We Were There
What do you think of when you think of modern-day Black Britain?
For many, the answer is immediate and predictable: London. Brixton’s murals, Tottenham’s uprisings, Peckham’s bustling streets. London has long been seen as the beating heart of Black British life, culture and resistance. Yet step outside the M25 and another story unfolds. It is rich, defiant, creative, but often overlooked.
Lanre Bakare’s We Were Here invites us to widen the lens.
Written by a Guardian correspondent and fellow Bradfordian, the book uncovers a Black Britain that is vivid and vital beyond the capital. It is a portrait of a country shaped not just by London’s rhythms but by the lives and labours of Black communities in cities like Birmingham, Liverpool, Cardiff, Manchester and Bradford.
We Were There is a vital corrective that enhances our understanding of Black British history in the 20th century by moving the narrative outside of London - Steve McQueen
Set against the backdrop of Britain’s tumultuous late 20th century — Thatcherism, the rise of the National Front, the grinding down of industry — We Were Here chronicles both the struggle and the creativity that emerged from these landscapes. Bakare shines a light on once-prosperous towns and cities. These are places where foundries, docks and mills boomed before economic decline set in. It was here that many Black Britons lived, worked, resisted and remade community life, even as political hostility raged around them.
The stories gathered in We Were Here remind us that modern Britain, the Britain we know today, was built in countless places. In the heat of resistance on the streets of Liverpool. In the organising halls of Wolverhampton. In the creative outpourings that blossomed in Wigan and across the green stretches of the countryside.
For those of us from towns like Bradford, there is a particular resonance. Too often, the national narrative suggests that significance, culture and Blackness are urban and London-centric. Bakare’s work pushes against that gravitational pull. It makes visible the extraordinary lives that existed, and still exist, far from the capital’s lights.
On a personal note, I want to say a heartfelt thank you to Lanre for shouting out my photography work during the book launch at The Loading Bay in Bradford on 26 April 2025. It means so much to know that my work is recognised for what it is: a visual record of contemporary Black Britain. Through my lens, I try to capture not only the realities but also the hopes, everyday triumphs and quiet beauty of Black lives outside the usual frames. To hear that reflected back at such an important moment was both humbling and affirming.
We Were Here is more than a book of memory. It is a reclaiming. A call to recognise the fullness of Black British history. A reminder that, when we tell the story of this country, we must tell it completely.
Because we were there. We are here.
We Were There: How Black culture, resistance and community shaped modern Britain
We Were There is about a Black Britain that for too long has been unknown and unexplored – the one that exists beyond London.