Peter Ashan began a series of Freedom Walks in east London in 2007, during the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade. These walks aim to reveal the hidden history of the contribution of people of colour to the east end of London and the struggle against inequality. Below, we feature some aspects of his Freedom Walk of Forest Gate.
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| Portrait of Peter in a mural in Wood Street, Walthamstowe |
Full details of Peter’s other walks and work can be found in the footnote.
Forest Gate Youth Zone, Woodford Road
Tony Lee Fielding (1944-2006) was born in Jamaica and migrated to England in 1960 to be with his parents in Hackney.
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| Forest Gate Youth Zone, where Tony Lee Fielding was a youth worker |
He began a career as a youth worker with Waltham Forest Council in 1975. In the mid-1980s, he established Sing and Deliver, which provided opportunities in the performing arts, such as singing and street dance. These activities occurred in youth centres in Waltham Forest and further afield, such as Forest Gate Youth Zone.
The programme included his Inner-College Vocal Search, which took place at various colleges in London.
Eagle and Child Pub, Woodgrange Road
Before it became a pub, The Eagle and Child, now the Woodgrange pharmacy, was a Pleasure Garden and Tea Room dating back to 1744. Venues like this were popular in England during the c18 to c19, where the wealthy could enjoy music, dancing, food, and drink, particularly tea, for a fee.
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| Woodgrange Pharmacy, on the site of the Eagle and Child pub/Pleasure Garden and Tea Room |
The British East India Company began importing tea from China in 1664. The prosperous preferred to add sugar to their tea. This became the main crop enslaved African labour was forced to grow in the Caribbean. Exploited Indian labour on tea plantations meanwhile grew the tea, in what became the British Empire in India.
Portrait of Ranjit Singh 1780-1839, Woodgrange Road
Ranjit Singh was the first Maharaja and founder of the Sikh Empire. The Artful Skecha painted his portrait on the side of a block of flats.
When Ranjit Singh died in 1839 his empire was weakened by rivalry and the East India Company sought to exploit this internal weakness to expand its territory in India. His youngest son, Maharaja Sir Duleep Singh, 1838 to 1893, became, aged five, the last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire in 1843, with his mother, Maharani Jind Kaur, ruling on his behalf.
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| Portrait of Ranjit Singh on block of flats on Woodgrange Road |
Two wars between the Sikh Empire and the East India Company (1845 -1846 and 1848- 1849) saw the East India Company victorious, and they renamed the area the North West Frontier Province (of India).
Duleep Singh was exiled to Britain at 15 and befriended by Queen Victoria, who became godmother to several of his children, three of whom he had when married to Bamba Muller (1864 to 1887). Bamba’s mother, from Ethiopia, and her father, from Germany, were suffragettes.
Two of their daughters were socially significant activists in their own right.
Princess Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh (1871-1942) has been called by the Holocaust Memorial Trust the “Indian Schindler” for her role, when living in Germany, in helping several Jewish people to escape from the Nazi’s, to safety in Britain.
Princess Sofia Alexandra Duleep Singh (1876-1948) was a particularly well-known suffragette activist in the Women’s Social and Political Union.
Durning Hall Community Centre, Earlham Grove
Newham Monitoring Project (NMP-1980-2016) used Durning Hall for meetings and fundraising events. I remember attending at least one NMP party there, with a female DJ playing music reflecting the diversity of east London, such as Bhangra, Funk, and High Life.
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| Newham Recorder reporting the murder of Akhtar Ali Baig |
NMP brought the diverse communities of east London- White, Black and Asian - together to challenge racism. It was formed in 1980, as part of the Asian Youth Movement after the racist murder of Akhtar Ali Baig as he left East Ham Station.
One of its founders was Gulshun Rehman, who also founded The Newham Asian Women’s Project. (see here and here for further details of the NMP)
Hazel Goldman, Earlham Grove
Among the many diverse communities who have made Newham their home is the Jewish community, escaping anti-Semitism in Europe. Hazel Goldman’s family has lived in Britain since the 1880s. Her grandfather Shmula Peprzhik, upon arriving in England in 1913, had his name anglicised to Harry Goldman.
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| Helen Goldman (photo: Forest Mag) |
The family moved to Forest Gate in the 1950s and were members of the Earlham Grove Synagogue (consecrated in 1911—demolished in 2004—see here for further details). It was the first in Essex and the largest in Newham.
Hazel attended Chelsea School of Art and worked for Freeform Arts Trust, leading its Community Design and Technical Services Department and has continued to work within community arts ever since. From 1984 to 2002 she was an Executive Member of Pepetual Beauty Carnival Association in Stoke Newington, leading its design team, as well as supporting the development of the first accredited courses in art and design, through carnival arts at a UK college.
Her work can be seen in the Forest Gate Community Garden on Earlham Grove.
Newham Black Performing and Visual Arts Workshop (NBP&VAW) MacDonalds drive-in Romford Road
The N.B. P & V. A. W. was founded in 1980 by Tony Cheeseman, who became its first Development Worker. His co-founders were Pearla Boyce, Harian Henry, Peter Mavunga and Nathalie Pierre. Benjamin Zephaniah was the organisation’s patron.
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| Tony Cheeseman |
Its workshop tutors included Hakim Adi: History; Rosette Bushell-Adi: Dance; Sandra Agard: Poetry; Joe Blackman: Creative Writing and Colin Paddy: Sculpture.
One of its aims was to give African Caribbean youth opportunities to learn about and develop their skills in the arts. Its original headquarters was above a bicycle shop at 324 to 326 Romford Road. It is now Forest Gate MacDonalds.
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| MacDonald's, Romford Road, site of NBP&VAW |
Workshops were organized in drawing, painting, creative writing, spoken word poetry, singing, dance, and Black history.
From 1986 to 1989, they collaborated with the Newham African Caribbean Centre on 627 to 633 Barking Road, now known as the Barking Road Community Resource Centre.
Clapton Community FC, Disraeli Road
Walter Daniel John Tull was born 28h April 1888 in Folkestone and died on 25h March 1918 near Favreuil Pas-de-Calais Aged 29. He was a professional football player and officer in the British army. His father was Daniel Tull, an African Caribbean, born in Barbados and his mother Alice Elizabeth Palmer, white English, born in Kent. Walter was soon orphaned and faced and overcame many adversities, including racism, throughout his life to become an inspiration for justice and equality.
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| Walter Tull |
He played football for amateur club Clapton at the Old Spotted Dog Ground from 1908 to 1909 and was in the team that won the FA Amateur Cup, the London County Amateur Cup, and the London Senior Cup. The club is proud of the part he played in its history and will soon name the passage behind the ground Walter Tull Way. There will also be an information panel with a QR code erected on the ground, directing visitors to more information about him.
From 1909 to 1911, he played for Tottenham Hotspur in the 1st Division of the FA Football League, making him one of the first Black outfield football players to appear in the league. From 1911 to 1914, he played 111 games for Northampton Town in the Southern League, which the legendary Herbert Chapman then managed. In 1917, he signed up to play for the Glasgow Rangers, becoming their first Black player.
He joined the British Army in 1914, becoming the first Black officer to lead white troops into battle, rising in the ranks to become a 2nd Lieutenant, and died in battle.
West Ham Park
The park owes its existence to the perseverance of Dr Gustav Pagenstecher (1829-1916). He was born in Westphalia Germany to a Franco/Caribbean mother and his wealthy German father, who died when Gustav was 5 years old.
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| Gustav Pagenstecher (1896) |
Gustav was home-educated. It is believed he left Germany in 1852 for England to avoid military service. In England, he worked as a tutor for a family in Norfolk, and later became a tutor for MP Sir Edward Buxton’s family. He joined Buxton in visiting Ham House (the site of what was to become West Ham Park) in 1860 to meet Buxton’s Gurney relations. He was also Buxton’s secretary in Parliament.
In the 1870s, John Gurney, owner of the Ham House estate, was keen to sell it, as the family was in financial difficulties due to the collapse of their bank. John Gurney asked Gustav for help selling the estate. He persuaded Gurney to consider turning the estate into a public park.
Gustav identified the Corporation of London as the potential owners and managers of the park, and found other wealthy donors willing to contribute to the cost of creating a public park.
He was the deputy chairman of the Parks Committee until 1916 and wrote the first history of the Park. From 1886, he lived in Cedar Cottage at 206 The Portway, adjacent to the park.
He regularly returned to Germany during summers and in 1914 returned to England to find that he was expected to report daily to West Ham Police Station as an alien. He was caught up in the anti-German policies of the British Government during World War One.
The way he was treated during this period is said to have contributed to his death two years later. There is very little information about him in the park, apart from a small plaque in the Pagenstecher Winter Garden opened in May 2015. (See here and here for more details on Pagenstcher and the Park)
Footnote. Peter’s original Freedom Walks were of Leyton, Leytonstone, and Walthamstow. He then added walks around Ridley Road, Hackney, Green Street and Newham (which we hope to feature soon), and Battersea. In 2023, he added walks in Chingford North and Chingford Mount.
Peter has also produced a book, Freedom Walk: The roots of diversity in Waltham Forest, to support his work. You can obtain this from him at the email address below.
Peter welcomes enquiries from local community groups interested in him providing a Freedom Walk for them, at: peter.ashan.pa@gmail.com
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