And the actual...

Paul C

0:03:49

No, no, no, I would have said that ten years ago. Today I would say it is gentrified. Because ten years ago it was becoming gentrified. As soon as the Olympics finished up, that's when it started becoming gentrified. 10 years later, when you walk around, when I walk from my door up to Tesco's Extra, up just before Bow, I walk up there and I walk back. I see nobody that's of a regular face. I never walk past the same face twice. I could do that same walk, same time, every day, and if it's past 5 o'clock, or it's after 9, if it's between the hours of 9 and 5, I will not see the same face twice any day. The only time I will see those faces day in day out is when they're walking from wherever they work to the station to not be here.

Eileen

0:04:50

So, just finishing off that point, and we'll finish here after this question I've asked, how do you feel, looking forward let's say 10, 15 years time. How do you feel that the East End itself is going to look?

Paul C

0:05:26

Well to be honest with you, I can see even more change. I mean the fact is that it used to be a case of, you know, you had, Canary Wharf really was the only place that any money had actually been spent in East London. They never did spend any money elsewhere. But now, if you look at Hackney, if you look at Stratford, all the way down almost to Forest Gate now, you know, there are plenty of places, you know, in East London that are now having more money and getting more people out. The young people here that are born here are getting less and less chances because the fact of the matter is the majority of the people who seem to work around here in big businesses are people who don't live here. You know, you see that train station, it's banged out every morning, every evening. That station is banged out and it's all people coming in in the morning and going back out at night hardly any of the people who seem to work in Stratford seem to live in Stratford because the reality is as well it's very difficult to afford to, unless you have a big job in Stratford, you couldn't afford to live in Stratford anyway we're now in the six weeks holidays which means that the majority of Stratford now will be quiet because the majority of the students will have gone home for six weeks or eight weeks or ten weeks, however long they get off at university. But that's the thing, is that, you know, where everything is now, seems to be reliant almost on them. Which makes me assume that, as usual, things will just start being catered more for them, and less for us.

Paul N’s Story by Rozina - Newham Community Project (Part One)

Paul N

0:00:00

So the consequence of being a tenant's association sort of lead member brought me into the kind of radar of politics, which I would never been and never will be a politician. I've never been, I've only ever been a local guy, a local community activist that does as much as he can for his local community, that's it. But I was invited to become a Labour Party member. I voted Labour, but I've never been on membership. My family, I have a cousin, passed away actually last week, the funeral's this Friday, but she was the civic ambassador for Newham. And her husband was the mayor of Newham before, Sir Robin Wales. So we've got a kind of a family background. And my friends, their grandmothers, one was Mayor Alice Gannon, she was a Mayor of Newham as well. So we've got a lot of background in political councillorship stuff. But back then it was more community based, was more hands on, grassrootsy stuff. Now it's not the same, it's more kind of above your head politics where people tell you what to do rather than you ask what people want to do. So I then was invited to become a councillor. I'd never done anything for the Labour Party, I'd never posted a leaflet for the Labour Party, but prior to my invitation I'd put a bid in to New Deal for Communities through the Labour Party, and not being a member, I didn't expect to win anything, but I won 54.6 million in a bid, the biggest bid Newham's ever had and I won that. And with another guy called Ian Walford who worked for an organisation very similar to PricewaterhouseCoopers or that kind of organisation, and we put the bid in and we won 54.6 million. With that we built lots of new stuff for schools. We built across the road is a hub from here. We built that. That was an old garage site so I had that built. So the hub was one of the first conquests that we made and turned it from an abandoned garage site into a community hub for people and a chemist shop underneath that dealt directly with the doctors so you could get prescriptions straight away rather than have to go to the doctors you could go to the hub.

Rozina

0:02:32

And the pharmacy, was it there when you built it?

Paul N

0:02:35

No, no, the pharmacy was across the road.

Rozina

0:02:37

So that wasn't purpose-built?

Paul N

0:02:39

It was purpose-built pharmacy. It was.

Rozina

0:02:41

Into the hub?

Paul N

0:02:42

Into the hub.

Rozina

0:02:42

Oh, okay.

Paul N

0:02:43

Yeah, it was. That was done by myself and a founder of a charity which I'm want to tell you about in a minute.

Rozina

0:02:48

There's a church there as well.

Paul N

0:02:50

There is, yeah. We don't I'm not really sure about what the church does. I saw on the other day it's got citizens advice on it but I've never heard anybody talk about citizens advice in the hub to be honest. But Jack Solanke was the chemist owner which was across the road in the Emmet Road and he also owned the other chemist shop on this side of the road. So the idea was to combine both the shops into one big shop. We did it and then he stayed for about a year or so and then eventually sold that because he wanted to retire and then it's been it's changed hands twice since then but it's still a very good chemist that does what it does you know for the local community and most people if they've got an issue they'll go to the chemist shop and then go to the doctors. So it was a good community thing. We did the same thing in Plaistow with the New Deal money. We opened up a surgery called the Project Surgery, which was an old house that we converted into a doctor's surgery. There didn't have any doctors over that way at that time. The ones that were there were very old and very decrepit and run down. So we opened up this new, you know spent a few bob on it, and then we made this place into a centerpiece for medicine. From that we blew up a few blocks of flats and brought them down. Watts Point, we brought that down and then we built more, not flats, we rebought houses because people didn't want flats. They wanted to live on the ground, they wanted gardens.So with our 54 million pound, we then match funded that with another 54 million so we had a hundred million and eventually they got to a couple of hundred million right we kept on match funding there's a 10-year program they finished in to starting in 2000 and finished in 2010 so because I've done that I was now kind of not only nationally I was on the radar of the local council so I was invited by Sir Robin Wales at that time to become a councillor. When I became a councillor I turned him down and the chief executive at that time as well I knew quite well and said no it's not for me I'm still kind of community guy I don't really want to get involved in this. Well you can still do the same stuff and at that time Tony Blair was the Prime Minister and he had a statement saying that not all politicians should come from universities, some should come from grassroots. So they came back to me another year later and they said to me, look this is what we want to do, we want to make you a community lead councillor, would you accept the challenge? And I said yeah. So I got elected, off my own name, not off the Labour Party, and spent from 2002 to 2014, three terms of counsellorship, as the lead member, senior lead member, mural advisor to Sir Robin Wales and chair of regeneration for Canning Town. So the start of the Canning Town regeneration is mine and we had a lot of input in that. A lot of input. All the blocks that we first built were kind of ideas that we rolled around with the architects and stuff like that, the colors of the schemes and all the rest of it. And the new market, how that was gonna work. Unfortunately, I came off in 2014 just as it was all being completed. So somebody else took the reins and started to, you know, we didn't want large blocks of flats anywhere, you know, we'd already gone that, you know, I'd been living in a block of flats. In, when I first had my son in 1982, we lived in a tower block on the young married couple scheme, which you saved and you paid rent and then you got a mortgage and we ended up in Liverpool Road in Canning Town just over here and bought the house and, and so people were being moved out tower blocks, it wasn't a place, the streets in the sky wasn't good, you never saw your neighbours and if you did, know, it was some passing in the lift or on the stairwell. So there was no community as such over in Custom House and then all the major blocks over there. So the last thing we wanted to do was reconstitute that sort of streets in the sky situation.

Paul N’s Story by Rozina - Newham Community Project (Part Two)

Paul N

0:00:00

Charles Dickens actually, his brother, wrote a book called Over the Bridge, where he described us as the local kind of commercial area full of smoke and coal and soot and rubbish and degraded homes and all the rest of it. And that sort of stayed, even though after World War II, the regeneration that went on was amazing. And if you've ever seen, and I can show you, there's a... I dug it out of the archives of Newham, because we used to... Wombles used to hold the archives of Newham, all the pictorial stuff. So you're going back in there? So I'm going back in, yeah, I'm going back in, you know. And we had... and I'm very much a part of that history of Newham. We tried to write a book in 1960, sorry, when Newham went over to 1965, it went over to Newham instead of being East Ham and West Ham. When we did the Olympic Games, we were going to give the Olympic Games folk that had created it, like Seb Coe and others, that were coming to the country, presidents of the United States and Prime Ministers of other countries. We were going to give them a book that would tell them all about where they were, you know, about the area of the Olympic Games, Stratford and Plaistow and West Ham. And I was part of that, part of that book writing and the history of that. But most of the stuff that I've done in the past has all been around the history, right? Even, you know, even like I said, the Wombles and all of the stuff going back to childhood is all about the historic value of items and historic value of people.

Primla’s Story by Suresh aka The Cockney Sikh - Solo Researcher

Primla

0:00:00

I learned if somebody throws stone on you, think they are flowers. They are throwing flowers to you, not stone. If somebody say anything to me, I won't give any answer, even at home or outside. I just try to ignore it. I just ignore it. I don't want to be upset either. On the other day we had a meeting in our centre, Toynbee Hall, the living centre. I'm trying to be always positive. I don't think negative. I want to die happily, helping the people. And if I can help them, not with the money or whatever, but I always did help anyway.

0:00:45

I just want to make them laugh and tell them the jokes or whatever. I want to die peacefully and I want to die while I'm dancing.

Terrence’s Story by Twinkle - Deep Boroughs

Terrence

0:00:00

I think especially as I said to you like, the Cockney things dying out, it's not as I say to you that there's rights and wrongs in certain things because I think two truths can easily see in the same place. It's like people say to themselves sometimes, it's all because of immigration or stuff like that. It was going that way anyway, but it hasn't just happened. I believe it's because obviously with the docks shutting down, it made a huge impact on people's lives who had work in the area and that way in them days you had just children, they didn't do it because you had your children going to go into the job that you had. So you had children who were just going to be working in the docks, you had children who were just going to do different things. There's also other good jobs and so you've got a job straight away from school, you got a job because that's what it was all like, the big companies like that actually cared about the community. And the same thing about, you know, when people say about refugees or ex-army who should have the right and people like people you see it on Facebook and different Instagrams and stuff people saying oh yeah they should get the right people coming over here taking our houses and stuff like that's not true both of them should have the right because if you're in trouble or you're in a situation you should have the right to whether preserve or make yourself a better life for yourself and if you've been in the army and you come out of the army, you should be looked after.

0:01:16

So the truth, two truths can exist in the same place. They're both true. But people try to push their agenda a little bit more don't they, or make it more about a racist agenda. It's not about racist agenda, it's about a government agenda. It's about the government or local authorities should be doing more with housing, should be doing more with support, should be doing more with citizens' advice and advice for people. It's like the citizens advice place is shut down over there yet there's still loads of people turn up to go and see citizens advice. It ain't just shut down, it's been knocked down, the building. It's not on their website, it's not on the things, where do you go for people's advice? I see a woman round there the other day, she was crying, she couldn't talk much English and um, you know, she was going like that to me, and I ended up taking her into the bookshop. I got help, and I've got an address, I've written an address down for her where to go, go out to see and find out.

0:02:08

She wouldn't have had a clue what to do. There should be more help with things like that. In the end days, with the different companies and docklands, different things that was going on, people would worry about the community and helping the community, invest some money into the community, invest some money into the local areas, and try to make everyone's life a bit more easier. But I feel like it's a bit more dog eat dog now, and, you know, my castle is my castle. They want you encroaching or approaching that. But when they go on too much about the other issues, so the identities of Cockneys has gone, but then you could say about other identities of other people's gone also.

Tony’s Story by Val - Swadhinata Trust

Tony

0:00:00

I'm not an East Ender, but I do have East End roots, but not my generation. My maternal family all come from the East side of London. My grandpa was one of 13 children who lived for a time just off of Roman Road. And my great-grandfather lived off of Bancroft Street in Mile End. apparently I had a great great uncle who was in the Mile End workhouse. Now all this is nothing to do with my current work really although I justify my being here for all this time on that basis. But strictly speaking I'm not an Eastender as being born and bred here. mum, during the war, married a man from West London, and back in those days, I mean there's an element of parochialism living in inner London even now, and as I have said to you before, that there's much about the Isle of Dogs that I feel quite out of my comfort zone, even Bow I know very little about. So one can be very parochial in this busy man place with lots going on. So when my mum, one of three, one of five sisters born and bred in East Ham, I think my family got strong roots also in East Ham, which of course is now Newham, Upton Park, is it Upton Park? She went to school in Upton Park. And we used to visit relatives always over here. Yeah, she married this man from West London and moved across London. And I've only realized much later when I'm learning a bit more about the local history of London and London-minded, is that it was quite a step to take and a degree of isolation. And when things got a bit tough with their marriage that was quite exacerbating the fact she was quite unhappy and she wanted to get back and all her relatives were in East London, dad was very much wanting to stay where he was in West London. I had mixed feelings because you will know the most recent demographic change is again out of London mainly middle-class folks coming into London areas like Hoxton, Bethnal Green, Haggerston now is not the Haggerston I remember as a major National Front you don't walk around Now of course it's full of coffee bars and... Now in a way, I don't want them... I wouldn't want... Why would I want them to go? Because we need these little coffee places, otherwise they'll be empty. And my favourite coffee place on Roman Road is run by a lovely Italian bloke called Francesco. And all through Covid, he was trading.

Val

0:03:16

Yeah.

Tony

0:03:17

Two weeks, yeah, two weeks. And then after two weeks I discovered he was doing his coffee, opened up again and you were paying and getting your coffee under a glass. I said, oh, this is what we do now. So I thank him for that.

West Ham Funfair Short by Discover Children’s Story Centre

0:00:00

The park is vibrant, glistening, radiant, as colourful as a rainbow sprinkling onto the ground, making it the most colourful place on earth. I see the transformation of the green park into an extreme funfair with illuminating rides. I see West Ham Park Funfair.

West Ham Funfair Extended by Discover Children’s Story Centre

0:00:00

I can smell the machinery, it smells like oil. I can smell the sugary sweetness like heaven in paradise, floating in the sky, sitting on churro clouds, decorated in cinnamon dust. I can taste the taste of fluffy marshmallows with drizzling chocolate. I can feel my body devouring sweet goodness, my fingers tingling to hold the delicious food. I can hear the cotton candy machine swirling around its magic transforming sugar into clouds. I can hear people screaming of happiness on the spectacular rides. I can see the joy spreading around, happiness in the air. This is the first time I see all of Newham happy. The park is vibrant, glistening, radiant, as colourful as a rainbow sprinkling onto the ground, making it the most colourful place on earth. I see the transformation of the green park onto an extreme funfair with illuminating rides.

0:00:56

I see West Ham Park Funfair.