Revealing the full picture
When Charlie left his home in Jamaica and arrived in London as a boy, he came with a strong sense of Britishness, instilled in him by his parents and his school education. This was true of many African and Caribbean people whose families answered the call from the ‘Mother Country’ to travel to Britain and help rebuild the country in the wake of the Second World War.
‘I arrived on 18 August 1956 at Paddington Station. And my father came to meet me. Before I came he told me that an English suit was a Burton suit, Bata shoes and a Poplin shirt.’
Charlie and I met at The Tabernacle, a local cultural centre, just a few roads away from the place he first lived when he came to London. I know The Tabernacle well; I’ve been going there since I was young as I grew up in the same area.
The Tabernacle is a Grade II listed building that became a community arts centre in the ’70s. As you walk in, photographs of local people throughout the past six decades adorn almost every wall. Charlie’s photography is among the collection and when he walks in, he’s greeted by a stream of people. He no longer lives in west London, but he’s still clearly a local celebrity and a much-loved figure.
‘We lived at number 9 Blenheim Crescent, and we had to share a room with two strangers, in what they called a double room. It was a refuge point for a lot of people who came here and didn’t have anywhere to stay at first,’ he explains.
