A Brief History of Multicultural London

Panikos Panayi

While migration may have become key to understanding the modern world, the former British imperial capital of London, the first truly global city, has a unique history of interacting with people from beyond its shores. Its development into the largest city in the world by the early nineteenth century, a position it would hold well into the following century, largely took place as a result of internal migration, including, however, significant numbers of people from Ireland, as well as decreasing mortality due to health and nutritional advances.

The Migrant Populations of London

As well as the new arrivals from within Britain, London had always attracted settlers from other parts of the world, especially Europe. In fact, the origins of London, founded by Roman invaders in the first century, meant that it constituted an international migrant hub from its inception, housing the type of multicultural population which characterised the Roman Empire. The eleventh century Norman invasion not only brought this group to the capital but also the first significant Jewish community, remaining until its expulsion from England of 1290. The Hanseatic merchants built their headquarters in the Steelyard, next to the Thames, expelled by Queen Elizabeth I in 1603. The sixteenth and seventeenth century European wars of religion resulted in the arrival of refugees from all over the continent, centred on the Austin Friars Church. The central role of the British Empire in the transatlantic slave trade meant that Black people became a feature of London life by the eighteenth century, gradually disappearing through intermarriage. By this time, following readmission in 1656, Jews had also settled in the imperial capital as had Germans. The most significant migrant community consisted of the Irish, who fell victims to the murderous Gordon Riots of 1780. Despite this, millions of Irishmen and women moved to London over the next two centuries, while, by the outbreak of the First World War, the imperial capital also counted significant German, Italian, Russian Jewish and French communities, as well as small numbers of people from the British Empire. London experienced relatively little migration during the interwar years, although the Irish continued to arrive, as did refugees from the Nazis. The longevity of migration to London demonstrates that its multicultural history did not begin after the Second World War, when newcomers have arrived from all over the world, giving rise to the concept of superdiversity. By 2021 only 36.8 per cent of London’s population described themselves as white British.

London as Capital Migrant City

The longevity of migration to the city makes it unique and while other superdiverse urban centres may have emerged, none have such a long-term history of immigration. This applies whether comparing the capital to other parts of Europe and the world or to other British cities. London has always acted as the main destination of foreigners moving to the country whether nineteenth century Germans and Jews or numerous post-War groupings including West Indians and Cypriots. London is therefore a Jewish city, an Irish city, a Cypriot city, a Turkish city, a French city, an Asian city, a Caribbean city, a Black African city and a Polish city, to give just a few examples. Indeed, the South Asian population of London, with origins in former British India and Ceylon, outnumbers the total population of Birmingham, Britain’s self-appointed second city, a term in which it takes pride.

Migrant Metropolis

As the imperial capital expanded during the nineteenth century, two areas became particularly associated with immigration. First, the East End, a point of arrival, next to the Thames, which, in the popular imagination, became synonymous with the perils of uncontrolled immigration, especially Jewish, although it housed a variety of other groups including Germans and Irish people. This association with poverty has continued into the twenty first century, by which time the most significant group had become Bangladeshis with the Jewish community gradually disappearing. On the other hand, by the end of the nineteenth century a new area of migrant settlement had emerged in popular discourse in the form of Soho in the West End of London, connected not with the perils of immigration but with the concept of cosmopolitanism, the home of continental dining, although after the Second World War, it became associated with the Chinese community, as well as with sexual vice and deviancy. But the East End and Soho simply became the best-known areas of migrant settlement. Nineteenth century Germans resided in several parts of the capital, while the Russian Jewish community moved out of its East End heartland into suburban north London, part of the process of social mobility. People who arrived after 1945 transformed the whole city into a migrant metropolis. While concentrations may have developed, the essence of post-war London, again adding to its uniqueness, lies in the fact that the level of diversity means that an individual from any ethnic group can live next to somebody from a completely different community, a city-wide phenomenon by the beginning of the twenty first century.

Workers, Service Personnel and Elites

Just as importantly, while the majority of those who have moved to the city, in common with other urban spaces characterised by immigration, have carried out work at the lower end of the social scale, the whole picture remains far more complicated. Foreigners have certainly built and serviced London whether we consider the Irish, fundamental in the building trade from the eighteenth to the late twentieth century, or the armies of cleaners in twenty first century London originating especially from Latin America and Africa. The fashion industry in the British capital has depended on a range of groups from late nineteenth century Russian Jews to post-War Cypriots and Bangladeshis in particular, while the London restaurant trade remains inconceivable without the input of foreigners, a statement which applies as much to the Ritz and Café Royal as it does to fish and chip shops, Chinese takeaways and Indian restaurants. These businesses point to the fact that migrants play an active role in their economic destiny, opening up small businesses throughout the capital whether to service their own community or the multicultural population as a whole. London has developed into a city of migrant shopkeepers. Just as importantly, it has attracted migrant elites, whether bankers such as the Rothschilds and Speyers, political activists including Karl Marx and Gandhi, or musicians from Händel to Jimi Hendrix, who lived in the same house in Brook Street, over two centuries apart.

The Uniqueness of London

Created by migrants, London has a unique history of immigration characterised by longevity and superdiversity in terms of ethnicity but also social class and residence patterns. In a city with no ethnic majority, migrants and their descendants, whatever their ethnic origins, have developed power in the economic, political and cultural sphere, as politicians, property owners, musicians and footballers respectively, making London a symbol of a multicultural urban space.

Panikos Panayi is Professor of European History. He has worked at De Montfort University since 1990 and has held a personal Chair since 1999. He has published widely and his research fits into the following areas: the history of immigration and interethnic relations; the history of food; the First World War; German history; the history of London; and the history of the Cypriot people.

---

---