Yolanda’s story

Further Info

This story was made by members of the Malcolm X Elders Forum (based at the Malcolm X centre in St Pauls) working with staff from the Museum of Bristol and Watershed.

The participants, many of whom had moved from Jamaica to Britain in the 1950s, wrote the stories of their younger lives, which were recorded, and edited into short films by Paddy Uglow, using participants’ photos and other photographs (used under Creative Commons license).

Other project workers were Ruth Jacobs, Sarwat Siddiqui, Jackie Winchester and Aikaterini Gegisian. The project was supported by Bristol’s Museums, Galleries & Archives.

Transcript

My name is Yolanda Jacobs of the Malcolm X forum. I came to London from Trinidad when I was eighteen. I’m a registered nurse, trained in London. I did my post graduate ear, nose and throat training in Grey’s Inn Road in London, which is in London. I worked in surgery with the Queen’s own surgeon, Mr Black. I saw a lot of top people - stars and royals who had nose jobs where I worked. It was very interesting. Never got to nurse them, but saw them come and go.

I then left London in the 70s/80s and came down to Bristol for a weekend and I loved it, so I left London to live and work here. I came down to follow my dreams.

When I came, I went to work in Manor Park hospital as a registered nurse and with a medical agency. I left Manor Park and went to work in Frenchay, on the agency. Then I worked in the department of Homeopathic medicine.

My husband had a music shop in Shepherd’s Bush market, selling reggae and R&B records. He then opened a music shop in Bristol on Grosvenor Road. In those days there was not much going on on Grosvenor Road. Loads of shops were there. There weren’t a lot of black music shops in Bristol so it was very busy, ours that is. He had to keep going up and down to London to get new records because they were sold out quickly. Once, he had to leave a boy in charge of the shop and that boy gave loads of records away. After that the shop had to close down.

There were West Indian shops all over Grosvenor Road, then all the flats were built along the road and shops had to be moved. At that time City Road was very different – lots of doctors and aristocratic people lived there… lawyers. That was before it became a red light area.

The Black and White Café used to be a no go area at that time: lots of drug addicts and prostitutes hang around there.

Grosvenor Road has now changed immensely. We’ve got a learning centre there now which provides for many different cultures and it’s a lovely area now since the Black and White Café has gone.

I am now retired from nursing. Due to illness I can no longer practice. Enjoying my retirement and coming to the Malcolm X Forum. We have many activities here: sewing, crafting… We have a lunch club and now we’re going to have an elderly forum theatre. We’ll be having a play soon. I’m not in it actually. I think I would quite enjoy it.

Credits

Agency receptionist picture created by jacobW.com, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Buildings picture created by Sarwat Siddiqui, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Cathedral picture created by wjmanoch, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Drugs picture created by Brian U, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Motorway picture created by irok, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Noses picture created by BitBoy, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Nurses picture created by theMoose, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Record shop picture created by Jackie Winchester, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Shops created by zooeybat, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

All media not otherwise credited created by the story author, or permission obtained, used under copyright licence.