The ‘Strangers’ Home

“If you don’t tell your story, someone else will tell it for you.”

The past collides with the present in this invigorating retelling of the history of Royal Docks in East London. The ‘Strangers’ Home was a residential home in Limehouse, in the Royal Docks area of East London. It provided temporary accommodation for Asian and black sailors (lascars) who came from across the British Empire and worked on European ships between the 16th century and the mid-20th century. The film tells the story of what became one of Britain’s most ethnically diverse places in the early twentieth century, focussing on personal family memories of the settlers’ descendants.

The area around London’s Royal Docks transformed rapidly from the 1850s onwards to handle the trade from Britain’s global empire. Men who worked in the docks came from all over the world, with many settling in Newham and raising children with local women. The film tells the story of the Lascars and their descendants living in East London by exploring the development of the Royal Docks as another home for strangers and its lasting impact on the surrounding areas. Many workers settled and had families, became part of the community, and developed the present-day Royal Docks, Newham, and East London, making it one of the most culturally diverse places anywhere in Britain.

The film mixes archive and contemporary footage, past and present, interviews with descendants of the community to explore stories that have been lost, forgotten or misshapen by the media. The focus of the film is how the media portrayed migrants and mixed families, fuelling a moral panic during the 1930s. The film depicts how the workers were welcomed to cover the needs of the British Empire during the First World War, but were soon vilified and used as scapegoats by the government, the press, and locals for taking jobs, houses and suppressing wages. It is a story that is still being spun about immigrants today.