A 'Windrush Journey' to Mayfield Avenue

Baroness Floella Benjamin on memories of arriving to Chiswick to start a new life

The 70th anniversary of the arrival of the first Empire Windrush with 500 immigrants from the West Indies is today (Friday, June 22nd) and former television presenter Floella Benjamin (now Baroness Benjamin) has spoken of her memories of arriving to Chiswick to start her life in the UK.

Those who came to the United Kingdom in the period after World War II are sometimes referred to as the Windrush generation. Between 1948 and 1970 nearly half a million people left their homes in the West Indies to live in Britain. Baroness Benjamin was at the tail end of that movement, arriving in 1960.

Speaking on BBC Radio Four, she said that her parents had left the Caribbean fifteen months ahead of her and her three siblings to build a new life in Britain. In 1960 the parents sent for the children to join them.

"The four of us travelled on a big ship across the Atlantic, and it was one of the most exciting journeys we ever had. We felt we were freed as we had lived with foster parents who were rather cruel. The sailors made us peel potatoes, and we didn't realise at first we were doing their job for them.

"It was an adventure, we spent two and a half weeks on the high seas. And as we were going from one climate to another, it got colder and we were in flimsy dresses, and shorts, so it was quite a shock to the system.

"The arrival was wonderful, as I hadn't seen my mother for 15 months. She used to pour love into us every day as she pampered us and made us feel special. Being away from your parents you lose your identity and sense of belonging. I felt it was like an angel looking at me when I saw her at Southampton Docks with her beaming smile."

Lady Benjamin recalled the journey to Chiswick from Southampton, first on the train and then the Underground.

Mayfield Avenue

"People were staring at us, and at first I thought it was because I had a pretty dress. I didn't realise it was for other reasons. When we arrived it was quite traumatic, all the sounds, it was like an urban jungle, the noise, the traffic, buses, telephone boxes.

"We eventually got to No 1 Mayfield Avenue in Chiswick. We lived eight people in one room, but my mother said 'it doesn't matter, we are living in a room full of love.'

"For the first few weeks I felt safe until I ventured out into the big wide world to school and that's where it changed. I was no longer Floella, I was no longer a person, I was a colour. When you are black, or Asian, people don't identify you as a person but a colour.

"I had thought I was in the land of hope and glory, the land of the free and that I was British and suddenly I'm being told I am not one of you. In 1960 when I first came people were saying, 'what are you doing here?'"

She felt that the contribution of those immigrants, the nurses, the factory workers, the people on the buses had been left out of history.

"If we have a Windrush Day it will give people the opportunity to learn of their history and of their heritage so that Caribbean people can feel they are appreciated. that they do belong. Young people, especially those from Caribbean background, can feel alienated, "like airless plants". Yet they should feel they belong because their ancestors helped make the country we are living in great"

Baroness Fielding was born in Trinidad but was brought up in England. After leaving school she spent a short time in the world of banking and accountancy, but then found her way into the theatre in 1970.

She appeared in numerous films and television dramas and became a household name after presenting children’s programmes ‘Playschool’ and ‘Playaway’. In 1987 she went on to form her own award winning film and television production company.

In 2001 received an OBE for services to broadcasting and 2004 she was awarded the BAFTA Special Lifetime Award for her services to children's television. She was made a Liberal Democrat Life Peer in 2010.

She has written over 25 books including ‘Coming to England’ which is now used as a resource tool in schools and in 2003 it was adapted by her production company into a film for the BBC.

June 23, 2018