From protests to dancing in the street: East London’s Bengali community – in pictures
A remarkable new archive documents the resilience of Bengalis who have built their lives in the UK. Comprised of images and testimonies donated by members off the East London Bengali community, it offers a unique insight to their struggles and place within British society. An accompanying exhibition, I Am Who I Am Now, runs at Four Corners Gallery in Bethnal Green, London, until 3 August
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Faizum Nehar Begum with her mother in Bangladesh, 1981, prior to moving to the UK.
Photograph: Shanaz Siddiqa-Baeg
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Shanaz Siddiqa-Baeg at Biscott House council estate in London E3, in traditional Bengali dress and – in her passport shots – western clothing.
Photograph: Shanaz Siddiqa-Baeg
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Brick Lane shops in 1990. The area, in the heart of the Bangladeshi community, is also known as Banglatown.
Photograph: David Hoffman
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An anti-racist march in Tower Hamlets in the 1970s, protesting against the far-right.
Photograph: Syd Shelton
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Nita, a Bengali dancer in 1980’s, embroidered in 2024. The picture was taken from a series of embroidered portraits by the documentary photographer Jenny Matthews, whose work focuses on the lives of women and girls.
Photograph: Nita Roy Chowdhury/Embroidered by Jenny Matthews
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Dancing in the streets outside Spitalfields Farm in the 1990s.
Photograph: Daniele Lamarche
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Women take part in the Progressive Youth Organisation’s summer programme in the mid-1990s. Founded by locals, the organisation was set up to educate young people and help them develop awareness on issues including racism, housing and employment.
Photograph: Mayar Akash
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The TUC Unite Against Racism demonstration in Tower Hamlets in 1994, attended by more than 40,000 people. The march highlighted the escalating racist violence in east London since the election of a BNP councillor in Millwall.
Photograph: Mayar Akash
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Life on a Tower Hamlets council estate in in the 1990s.
Photograph: Anthony Lam
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The Bangladesh Youth Movement winning a football tournament in 1986.
Photograph: Lloyd Gee
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Hanging out on a Whitechapel council estate in 1975.
Photograph: Bev Zalcock
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Ready for her close-up ... a young girl in Spitalfields in the 1970s.
Photograph: Anthony Lam
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Protesters at Tower Hamlets town hall in April 1987, following the Liberal council’s decision to evict many Bengali families from their bed and breakfast accommodation.
Photograph: David Hoffman
