Abdi 🇸🇴

I was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, and ended up here accidentally. I was supposed to go to Canada where my uncle lived, but the person my dad gave money to, abandoned me in transit at Gatwick airport, taking my passport. I was 14 or 15. So I was held in a holding centre at Gatwick airport. To cut a long story short, believing I was older, they gave me exceptional leave to remain for one year, £3 in cash and a hostel address in North Wembley to go to, and said “Good luck”. The hostel had lots of people with serious problems, alcohol problems, crackheads, quite brutal - I was just trying to keep my head down and make sense of it all. And I had to toughen up. I was really angry at my dad for this all happening - something I hadn’t chosen. It took me a long time to accept my being in England - I didn’t decide to come - the journey had been decided for me. I didn’t make that decision. I didn’t accept the documents - so still have a ’Stateless’ document. I can’t get a Somali passport - because there’s no Somali embassy in the UK and I can’t go anywhere in Europe - because they don’t recognise the ’Stateless’ document. It was a stumbling block. I think I’m trying to accept it now, all these years later, because my kids are born here and British, I work, I’ve paid taxes, I’m part of a community, and I see myself as a Londoner. I feel mostly a Londoner. I love the diversity of people in London - I have learned so much without having to go to other countries. I’ve met people from almost everywhere on this planet in London, and get to know them and their cultures - it broadens you, opens your eyes.You get to know and appreciate other cultures, and beliefs and subcltures and stuff like that. That’s what I love about London…

Afiya 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇯🇲🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Yeah, I’m a proper born Londoner (joking). Born in Queen Charlotte’s hospital, Hammersmith. Born and bred in West London. If we’re being posh, I'd say West Kensington - also known as Shepherds Bush. Shepherds Bush and Hammersmith had a very strong Caribbean community when I was growing up - well, West London generally. My dad was Jamaican, and Andrew my partner - also West London - his family was from Grenada, It was quite a vibrant mix of working class people and migrant communities, that been there kind of forever. My mum was from England. Essex born, and her mum was Scottish - from Glasgow - and her dad was Welsh, from Aberfaen. So I can't actually call myself English (joking). I’ve probably not necessarily really appreciated London until I've become older. I love the fact that we have so much - so much culture, so much choice. I love the vibrancy - the fact that it’s always alive somewhere - which is probably why when the first lockdown happened, it felt like the end of the world… You can just jump on a bus or a train and see amazing art or listen to amazing music or eat whatever kind of food you want to. And I think it suits my personality, And London allows you to be alone. I also now have a completely heightened respect for anyone who speaks another language - London can make you lazy, into believing learning another language must be quite easy - since everybody else has a second language - but I realised when I lived in Spain for five years it’s not easy at all. I want to grow old in London - and I need the buzz of young people around me as well.

Hannah 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇯🇲🇨🇳

“Well, I was born in Ilford, which has got an Essex postcode, but it's probably the only place in Essex where people feel they are from London. It just felt like it was part of London. It had exactly the same kind of migration patterns as places that were just a bit further east - like Forest Gate, Manor Park, and Stratford. And also, I think because I grew up in a house that backed on to the train line - that ran to Liverpool Street - there was always a sense of London just being up the tracks. As a teenager, everything was London, London, London. I was aware that excitement was West! And then later, I remember being driven past the Dog Star nightclub in Brixton, I was probably 18, and it looked absolutely pumping in there, and me thinking, oh my god - this is where I want to live when I’m older - this is where I want to be - and then a few years later, living just around the corner!

My nan was from Kennington, and Ilford was the affordable place on the map, really. So my mum was born and raised in Ilford. My dad is a bit of a hazy story. He came to England from Jamaica on the Ormonde (one of the two boats prior to the Windrush). On the boat, he befriended two boxers that had been sponsored to come from the Caribbean and fight in London. I don't think he stayed in Liverpool for any time at all, I think he got the train down with them. And then who knows what happened after that? I think the one of the first places he lived was Hampstead, bizarrely. He used to sell the Daily Worker outside Hampstead tube station. At some point, him and Doris - who he was married to - ended up coming to Ilford - no idea why. And that's where he basically stays. I always characterised him as being the sort of travelling man, you know, traversing borders and knocked around across the roots of Empire (he was Chinese Jamaican). But the reality is, he came to Ilford and stayed there for nearly 50 years. So the truth of his story is much more about settlement than it is about movement or mobility. But there's so much circularity in our story: So the one job I do know he had, was as a shunter on the train yards in Kings Cross, but he didn't stick at that for very long; he was definitely playing cards by the mid 1950s. But funny that years later, it was the first place in London-proper that I went to, because of the nightclubs. And then now - it's a place I go to the British Library.

My son is proud of his multi ethnic heritage and identity. It's so different from when I was growing up. I’ve talked and written about it a lot - my dad didn't fill in the gaps - he just didn't talk about where he came from, his migration, his upbringing. I think mainly because he was traumatised by those things. And also, he was just trying to blend in. But because of the silences that existed when I was growing up, and the confusion that caused - like for years I just didn't know what to call myself. And if someone said where are you from? I would always say this thing, but also this thing. And then never be quite sure that I did the right thing, and that I was claiming an identity that I didn't have the right to claim. So I was really determined with my son that he won't feel that, that he'll just know the different places he's from. It's better to talk about it!”

David 🇮🇪

“I was born in Dublin, but early childhood was in Avoca in Wicklow, which is the mountains and very rural. It was a mining village. And in the 80s, Ireland was having its own thing with the mines, and they were closed down and everyone was unemployed. My dad worked in the mines. It's a classic story. And so in the early 90s after a few years of unemployment and kind of living on tick, we moved to the east end of London.

We moved to Forest Gate in Newham and my dad became a publican. He hadn’t been a publican before; he was just Irish. ‘The Eagle and Child’ - that was an amazing first experience of London - coming from a tiny village in Wicklow, to being in a very, very multicultural part of London. I thought it was really glamorous - it seemed very glitzy. I genuinely didn't realise it was really down at heel. In every corner of the pub there was a different group of people, old Caribbean men who play dominoes - like all day long; obviously lots of Irish people; and there were Asian people, and then working class white Londoners who'd been there for generations. And I just hung out in the pub all the time. I think parents of our generation had a very different parenting style! School was in Newham, and that again was a melting pot of mostly Bangladeshi, African and Caribbean kids who went there.

I love London, and I'm always interested in thinking about it, and how it's changed and how it hasn't changed. And the multicultural aspect of it is my favourite thing about it, and the opportunities to constantly learn, to hear other people's stories and experiences. And we haven’t even got to talk about Lordship Rec (Tottenham) - which IS London for me…..”

Paul 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇯🇲

“I was born in Mile End hospital, but my folks were living in Finsbury Park at the time. I probably just decided to make an appearance when my mum was around Mile End. My first year was living in Finsbury Park, then we moved to Harringay. My brother was born in Homerton Hospital. Mum and dad were from Jamaica. My dad was here first for a couple of years. My eldest brother was born in Jamaica and came here when he was 8 - he was brought up by his grandparents for those years - my mum and dad were kind of hustling and struggling to get a kind of foothold, something together over here. My dad worked for British Rail, something to do with signals; and my mum was a nurse in the NHS. My dad had a chance to go to the States, so he went to America before here, but he didn’t like it. If he had, I could have quite easily ended up in Florida or New York or somewhere like that. I’ve got a lot of family in New York and Florida. My mum came from a place in Jamaica called Enfield, funnily enough, which is outside Annotto Bay in the north east of the island. My dad came from Buff Bay.

My earliest memories are South Harringay school, and there’s people that I can remember from first day of nursery or reception that I’m still friends with now, and still live in the area. It was quite a mixed school; you had obviously carribean, west african - Nigerian, Ghananian, quite a few asian people, a lot of Irish as well, Greek, Greek Cypriot and Turkish. I can remember when Greece was at war with Turkey over Cyprus, it was a big thing at school and I can remember the headmistress talking in assembly about it, explaining it, because there’s kids that are all friends and then there’s their parents having a beef with other kid’s parents because of it.

Green Lanes has always been very mixed, very multicultural, it always has been. On my road there was Louis - God rest his soul, he’s no longer with us - he was Greek, his brother Bomba; you had Anthony my nextdoor neighbour, his origin was Caribbean, you had Brian, Carribean, well his folks were Bajan, you had Darren, Irish folks; we all used to roll with each other, in and out of each other’s houses, that’s the way we grew up.

North London for me has always had it goin’ on.”

Mystique 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇱🇨🇧🇧

I was born in Acton and my mum was from St Lucia, and dad from Barbados. They met at Harrow bus garage, my dad was a conductor at the time and my mum was working in the canteen, that’s how they met, yeah. I was brought up in Cricklewood, two older sisters, all in the same house. Primary school was in Cricklewood, secondary was Dollis Hill. There were points when we’d all be at the same school together. I remember the house had no central heating, just paraffin heaters and going to get parafin from the pump outside the sweet shop. And only having three channels to watch on the television and it ending pretty early. My mum was Catholic and as we didn’t go to a Catholic School we had to go to Catechism on Saturday mornings and Mass on Sundays. In the afternoon before Sunday lunch there’d never be anything to watch on TV so we’d just end up watching the Open University. It was always maths or geography. You’d get some long haired guy with glasses, corduroy trousers, socks and sandals, pointing to this blackboard and writing up equations. We didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, we were just fascinated, laughing; there was nothing else on TV.

My mum’s first winter in England was 1963 - that really bad winter, having to deal with coal fires…my mum just found work when she got here, whereas my dad was probably recruited in the Caribbean.

I moved to south London in ’95 or ’96. The only other part of London that I knew was Brixton, from coming down to go to clubs and stuff, so started looking around here. It was a bit of a culture shock, that first time coming home to Brixton and getting off at Brixton tube, and it's just like, oh my God, an assault on the senses.

I used to go to carnival as a kid, me on my dad’s shoulders, watching the floats go by, and all of that; but that was the 70s; then, when it started to kick off, we didn't go any more, until being a late teenager. I started to go to Soul II Soul nights at The Fridge, got friendly with a group of people, and went to Carnival with them. Since then it has been a thing that I always aim to do.

I find London pretty accommodating of people in general, you know, nothing seems to faze us or shock us. I know Brixton’s very particular, someone might give you a look but they'll let you prance about however you want to prance about, so long as you're not hurting anyone. And London's great for green spaces, and just having lots of trees. You're never too far from a tree! I realised that my whole time living in South London I've just moved around Brockwell Park - from Brixton to Herne Hill, back to Brixton, then back to Herne Hill. So, South London is my adopted home.

Jeanette 🇲🇽

“I came with some friends from Mexico. Each year I thought I would stay a bit longer and then go back. And that was 16 years ago. i’ve lived in Fulham Broadway, Hammersmith, Wimbledon, then East London. For me, I have changed in that time, from just working, it being a party, and travel; now I have a family and it is a place where I live, it is my home. I’ve always felt the minority of the minority - and I guess I just get used to that. There aren’t many Mexicans, with the different accent and culture and the rest, but I always felt that if I am here, I learn and respect the culture, and I never felt an outsider, no having to behave differently, or not have my strong accent. For the kids - I think it is very interesting to live in London - I grew up in a place where most people were Mexican - the opportunity they have to live this - where so many languages are spoken. I think I will always live in London”

Alex 🇳🇱

“I like the hustle and the bustle of the town - the fact that you can be anonymous and disappear, but also the opposite, its nightlife to be shared with friends, its rich cultural offering. I have met people from all over the world here and I think that is the biggest gift I could have asked for - and what made me grow the most as a human being. I now feel like this is my home, the people around me make it that. Though, as a little final note I have to say that I do love having the option of loudly expressing how things are better across the pond (Netherlands / Holland) when I don’t like something here…that pick and choose behaviour is the benefit of being an immigrant I suppose.”