Voices of Change & History Social Club Contributors

The people who have helped to shape the communities we live in

Meet our contributors

Learn more about our contributors and their stories. Their full interviews can be accessed via Hackney and Newham Archives.

  • Carmen Giddings

    Carmen Giddings, born 1942 in Guyana, spoke to us about her experience of working as a nurse at hospitals across Hackney and Newham from the early 1960s up to the early 2000s, all the while raising four children.

  • Paizah Malek

    Paizah Malek, born 1943 in Perak, Malaysia recounts memories of finding community at the Hackney-based Malay Club on  100 Cricketfield Road, after arriving in London as a student.

  • Kooi Chock Glendinning

    Kooi Chock Glendinning, born 1953 in Malaysia reflects on a sloppy start to her UK nursing career, which, however, led her to become the chief biomedical scientist at the University College London Hospitals. She also speaks about two weddings and turning from tenant to landlord amidst Hackney’s changing housing market.

  • Ina and Luigi Mori

    Ina and Luigi, Tuscan-born founders of the much-loved Italian delicatessen and former trattoria, Gallo Nero, reminisce about building a business and family in 1970s Stoke Newington.

  • Behige Molina

    Behige Molina, born 1957 in Cyprus, explains how Sparkle, a 1980s youth training programme, inspired her career in teaching, plus participating in the 1986 ‘I Ran the World’ in London. Now retired, she spent a large part of her career teaching English to newcomers to the UK at Hackney College.

  • Wendy Powell

    Wendy Powell, born 1942 in Trinidad, speaks about building a life in Hackney, raising a family and a varied career from catering to Early Years education and becoming a member of the College of North West London committee. A Hackney resident for over 50 years, Wendy has been critically involved in her local community, especially via her activism for equal educational opportunities via the Early Years Training and Anti-Racist Network (EYTAN).

  • Geraldine Forbes

    Gerladine Forbes, born 1943 in Trindidad shared her story of moving to London for love in the late 1980s and becoming a young widow only a year after marrying her husband. She decided to settle in Hackney while her sons established successful careers in Trinidad and the Virgin Islands

  • Magdalene Titolie

    Magdalene Titolie, born in 1940s St. Lucia, first lived in Stoke Newington after moving to London as a teenager. She recounts working at Alba Television before meeting her husband and starting a family in Newham. She also highlights the circumstances under which she decided to step back from her own career to raise her children and reflects on the challenges and today’s rewards of her decision.

  • Charmaine Tomlinson

    Charmaine Tomlinson, born in 1950s Jamaica, speaks about coming to London as a 15-year-old and first culinary shocks on board British Airways. Once settled in London, she shares the story of meeting her first husband, Wentworth Newland, founder of the Forest Gate institution, Wenty’s Tropical Foods.  Since Wentworth’s death in 2024, Charmaine stepped in to support her daughters in keeping Wenty’s running.

  • Phyllis Tomlinson

    Phyllis Tomlinson, born in 1930s Jamaica, speaks about moving to the UK in 1964 with her children, working shifts in factories across East London and relaxing to music and dance at local ‘Shebeens’ across Tower Hamlets and Hackney.

  • Ali Birang

    Ali Birang, born 1957 in Teheran, Iran, looks back on a diverse career since moving to London in his early 20s, and using his degree in maths, computing and statistics to teach at Kingsway and Hackney College.

  • Gilbert Clarke

    RAF veteran, Gilbert Clarke, born 1925 in Jamaica, shares anecdotes about his life in East London post WW II, from part-time farming ambitions and his work has a television engineer, to his passion for jazz music and playing in various bands over the years.

  • Shaheen Bux

    Plaistow local Shaheen Bux, born in 1950s Kampala, had to leave Uganda with her family in 1972, joining her sister in Walthamstow. After meeting her husband, the couple moved to Rochdale where she embarked on a degree in fashion design – besides raising three children. Once back in East London, Shaheen worked for a dressmaker close to her Plaistow-home, before getting involved in teaching and community work.

  • Charoula Attard

    Cyprus-born Charoula Attard speaks to History Social Club host Sue Elliott-Nicholls about her memories of attending Greek church at St Thomas Square in Hackney, as well as her styling routine accompanying each church visit. In line with her fashion-interest, Charoula also shared memories of working at an East London clothing factory, soon after coming to London in the early-1960s.

  • Victoria Fontaine

    Victoria Fontaine reminisces with daughter and Newham-based artist, Marilyn Fontaine, about building a life in East London in the early 1960s. Born and raised in Dominica, Victoria moved to the UK in 1961 to join her husband and relatives. Over a bowl of Lamb Soup, Victoria and Marilyn share family memories and reflect on the challenges of building a life in London, juggling work and raising her children.

  • George James

    George James, born in 1950s Montserrat, speaks to Aga Rokiewicz about memories of selling shave ice at Ridley Road Market, dance nights at Johnson’s Café on Sandringham Road, and running blues parties visited by the likes of Gregory Isaacs and Dennis Brown.

  • Philomena Mongan

    Irish-born Philomena Mongan speaks to History Social Club host Sue Elliott-Nicholls about life in Hackney as part of the Irish Traveller Community, including challenges to secure a permanent base after having lost their previous site to redevelopment for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

  • Frederica Auguste

    Frederica Auguste, born in 1950s St. Lucia, remembers early school years at Teesdale Junior School in the early 1960s, as well as a severe fire at their first family home on Hackney Road.

  • Reverend Niall Weir

    Reverend Niall Weir, born in 1957 in Northern Ireland, looks back to over four decades of living and working across Newham and Hackney, including his varied community work, from his role as chaplain at the Theatre Royal Stratford East to supporting asylum seekers at risk of deportation and opening St Paul’s Church in Clapton to Hackney’s Posh Club – an anti-loneliness project first launched in 2015.

  • Anne Brade

    Anne Brade, born 1952 in Montserrat, came to London in 1996, hoping for her husband to receive urgent medical treatment. Her passion for gardening and food growing was nurtured in the Carribean but is equally present at her Woodberry Downs balcony today.

  • May Hagan

    Coming Soon!