‘A space of radical black history’: Dalston’s Gillett Square – in pictures
With a long musical history, this east London location is now the source of moving community stories, from growing up in care to battling addiction
Photograph: Wayne R Crichlow
Don Travis and Wayne Crichlow have spent the last three years creating images and oral histories of Hackney’s Caribbean and African communities – including the one centred on Dalston’s Gillett Square, a space of radical history through the black experience. They write: ‘These intergenerational stories include histories of personal struggle, such as mental health, the foster care system, gender norms, structural and institutional racism and sexism.’ Gillett Square Stories is presented by Future Hackney at Red Cross, London
Photograph: Wayne R Crichlow
Back in the 1980s, Dalston was like a magnet for black and working-class communities with weekly shebeens and parties. Many of these people found refuge in the area at venues such as the Four Aces, Centerprise and Cubies
Photograph: Don Travis
Gillett Square has a complex past of black and working-class history, police brutality and structural racism. However, in recent years it has become a vibrant space with regular events and young voices. NTS Radio, which is based on the square, holds events there alongside Albion HiFi and other music organisations
Photograph: Don Travis
SBK: ‘I’m a local music artist who produces and writes all my own work. My music is a range of genres and I spit my own lyrics. Really it was grime music to begin with. Grime resonated with me because it embodied a lot of the anger and confusion that I was going through. I’ve worked with JME, Boy Better Know, Skepta and Wiley. But in this right now, I’m just trying to do it by myself’
Photograph: Don Travis
Gillett Square has always been a space for music lovers, artists, writers, drifters, kids, cool people and those who like to shine
Photograph: Don Travis
Dillon: ‘I became addicted to heroin about two years ago and I am trying to get out of it. Addiction is about pain not drugs. People in Dalston look out for me and understand why I am going through this’
Photograph: Wayne R Crichlow
Clapper Priest: ‘I’m dead against stop and search: it’s counterproductive to the community. I’ve been stopped and searched around 60 times in my life. Certain ideologies that were created during colonialism were used to negate black people, who are still struggling with those labels’
Photograph: Wayne R Crichlow
Future Hackney aims to make art and photography inclusive, removing it from the traditional white box and on to the streets where it becomes part of the fabric of the city
Photograph: Don Travis
Tony: ‘My story goes from care home, to street, to prison. People get paid to foster and sadly many of them do it for the money. I never got hugs or much love, so I wasn’t ever sure what that kind of love actually was. I would like to raise awareness of the care system and how much neglect there is. Sometimes in life you don’t get to choose what you do, how you make a living or how you survive. If I had a choice I would have been a posh kid and lived the good life and gone to university and got something out of life, the right guidance, the right support and the right mentors’
Photograph: Wayne R Crichlow
Keyo: ‘The first time I experienced racism was at Notting Hill carnival. It was 1977 and there was a lot of tension in the air. Something kicked off and the police grabbed me and pushed me up against a van. I could hear people shouting, “Let him go, he’s just a kid.” First one or two, then it sounded like 50 people. They backed off and I went my own way. This was my first understanding of the power of community’
Photograph: Wayne R Crichlow
Wayne: ‘Growing up locally we understood the relevance of Gillett Square as a place where stories can be told, shared, documented and preserved as part of London’s history’
Photograph: Don Travis
Joshua: ‘I came to the UK a year ago from Montserrat, a small island in the Caribbean. I walk my friend’s dog Cabanna and get to chat to people in the square. I used to look after dogs back home so this gives me a sense of belonging’
Photograph: Don Travis
Gillett Square is a microcosm of a growing global trend that could be interpreted as the ‘managed decline’ of a historically ethnic and working-class space
Photograph: Don Travis
Half Pint: ‘At the age of 11 I carried a handgun. A magnum, which my bredrins gave me to protect mum and the cousins. I never used it and never wanted to, but I was the one who had that responsibility, as Dad had left. Growing up in Waterhouse ghetto [in Kingston, Jamaica] was tough love, so at the age of 19 I arrived in a bitterly cold London and got my first job on Ridley Road [market, near Gillett Square]’
Photograph: Don Travis
Future Hackney are reinventing documentary through continuous engagement and street workshops with young people and intergenerational groups. People are encouraged to share their stories and images in their own way
Photograph: Don Travis
Abigail Asante: ‘I blew up in music when I was 21 years old, with my music partner at the time. We were the first two females to pass three million views in drill music, so we made history and trended. Drill music originated in southside Chicago depicting the area’s challenging environment. I like to talk about issues that affect women including colourism and abuse’