‘Accounting for the hostel for 'coloured colonial seamen' in London's East End, 1942–1949’

ABSTRACT

In 1942, 17 Leman Street, Whitechapel, was acquired by the Colonial Office and converted into the only seamen's hostel for black men in London. For seven years, this small government-sponsored hostel provided thirteen beds for seamen from British colonies in the Caribbean and West Africa. Considering the hostel amid wider contestations of nationhood in London’s built environment, this paper argues that the experience of ‘colonial’ seamen and stowaways in the capital was characterised by spatial precariousness, a condition accentuated by the unwillingness of authorities to respond to the difficult realities of the colour bar and citizenship in post-war urban space.

KEYWORDS:

• Colonial seamen
• East London
• hostels
• post-war built environment
• Colonial Office

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Sarah A. Milne is a Research Associate at the Survey of London, part of the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. She writes histories of London’s built environment and is currently working on the Survey’s experimental 'Histories of Whitechapel' project (https:surveyoflondon.org), funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. This work has deepened her concern for the ways in which trade and migration have shaped city development and architecture over the long term.

Notes

1 Halpert’s words are reminiscent of Jack London’s reaction to his observation of East End poverty, in particular disbelief that two men, one employed as a carter, the other a carpenter, were forced to pick up crumbs to eat from the pavement 'in the heart of the greatest, wealthiest, and most powerful empire the world has ever seen' (London, 1903, p. 78.)

2 Names of these seamen and stowaways have been changed.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Arts and Humanities Research Council: [Grant Number AH/N00146X/1].