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Soho 1951: Defying racial convention and paving the way for multicultural Britain

Two clubbers at the Sunset Club, Soho, 1951 - PC2624
Two clubbers at the Sunset Club, Soho, 1951 - PC2624

Amid the hidebound restrictions of post-war Britain they took shelter in a Soho nightclub to dance, drink and socialise away from the ugly racist prejudice that was an everyday reality for all too many.

They were intent on simply having a  good time for a few hours, but their legacy endures to this day.

This recently re-discovered set of pictures captures the exuberance of those who frequented the Sunset Club, on west Soho’s Carnaby Street; it’s patrons made up of native Londoners, recently arrived migrants - part of what we now celebrate as the Windrush generation - and black American GIs stationed in Britain after the war.

Whatever their background and individual stories they all had one obvious thing in common: a love of good music, sharp clothes and carefree dancing.

Dancing at the Sunset Club on Carnaby Street, Soho, 1951 - Credit: TopFoto Archive
Dancing at the Sunset Club on Carnaby Street, Soho, 1951 Credit: TopFoto Archive

Cultural historians now argue that without knowing it these clubbers and musicians, and those enjoying themselves at dozens of similar venues in Britain’s cities, paved the way for a new multicultural society which finds fruit in events such as this Bank Holiday's annual Notting Hill Carnival.

Dr Mark Sealy, director of Autograph, a London-based arts project which explores identity, and representation through photography and film, said the collection provides a vivid insight into a forgotten aspect of recent British history, showing it to be much more open and varied and than is often recognised in official accounts.

“These photographs capture a moment of liberation after the Second World War, when GIs and colonial servicemen who had fought the Nazis thought the Empire was over and they would be free to make music, to meet new people, to make love and enjoy that freedom they had fought for,” said Dr Sealy.

"Even if you'd never met a Jamaican or an African, you got together in London," said Russ Henderson, one of the musicians who played the Sunset Club - Credit: TopFoto Archive
"Even if you'd never met a Jamaican or an African, you got together in London," said Russ Henderson, one of the musicians who played the Sunset Club Credit: TopFoto Archive

“But you can also see it in the face of the white women, and men, in the photographs, falling into a space of freedom they probably wouldn't have outside the club at the time, the freedom to dance and fall in love with who they wanted.

“Every generation of young people does this and the tragedy is that wider politics restricts them.

“The thrill of breaking convention is a real social driver and these people were paving the way for future racially mixed generations, even if not consciously. These photographs also show that people are often far more progressive than we give them credit for.”

Now the search is on the men and women who feature in this remarkable set of photographs from 1951, most of whom would now be in their late 80s and early 90s.

“It would be fascinating to talk to the people who appear in these photographs about all their different their stories and their journeys to a different identity, to hear their memories of that era when they were creating something new - the simple fact of people from different cultural backgrounds sharing something and recreating themselves in the process, said Dr Sealey.

On the dance floor at the Sunset Club in Soho, London, December 1951 - Credit: TopFoto Archives
On the dance floor at the Sunset Club in Soho, London, December 1951 Credit: TopFoto Archives

The Sunset Club was based at 50 Carnaby Street, in what is now a clothes shop. The site had been home to a number of clubs run for and by London’s black community, with jazz and calypso and later ska being the music of choice.

From 1936 it was called the Florence Mills Social Parlour, becoming the Blue Lagoon in the 40s and the Sunset Club from 1950.

In its first incarnation it was named after the black actress Florence Mills and run by Amy Ashwood, the first wife of the black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey, who launched the club with Sam Manning, a calypso singer from Trinidad.

According to Vincent Forbes, the pioneering Jamaican-born sound system DJ who went under the name Duke Vin, the Sunset Club had established itself as one of the five main Caribbean music clubs in London by the late 50s, and as migration from the Caribbean increased these clubs started to focus on the music of those islands.

Crowds on the dance floor at the Sunset Club in Soho, London, December 1951 - Credit: TopFoto Archives
Crowds on the dance floor at the Sunset Club in Soho, London, December 1951 Credit: TopFoto Archives

In 1952 the Russ Henderson Steel Band, Britain’s first steel band, played their first gig there, going on to become a central part of the Notting Hill Carnival, and it’s tradition of attracting black artists for a racially mixed audience continued into the 1970s, when Lloyd Coxsone and Bob Marley and the Wailers.

Shortly before his death in 2015 Henderson recalled his days at the Sunset Club, saying: "Even if you'd never met a Jamaican or an African, you got together in London. And Soho was the place in those days, particularly the Sunset Club in Carnaby Street, where jazz played until seven in the morning.

"That was where the musicians went when the other clubs closed: West Indians and Africans along with the Chris Barbers and the Humphrey Lyttletons. Racially, it was totally mixed.”

* If you recognise yourself, or any of the people in the photographs, contact patrick.sawer@telegraph.co.uk with your story.

Clubbers at the Sunset, Soho, 1951: A sense of freedom amid the restrictions of post-war Britain - Credit: TopFoto Archive
Clubbers at the Sunset, Soho, 1951: A sense of freedom amid the restrictions of post-war Britain Credit: TopFoto Archive