West Ken House's Unique Place in Black History to Be Marked
Event being described as the UK's biggest diversity plaque tribute
The house in Castletown Road near Queen's Club. Picture: Google Streetview
September 30, 2024
The special place in black history of a house on a back street in West Kensington is to be commemorated.
The terrace property at 57 Castletown Road close to the Queen’s Club is to be the site of what is being described as the biggest diversity plaque tribute in UK history. It has a unique claim to fame as being the home of a number of prominent figures including a nation’s first president, and leading civil rights and political figures
On Tuesday 1 October at 11am guests at the unveiling will include Muhammad Ali Jr, son of the legendary heavyweight boxing champion, and Matthew Marshall, chair of the Malcolm X Foundation.
The remarkable house with its olive-green front door and wrought-iron balconies, was variously home to Kenya’s first president, Jamaica’s most outspoken political activist, and leading civil rights figures, is to be honoured with commemorative plaques as part of Black History Month.
Between 1928 and 1964, residents of the house included Jomo Kenyatta, the African statesman and nationalist who went on to become the first prime minister, then president, of independent Kenya.
When Kenyatta, then in his mid-30s, arrived in London in March 1929, he had nowhere to stay. He was offered space in the house by Nigerian civil rights lawyer and leader of the West African Organisation Ladipo Solanke, who is also to be commemorated.
Solanke had been supported in his campaigning for Nigerian rights by Amy Ashwood Garvey, the Jamaican feminist activist who co-founded the influential newspaper Negro World with her husband Marcus Garvey, the Black nationalist.
From March 1928 to October 1929 the house, which is spread across five storeys, was home to Amy and Marcus, regarded by many as the most significant human rights married couple of the 20th century.
Then, 35 years later, the house became a temporary home for Malcolm X, the African American revolutionary who campaigned for civil rights and was the Nation of Islam’s vocal advocate. He stayed in the house a year before his assassination in New York in 1965, weeks before his 40th birthday.
“It is a great honour for a property to be awarded a blue heritage plaque,” said Dr Jak Beula of the Nubian Jak Community Trust, the largest deliverer of diverse plaques in the world.
“It is rare for a residential property to be the site of two plaques, and almost unprecedented to be connected with three. So to have an address associated with five global figures is practically bonkers!”
Cllr Sharon Holder, H&F Cabinet Member for Public Realm, said it was a ‘great example’ of partnership between H&F and the Trust, and a fantastic way to launch Black History Month locally. She added, This is part of the council's wider programme to diversify our public realm by visibly celebrating the borough`s Black heritage and history in a proactive way.”
“It’s wonderful to work with the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in opening up Black History Month 2024 with such a historic tribute,” added Dr Beula. “The legacy will be visitors from all over the world coming to see this house.”
There are fewer than 2,500 properties in the capital with blue plaques, with the Heritage Foundation and Nubian Jak Community Trust the only official plaque schemes publicly endorsed by English Heritage.
The latest unveiling helps redress a historic imbalance. Since the trust began work it has been able to boost the proportion of diverse plaques in the capital from 1.6 per cent to 7 per cent.
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