Heritage Railway

New London Transport Museum exhibition opens door on Caribbean contributi­on to city transport

- By Robin Jones

A MAJOR new exhibition exploring how generation­s of Caribbean workers helped shape London and its public transport will open on February 11.

Legacies: London Transport's Caribbean Workforce, to be staged at London Transport Museum in Covent Garden, will celebrate the contributi­on of Caribbean people to the capital's transport systems in London from the 1950s to the present day. It also documents the struggles that they and their families endured, especially at the start of their new lives in London.

Visitors will hear stories and memories from first, second and third-generation Caribbean people, from those who worked for London Transport in the 1950s and 1960s to today's employees.

Archive photograph­y of potential applicants to London Transport's recruitmen­t campaign in Barbados, recorded oral histories from people of Caribbean heritage, written quotes from early arrivals to the UK, historic newspaper clippings, maps, and an interactiv­e display to identify modernday Caribbean Commonweal­th flags will all trace the journey that Caribbean people made and the positive impact their communitie­s have had on today's culture.

After the Second World War, the UK's requiremen­ts for workers coincided with the Caribbean population's need for jobs. In 1948, Britain granted the status of British subject to citizens of the UK and its colonies. Britain benefited greatly from those making the difficult 4400-mile journey to London, starting with the docking of the HMT Empire Windrush at Tilbury in 1948, and between 1956 and 1970, LT recruited about 6000 employees directly from British Caribbean colonies.

Hostile reception

The experience­s of new recruits are explored in a film revisiting interviews with direct recruits from the Caribbean, along with some of the original advertisin­g posters created to drum up interest for vacancies in London.

The new recruits arrived with high hopes of life in Britain but were shocked to be faced with hostility and racism, and struggled to find new homes. The voices of early Caribbean arrivals are captured in evocative quotes that will form part of the exhibition.

Ruel Moseley, a bus conductor recruited from Barbados in 1959, recalls: “You were not used to sharing five to a room. However poor you were in Barbados, you were not used to sharing a room… I cried like a baby the first week I was here.”

The new recruits worked as bus conductors, station staff and canteen assistants and in Undergroun­d track maintenanc­e and building work. While most were skilled and well educated, they had to take basic, lowpaid work and often found promotion difficult due to pervasive racism.

Homesickne­ss and London's cold weather also made the lives of newlyarriv­ed migrants difficult.

However, many enjoyed their work, and new social and sports clubs were set up, such as the London Transport Caribbean Associatio­n.

Most of the initial Caribbean recruits were men but women also took up jobs at LT, especially in the canteens that in 1956 helped feed 87,000 staff. These new cooks soon introduced new Caribbean flavours and recipes to traditiona­l British food.

Ashley Mayers, a Transport for London customer experience manager, has three generation­s in his family that have worked for London bus services. His grandfathe­r was recruited from Simpson Buses in the Caribbean in 1957 to LT's Merton bus garage in London where he worked as a driver, while his father was responsibl­e for the computers that helped run bus routes. Visitors to the exhibition can hear Ashley's interview via an audio speaker.

Visitors will also listen to stories from Winsome Hull, senior business strategy manager at TfL and museum trustee, who was born in Jamaica and arrived in London when she was 10 years old. She is also part of an advisory board of TfL staff of Caribbean heritage who helped shape the exhibition.

The exhibition also focuses on the continuing influence of Caribbean culture and art on London and beyond. A new film exploring these themes will be unveiled, as well as photograph­y documentin­g people's journeys to Notting Hill Carnival.

Additional­ly, a preliminar­y sketch, poster and filmed interview will showcase an Art on the Undergroun­d commission by the artist Denzil Forrester. The large-scale artwork, Brixton Blue, was in Brixton Undergroun­d station between 2019 and 2021.

Finding out more

Families and schoolchil­dren will be encouraged to engage with the content of the exhibition through a new fun flag exhibit that asks younger visitors to guess the Caribbean nation belonging to each flag.

A QR code will enable further learning, taking people to the museum website to view blogs, historical and contempora­ry stories, and recorded oral histories.

An immersive storytelli­ng session for primary schools will explore themes of inclusion and identity and uncover how Caribbean culture has shaped London's life and transport today.

Head curator Matt Brosnan said: “Lots of people are familiar with the arrival of Caribbean people on the HMT Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks in 1948, but many are unaware that LT went over to the Caribbean to recruit employees directly from Barbados and other islands.”

Meanwhile, TfL has teamed up with the Black Cultural Archives to launch the first-ever Black History Tube map, celebratin­g the contributi­on black people have made to London and the UK from pre-Tudor times to the present day.

It can be pre-ordered online from www.ltmuseumsh­op.co.uk/blackhisto­ry-tube-map

 ?? TfL ?? Undergroun­d trainees at the Railway Training Centre at White City in 1971.
TfL Undergroun­d trainees at the Railway Training Centre at White City in 1971.
 ?? TfL ?? Women at London Transport’s Baker Street canteen in 1968.
TfL Women at London Transport’s Baker Street canteen in 1968.
 ?? TfL TfL ?? Left: Food production at London Transport’s Croydon depot in 1971. Bus conductor Agatha Claudette Hart in 1962.
TfL TfL Left: Food production at London Transport’s Croydon depot in 1971. Bus conductor Agatha Claudette Hart in 1962.
 ?? TfL ?? Recruiter Charles Gomm interviewi­ng an early Barbadian applicant in 1956.
TfL Recruiter Charles Gomm interviewi­ng an early Barbadian applicant in 1956.
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