Edexcel GCSE History · 1HI0/13 June 2022, Question 2(a)

Back then, you had a lot of shebeens. Because of the ‘colour bar’, there was nothing really for black people, so you had to create your own social environment. The Jamaican people brought particularly reggae, ska and bluebeat music to London. A man called Fullerton had a basement in Talbot Road and we used to have dances with Blues music and stuff. Everybody used to get down there. You had people like Duke Vin who used to play the music on a big speaker sound system. Discos actually came from Caribbean culture.

It was a flat on the first floor. When it was full, we had about twenty to thirty people. There was a front room where you could listen to the latest sounds. There would be some nice jazz music playing and there was a bar where we sold every type of drink you wanted. In the bedroom was the casino where people played card games, like poker, for money. Then there was the kitchen, where I employed a man called Bully. He cooked Caribbean soul food, which was rice and peas. The shebeen had no fixed hours and just stayed open each day until the last people left. On a good week, my shebeen could earn up to £400.