Three quarters of a century ago, after docking at Tilbury on the Empire Windrush, hundreds of the passengers on board who’d sailed from Caribbean countries were directed to this neighbourhood.
Those men and women alongside all the others on the ship had answered a call from the UK government to come and help rebuild the country after the war.
Their immense contribution was celebrated today up and down the country. “We are forever grateful” to them, said the Prince of Wales earlier.
But the Windrush generation also endured hardship and discrimination over the following decades. Only five years ago – in one of the biggest institutional scandals of modern times – it became clear that the government had illegally deported and denied healthcare and pensions to many after failing to keep proper immigration records.