New home for Black heritage

Archives chronicling the history of African and African--Caribbean descendants in the UK have been awarded a major grant. The £4million Heritage Lottery Fund award was announced today for the Black Cultural Archives, which will be housed permanently in Raleigh Hall, Brixton. The Grade II listed building in south London is currently derelict but will be removed from the English Heritage ‘Buildings At Risk’ register. Writer and broadcaster Kwame Kwei-Armah said: ‘I’ve been a huge fan of the BCA since it was first set up in 1981 – it’s a goldmine of information about black cultural identity in Britain.’ The archives contain over 8,000 items, mainly from the post-1945 era, and include photographs, letters and other memorabilia, such as a score by 19th-century composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor.