New Colchester gallery celebrates 75th Windrush anniversary

Catherine Bickersteth officially opens the Lawrence Walker Gallery during celebration to mark the 75th Windrush anniversary

A new gallery has opened at an Essex community centre as part of the 75th Windrush celebrations.

The Lawrence Walker Gallery in Priory Walk, Colchester, is named after a local racial equalities activist who died in February.

The centre is where the Colchester Caribbean Association meet.

The Windrush anniversary refers to the migrants who travelled aboard the HMT Empire Windrush, which docked at Tilbury in Essex on 22 June 1948.

They were invited by the UK government to fill a labour shortage.

Its 492 passengers, and others who arrived in the UK from Caribbean countries between 1948 and 1971, became known as the Windrush generation.

Sam Brown said his parents endured much racism when they first arrived in England

Speaking while playing dominoes at the centre, Sam Brown described arriving in England in 1963 from a small village in Jamaica.

"When I came to England and see all the different things, there were loads of lights everywhere, tarmacked roads and all that sort of thing," he said.

"You get buses to go here, water was coming out of taps, you had electricity coming out of the ceiling, it was beautiful."

But Mr Brown said his, and his family's experience of England, was not wholly positive.

"They were spat in the face," he said. "My mum, she was verbally abused in some of the jobs she had in the hospitals and things like that."

He said his father arrived first in April 1952 and "he got a lot of abuse".

A qualified man, his father was only one exam away from becoming a chartered accountant.

"They refused to give him a job," said Mr Brown.

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Meanwhile, Yasmine Carr's grandparents arrived in London in 1961 when the capital was full of smog.

Ms Carr, a centre volunteer, said it was not quite what they expected.

Yasmine Carr volunteers at the arts centre, which is home to a variety of social groups

"She went to visit Buckingham Palace and she couldn't believe how dirty it was," she said.

"Because of all the fog and all the old coal fires, and she just thought, 'Oh my God, the Queen couldn't possibly live in such a dirty building'."

Ms Carr said Britain was seen as "the land of promise" and people came seeking employment and a better life.

"And they were invited, they were asked, because they were part of the Commonwealth, they are British," she said.

"The idea really was to come here, make some money and then go home in a few years.

"But obviously, the streets aren't paved with gold, and they found a very different lifestyle here and there were many who weren't welcoming."

Ms Carr felt things had changed in the intervening years, with more people willing to speak out about racism.

Lawrence Walker died in February following a short period of ill health

The new gallery is located at the community centre run by African Families in the UK, which offers facilities for ethnic minority social groups to meet and host events.