Leeds West Indian Centre 40th Anniversary

The Leeds West Indian Centre provides educational, cultural and social activities in Chapeltown and it has just celebrated its 40th anniversary.

Transcript

00:00 I remember the West Indian Centre being open as a young child at the age of six

00:04 years old and the whole community coming out and supporting it and I think

00:08 what's amazing is even though it's a community centre and people come down

00:12 and have dominoes, it's done everything in the community from weddings to

00:15 christenings to funerals, it's been there throughout the life course of

00:19 generations within this community but it's also been there as the focal point

00:24 for political activism as well, reuniting the community to help fight injustices

00:29 that we've suffered here in Chapel Town. My memories obviously of this place is

00:33 really my father being a member down here and that means a lot to me, my dad

00:39 being one of the members here, so for me this place is so important to the

00:47 community just to keep it here and really get it back to its former glory.

00:52 My passion about this centre is actually coming down, enjoying myself of the

00:57 events, bringing my children down for the carnival events and any of the events

01:01 that are going on. I think it's important that we keep this building, we keep it

01:05 for our community, we keep it for the future children. When I was a baby my

01:10 christening reception was kept here in January 1999, coming down for like

01:17 parties as a teenager, early 20s, it's just been great. It's just so, it's just

01:22 so amazing to know that it's seen so much different generations in the last

01:27 40 years. My earliest memory of the West Indian Centre is from when my great

01:32 granddad passed and the funeral, the funeral where after it was held here.

01:37 The building is very sentimental to me so even if my kids are born and then they

01:41 have their kids I would like the building still to be here so we can all

01:44 cherish and share the same memories. The Leeds West Indian Centre has been the

01:48 cultural hub of Leeds. Also at the same time anybody who came outside of Leeds

01:57 would come to the Leeds West Indian Centre. So carnival, number one, you know

02:04 with its long history, you always came to the Leeds West Indian Centre for the

02:09 drop-off point, then everybody would go to the Port Newton Park, then for last

02:14 lap you would always come to the West Indian Centre. It's most definitely needed

02:19 in the community and it's amazing to celebrate 40 years of West Indian Centre

02:24 so it's for more people to come in and support the things that are going on.

02:27 I've been to a lot of events at the West Indian Centre to do with businesses, you

02:32 know people having stalls, a lot of events, a lot of parties which have been

02:36 absolutely amazing and it brings obviously the community together and

02:40 it's an amazing place. For myself it was back in the day when it first opened

02:44 and being a carnival princess at the time and doing my first carnival princess

02:50 routine in the main hall and then going out into the marquee that was at the

02:54 side, they're just fantastic memories. It's been a course of so many changes

02:58 over the years but it's the one constant we've had in the community so it's been

03:02 absolutely fantastic.