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 in 1940s Guyana, spoke to us about her experience of working as a nurse at hospitals across Hackney and Newham from the early 1960s to the 2000s. All while raising four children.

  • 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 as a television engineer, to his passion for jazz and playing in bands over the years.

  • Paizah Malek

    Paizah Malek who lives in Newham, recounts memories of finding community in a Hackney basement, after arriving in London in the early 1970s as a mature student. The Malay Club at 100 Cricketfield Road offered food and friendship.

  • 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.

  • Anne Brade

    Anne Brade came to London from Montserrat, hoping her husband could get the medical treatment he needed. Her passion for gardening and food growing was nurtured in the Carribean and bloomed on her balcony in Woodberry Down.

  • Charoula Attard

    Charoula Attard shares memories of attending Greek church at St Thomas Square in Hackney and Cypriot life in Sixties London. Always stylish, Charoula worked in a clothing factory in Clapton and had a “shoe addiction” jokes her son Tony, who helped with translation.

  • Victoria Fontaine

    Victoria Fontaine reminisces with daughter and Newham-based artist, Marilyn Fontaine, about family life in The Sixties. Born and raised inbDominica, over a bowl of Lamb Soup, she shares stories from Tate & Lyle, Queens Market and her Church work in the community.

  • Jabez Lam

    After leaving Hong Kong, Jabez says, he started out as an armchair revolutionary. He talks about his years as a community activist before joining Hackney’s Chinese Community Services and overseeing its transition into an East and South East Asian centre. A new community, in an old bath house.

  • George James

    George James, from Montserrat, shares memories of selling shave ice at Ridley Road Market,
    his mates’ blues parties and home life on Sandringham Road. He also recalls hearing Gregory Isaacs, in the days when reggae stars dropped into meet-ups in Hackney.

  • Justin Lewis

    Justin Lewis shares his story about turning from an RAF cadet into a business owner. Unable to find a greeting card for his wife that portrayed people of colour, he founded his own company and launched Ebony Cards in 1979.

  • Reverend Niall Weir

    Reverend Niall Weir looks back over four decades of living and working across Newham and Hackney as a Northern Irish priest. From his role as chaplain at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, to welcoming Posh Club – a seniors’ social with a difference - into St Paul’s Church in Clapton.

  • Magdalene Titolie

    Magdalene Titolie moved from St Lucia to Stoke Newington as a teenager. She recalls life working at Alba Television in Shoreditch before starting a family in Newham. After leaving paid work to raise children, she reflects on the challenges and rewards of her decision.

  • Lat Kulup

    Lat shares stories about life at The Malay Club in Hackney. His father, an ex-seaman, was one of its founders. He remembers decorating the club house in Cricketfield Road, nights playing cards and trips to the seaside where his kite-flying uncle impressed the Essex locals.

  • Geraldine Forbes

    Gerladine Forbes, born in Trindidad in the early 1940s 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

  • Ali Birang

    Ali Birang looks back on his diverse career since moving to London from Iran. In his early 20s, he was unable to return to his home in Tehran. After a degree in maths, computing and statistics, he qualified as a teacher. A job at Hackney College first brought him to East London.

  • Phyllis Tomlinson

    Phyllis Tomlinson, raised in 1940s Jamaica, speaks about working shifts in factories across East London after moving to Bow in 1964. Phyllis also recalls nights at home cooking and dancing, running ‘shebeens’ across Tower Hamlets and Hackney.

  • Charmaine Tomlinson

    Charmaine Tomlinson got her first shock after leaving Jamaica at fifteen, seeing the meal on a British Airways flight. She reminisces about meeting first husband Wentworth Newland, founder of Wenty’s Tropical Foods in Forest Gate. After his death, Charmaine stepped in to help her daughters keep the shop running.

  • Chris Charalambous and Kevin Warren

    Chris Charalambous and Kevin Warren share a friendship going back to their school days. They connected at a pioneering comprehensive school in Woodberry Down, through rugby and their later affiliation with Hackney Griffins. Their memories are testament not only to the club’s athletic success, but its mission to invite everyone onto the pitch. The club’s crest says: Fellowship is Life.

  • Shaheen Bux

    Shaheen Bux, born in Kampala, had to leave Uganda in 1972, ending up in London. After getting married, moving to Rochdale, three children and a fashion degree, Shaheen returned and worked for a dressmaker close to her Plaistow-home. Her passion is teaching and community work.

  • Wendy Powell

    Wendy Powell left Trinidad and built a life in Hackney where she’s been a resident for over fifty
    years. Along with raising a family and working in Early Years education, Wendy explains her commitment to educational opportunity, through work with the Early Years Training and Anti-Racist Network (EYTAN).

  • May Hagan

    May Hagan has been a driving force in a club that, during the 19th century, was strictly  male-only. For over 35 years, May has held court at Newington Green’s Mildmay Club and recalls the changes since her Irish childhood.

  • Fay Clark

    Hackney resident, Fay Clark looks back at a varied career educating young and old, after leaving British Guiana. She remains a life-long learner and educator to this day. Fay also reflects on changes in her local area and the role of the community, in creating a safer neighbourhood.

  • Tapan Ghosh

    After leaving Bengal as a boy, for Tapan, life in 1950s Stamford Hill was a shock. A creative child, he channelled his frustrations into a life filled with art and music.

  • Philomena Mongan

    Philomena Mongan remembers the glamour of London at 17, after leaving Ireland. She recalls life in Hackney as part of the Irish Traveller Community and the struggles to secure a permanent site after losing a previous home to the 2012 Summer Olympics.

  • Behige Molina

    Behige Molina came from Cyprus to Hackney as a child. She recalls how an Eighties youth training scheme called Sparkle inspired a career in teaching English to newcomers at Hackney College and her decision to Run The World.

  • Frederica Auguste

    Frederica Auguste left St. Lucia as a child. She remembers the first family home on Hackney Road caught fire. Life at Teesdale Junior School in the early 1960s also had challenges, when Federica was confronted with switching from “broken French” to English.

  • Alice Buntin

    Alice Buntin arrived in London from St Lucia in The Fifties. She reminisces about dancing to Lovers Rock and Revival in the school lunch hour, during her time at Clissold Park Secondary school. Fast-forward to Alice’s professional career, she recalls the introduction of computers in the banking sector.

  • Judy Frumin

    Judy Frumin did not have an easy start in Homerton, having moved from Manchester to Hackney in the mid-1970s. She replaced a popular colleague at a depot on Sedgwick Street.  Her persistence was rewarded with an exciting and fast-paced life in newspaper and magazine distribution, and the last years of newspaper printing on Fleet Street.

  • Kooi Chock Glendinning

    Kooi Chock Glendinning reflects on a sloppy start to her UK nursing career after a childhood in Malaysia; before then becoming a chief biomedical scientist and turning from tenant to landlord in Hackney’s changing housing market.

  • Anju and Mayank Patel

    Anju and Mayank Patel invited us to join them for a day at Londis N16, their much-loved corner shop on Fountayne Road.  As Mayank and Anju share stories about the start of their family business, the next generation look to the future.