West Kensington house receives blue plaque for its Black history

An historical house in Hammersmith & Fulham which was home to Kenya’s first president, Jamaica’s most outspoken political activist, and leading civil rights figures, has been honoured with commemorative plaques as part of Black History Month.

Between 1928 and 1964, residents of the house at 57 Castletown Road included Jomo Kenyatta, the African statesman and nationalist who went on to become the first Prime Minister, then President, of independent Kenya.

When Kenyatta 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 has also been 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 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. 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.

The unveiling was attended by Muhammad Ali Jr, son of the legendary heavyweight boxing champion, and Matthew Marshall, Chair of the Malcolm X Foundation.