The majority of Cypriots came as a wave to Britain in the mid to late 50s and early 60s. J. F. Claxton, the prosecutor, established the facts of the murder.102 The proceedings continued on Thursday 26 August. This is a list of notable British Cypriots. 667. In 1951 the number of West Africans in Britain stood at 5,600 in comparison to 15,300 West Indians, although by 1961 the two groups had reached 19,800 and 171,800, respectively, according to figures gathered from the census in E. J. While the community evolved in the early post-war period, they became increasingly invisible, partly because they became subsumed in the emerging group of migrants from mainland Turkey in London.9, In 1926 the British government decided to carry out an investigation into the rural population of Cyprus led by Brewster J. Surridge, the district commissioner of Larnaca, who had been in Cyprus since the First World War.10 The report, published in 1930, found that 80 per cent of the population lived on or below the subsistence line.11 Although the report was essentially factual, involving Government officials, retired officials, lawyers and merchants from 46 persons in each district, exclusive of the District Commissioners,12 the research and the findings drew on contemporary imperial stereotypes. The Maltese community in early post-war London receives attention in G. Dench, The Maltese in London: a Case Study in the Erosion of Ethnic Consciousness (London, 1975). Following this unrest came the first big influx of Cypriot immigrants to London in the 60s, and then, after Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974 in reaction to a Greek coup, Greek-Cypriots fled the . North London is still a hotbed for Greek eateries, catering to Cypriot and Greek expats hungry for souvlaki, kleftiko and gigantes as good as they taste back home. A supposedly handsome and supposedly unbeatable scrapper named Achilles. Director Savvas D Michael co-stars in The Bezonians. Pamela Constantinides (The Greek Cypriots: factors in the maintenance of ethnic identity, in Watson, Between Two Cultures, pp. By 1966 his first three children, aged between twenty-one and twenty-five, had all married other Cypriots, while his nineteen-year-old student son had a fiance from his own ethnic group. Activity is mainly focused upon the areas of cigarette smuggling and the trafficking of marijuana, hashish and weapons. H. Faustmann and N. Peristianis (Mannheim, 2006). Into this London family came Styllou Christofi, already a murderess, who appears to have attempted to impose peasant discipline and control even though she had previously destroyed her family in Cyprus. More than 40 years later, Antonagis now sits surrounded by portraits of his loving family. It was here he met his wife, Diana, daughter of the owner of the garage. The 62-year-old Turkish Cypriot is part of a London-based crime mob who have been involved in armed robbery, contract killing, and drug trafficking since the late 1960s. Sign up to unlock our digital magazines and also receive the latest news, events, offers and partner promotions. In 1966 a B.B.C. Traditional Greek & Cypriot cuisine. Videos on social media showed Greek Cypriot protesters with Greek and Cypriot flags shouting slogans against Turkey and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, as . Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon! on same day), 8 Feb. 1940; and CO 67/306/17, R. St. J. O. Wayne, Liaison Office, to colonial secretary, Cyprus (sent to C.O. it is speculated that for a large part, Greek-based cartels are at work. Attitudes towards Cypriot Greek and Standard Modern Greek in London's Greek Cypriot community, International Journal of Bilingualism 2016 Convergence in word structure: revisiting agglutinative . . Teddy boys, the insecure offenders identified by Tosco Fyvel in his study of adolescent violence in the late 1950s and early 1960s, attacked Cypriot cafes and Cypriots in the streets. In 1952 the restaurant trade still accounted for 49 per cent of Cypriot male employment in London, although this figure had decreased to 30.5 per cent by 1958. But despite there being so many Greeks around, Greek dating isn't always so easy in the UK. J. Thomson, Through Cyprus With the Camera in the Autumn of 1878 (London, 1879); and M. Hadjimichael, Revisiting Thomson: the colonial eye and Cyprus, in Britain and Cyprus: Colonialism and Post-colonialism, 18782006, ed. With no photographs of the wedding, Antonagis only has the images in his mind to remind him of the day he married the love of his life. However, the result is an intensely irritating hot mess, a London petty criminal story set in the Greek Cypriot community thats offensive, self-indulgent and stupid. The stereotype in this instance was not based on the Cypriot peasant, as the London working classes would not have engaged with this concept, relating as it did to people of similarly low social status in the eyes of the elites. According to the 2011 census, 659,115 respondents recorded their ethnicity as Greek, forming almost 99% of the 667,398 Cypriot citizens and over 78% of the 840,407 total . These details are taken from The National Archives of the U.K., PCOM 9/1721, CHRISTOFI, Styllou Pantopiou: convicted at Central Criminal Court (CCC) on 28 October 1954 of murder; sentenced to death, executed 15 December 1954. Perhaps this represents the tip of an iceberg, or perhaps male Cypriot migrants have kept any memories of racism they may have experienced in London suppressed, possibly because migration to the imperial capital provided an escape from the persecution that they experienced at home, as the British authorities in Cyprus regarded all males as potential terrorists.136 In fact, male migration to London intensified partly as a result of the way in which the British authorities unsuccessfully tried to crush the activities of E.O.K.A. Indigenous organized criminal groups are well-entrenched in the largest Greek urban centers, particularly in Athens . The article investigates the nature of family in Cyprus and London and questions why Cypriots have received so little attention from historians, despite their numbers. Cypriot mothers with babies, or children by themselves, were evacuated out of London, some as far as Yorkshire, Bedford and Northamptonshire. See Cyprus Is an Island [documentary film, online] dir. In 2019 the grandson of Styllou (by her sons second wife), Toby Christofi, unsuccessfully tried to prove her innocence by claiming her insanity as part of a B.B.C. Dine In or Take Away. 115. Thevis' use of unnecessary violence against both real and imagined enemies and competitors was so extreme that he was compared to the character of Tony Montana from the 1983 movie Scarface. His sentence was two years long. T.N.A., FCO 141/3348B, Cyprus: reports on the Cypriot community in London, 19549. Andreas Louca, a 17-year-old Greek Cypriot, was fatally wounded when a soldier fractured his skull in clashes following the death of the wife of a British sergeant. documentary, which also featured Chrisostomos Sosti.152 But just as transplantation of the family occurred from Cyprus to London, the Anglocentric prejudices that had developed from the British takeover of the island in 1878 informed the debate that surrounded the Styllou Christofi trial (even though they did not lead to the conviction because of the indisputability of the evidence) and contributed to wider prejudice towards Cypriots in Britain. By 1972the London Borough of Haringey had the highest concentration of Cypriots in the UK approximately 40,000 out of 200,000 residents. E. Said, Orientalism (1978, repr. With soft, kind eyes, his empathy stretches far beyond the words he says. GUEST POST and interview by Engage London's Meagan Walker, which was originally published on her blog (3 April 2018). This article has offered an insight into the complexities of Cypriot migrant life in London in the middle of the twentieth century. Upon arrival in London, they undertook a variety of jobs, such as catering, though many owned businesses and others had trade skills. Were not in Kavos anymore, Toto. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. T.N.A., KV 2/4400, File on Ezekias Papaioannou; and A. Varnava, Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) and his anti-war and pro-peace protest songs: from hippy peace to Islamic peace, Contemporary British History, xxxiii (2019), 54872. See e.g., E. Pilkington, Beyond the Mother Country: West Indians and the Notting Hill White Riots (London, 1988); and M. Collins, Pride and prejudice: West Indian men in mid-twentieth century Britain, Journal of British Studies, xl (2001), 391418. Various organized crime elements originating from Greece, This article is about ethnic Greek organized crime in general or ethnic Greek criminal organizations based mainly in Greece. One Teddy boy remembered that one time we used to go regularly to the Angel where theres a lot of cafes and we aimed to start trouble with the Greeks and Turks and start a punch-up. 19206. "They don't even want to let our voices be heard. He sarcastically commented, So this is a murderess who is remarkably tidy in clearing away the evidence of the murder.105, The trial continued on Tuesday 26 October, when the prosecution closed their case. She committed this crime either because of a clash of generations or ethnic cultures or because she saw the murder as justified according to her own world view, developed in early twentieth-century Cyprus, where she had grown up. The vine-clad dining room is abuzz with garrulous chatter, boozy toasts and local gossip, with the odd famous face adding some extra glitz to proceedings, while the kitchen serves up traditional Hellenic sunshine in the shape of vast mezdes, charcoal grills, stews and other classics. Crawford contrasted the German woman a bright, wholesome type, though not expensively dressed with the older woman a typical Cypriot peasant type, low intellect, somewhat miserable demeanour, and looking a dowdy old woman, years older than her age, except for her jet black hair. campaign in Cyprus. Bearing in mind the previous murder she had committed, she must have seen this course of action as legitimate. We were called the bubble and squeak Greeks, he remembers. Cypriots began to form organisations and associations to preserve their identity and create a stronger sense of community. The film carried an underlying narrative that pointed to the benefits of British rule. This racism transcended colour, although African, Asian and West Indian migrants were easier targets than white colonials, such as Cypriot and Maltese migrants.71. In a clumsy attempt to hide her crime, Styllou set the corpse alight in the backyard. In the early days of migration, the Cypriot peasant, like his Polish counterpart in early twentieth-century America,139 replicated the traditions and customs of the homeland. The interior is nothing to write home about, but youre here for the great-value food and the personal vibe. Philippou (National Geographic and half oriental Cyprus) asserts that photographers also sought classical elements in the Cypriot landscape and people. 1415. Rose and others, Colour and Citizenship: a Report on Race Relations in Britain (London, 1969), p. 97. While the Greek Cypriots in Britain have remained largely ignored in the growing historiography of migration in early post-war Britain,6 from the 1930s Greek Cypriots became one of the most prominent migrant groups in London. 155. While the two communities may have interacted in many ways, especially in the workplace, and while the Turkish Cypriots may have similar demographic characteristics to the Greek Cypriots, it is important to establish here that they have their own distinct history, revolving around their own linguistic and religious traditions, as well as different patterns of settlement, making their history in Britain unique. A group of Greek Cypriot protesters in the United Kingdom attempted to block on Wednesday the vehicle of Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, who traveled to London to speak at an event. The Greek and Cypriot Cultural Community and Youth Centre houses a Greek educational library in north London, including ancient, medieval and modern Greek books, and offers classes in. The content youre reading is made by independent, expert local journalists. Recent notable contributions to this literature include K. H. Perry, London Is the Place for Me: Black Britons, Citizenship, and the Politics of Race (Oxford, 2015); and R. Waters, Thinking Black: Britain, 19641985 (Berkeley, 2019). No official reasons were given, but the newspapers speculated that he had taken into account the provocation and also that she had been ill. On the other hand, Lloyd did not reprieve Styllou Christofi, and despite a concerted campaign, with thousands of people signing a petition, he did not reprieve Ruth Ellis either.119. Sandbach stated that this looks like white slavery and that it was the worst case I have ever had to deal with, with his only regret being that Michaelides was a British subject and could therefore not be deported.78 For Sandbach, the outrage was not merely the fact that Michaelides had broken the law but that he was prostituting white women. P. Panayi (London, 1996), pp. ( , the Communist Party of Cyprus), which had adopted a policy of support for enosis in contradiction to the previous Communist Party of Cyprus (which had supported independence), and began to control the Cypriot communists in Britain.67 This led to a purge of the Cypriot branches in 1952, with several members, most notably Ioannides, suspended and George Pefkos becoming the Cypriot communist leader in the U.K.68. Next to Clapham North station, this cramped family-run eatery deals in Greek and Med-inspired plates at knockdown prices. In contrast to the Sicilian mafia or the Albanian mafia, Greek criminal groups follow the same structure[clarification needed] organized gangs have within the French Milieu or the Penose in the Netherlands. series producing documentaries on individual communities called Minorities in Britain looked at Cypriots through the example of Chrisostomos Sosti. Surridge, Rural Life in Cyprus, p. 25; Stylianou, Inner Life of Cyprus, pp. 10-12 Moscow Road, London W2 4BT, UK. Smith and Varnava, Creating a suspect community; and E. Papaioannou, (Nicosia, 1988). H. Evangelou, Tales From Riding House Street: a Faded London House and the Cypriots Who Lived in It (London, 2018); Oakley, Changing Patterns, pp. Daily Mirror, 15 Dec. 1954; and Daily Express, 15 Dec. 1954. As numerous historians have shown, colonial subjects had a great deal of empire identification, and migrating to the imperial metropole or enlisting in the two world wars was often propelled by a desire to take advantage of that connection. TN.A., CO 67/306/17, secret, T. S. Bell, Liaison Office, to colonial secretary, Cyprus (sent to C.O. On the Turks, see Abdullah and Sinker, Departures and Arrivals. Stavros was not present for the verdict, perhaps because he had already passed judgement over his mother, and stated in an interview published on 15 December, the day of her execution, that I cannot find it in my heart to forgive my mother The word mother has become a mockery to me. It was founded shortly after the illegal Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 to coordinate and represent the UK Cypriot diaspora, which now consists of 300,000 people. For example, when Angelos Zemenids was murdered in 1933, the police went to all the known Cypriot establishments to round up suspects.79 Additionally, the Cypriot liaison officer in London routinely visited Cypriot coffee houses in order to provide his monthly (during the war) and later yearly reports on the activities of the community in London.80, While Cypriots may not have faced the type of racism that was directed against those of African-Caribbean origin in 1950s Britain, certainly not on the scale of the Nottingham and Notting Hill race riots,81 they did experience hostility. He is British Asian. T.N.A., FCO 141/3348B, Cyprus: reports on the Cypriot community in London, 19549; FCO 141/4198, Cyprus: Government of Cyprus London Office; activities of Greek Cypriots in London; and S. Jospehides, Associations amongst the Greek Cypriot population in Britain, in Immigrant Associations in Europe, ed. At the same time, the Greek Orthodox church facilitated the teaching of Greek-language lessons after school with the help of Cypriot parents, through the Greek Parents Association, and, eventually, the government of Cyprus.63 The Greek Parents Association came into existence as early as October 1952, opening a school, initially in a private house, which was attended by about 160 children by the following summer.64 By the end of the 1950s village associations, which would come to characterize the later history of the Cypriots in London, had emerged, including a Yialousa Association, whose primary aim consisted of sending money back to Cyprus to improve social amenities.65, While religion may have remained core to the lives and identity of the London Cypriot community in the 1950s and 1960s, the other main activities revolved around politics, partly a transfer of activities from Cyprus connected with trade unionism and the demand for enosis with Greece. The idea for this feature came from the governor of Cyprus, who contacted the Colonial Office and then the Ministry of Information, eventually reaching Laurie Lee (who had spent a few weeks in Cyprus before the Second World War).31 Anyone who viewed this film would have come to the conclusion that the Cypriots consisted entirely of peasants, as most images focused on farming life. Many of what might now be called Cyprus' forgotten refugees of the 1960s settled in north Islington. L. Wells, T. Stylianou-Lambert and N. Philippou (London, 2014); and Rousseau-Sinclair, Victorian Travellers in Cyprus. Greek members of organised crime have always been good at working with other ethnic groups along with their own local Greek groupings, which can at times give them an advantage over other organisations. While anti-Catholic feeling may have declined in Britain during the course of the 19th century, it certainly persisted, (see e.g., E. R. Norman, Anti-Catholicism in Victorian England (London, 1968)). S. Tuck (Basingstoke, 2012), pp. He later asserted: I got home at about half-past three that morning, to find that my wife was dead. Even earlier than this, the Orthodox hierarchy took over another Anglican church, All Saints Church in Pratt Street in Camden Town, which remained the centre of Greek Cypriot life until the 1970s and hosted the majority of weddings up to that period. Estimated reading time:6 minutes, 44 seconds. When Styllou was brought from the cells to hear the sentence, she was asked if she had anything to say about why the death sentence should not be pronounced, and she replied that she wanted to say something and asked if she could go into the witness box. The Constitution of the Republic, which came into effect on the day of independence, had its roots in agreements reached between the heads of government of Greece and Turkey at Zurich on 11 February 1959. Kings College London, Greek Diaspora Archive (hereafter K.C.L., G.D.A. Artisan Greek producers rule when it comes to wines and beers. It dealt with all matters relating to the promotion of Cyprus and the welfare of Cypriots in the U.K. 88, 1056. 13146. Drawings are scattered around his homely office, and his white hair evokes a loving, caring grandfather. While the Cypriot peasant is one of the hardest working and most courteous in the world, he remained backward and (for centuries with good reason) distrustful.13 Although it focused on the economic life of the rural population, the survey also digressed into issues such as hygiene, stating that it is not easy to fix a standard of cleanliness but that the majority are moderately clean while a certain number are definitely dirty,14 and that moral conditions were regarded as satisfactory because Cyprus is only on the fringe of the East and the lightest whisper against the innocence of a village girl will endanger her chances of marriage.15 At almost the same time as the publication of Surridges survey, there appeared a short booklet by the Cypriot Demetrios Stylianou (who had benefited from ten years abroad) that looked at the customs and superstitions by which rural society in Cyprus functioned. Antonagis fatal crime was stealing a car radio. On warm evenings, you can sit outside on the pavement terrace, quaff some retsina and soak up the local hospitality. This stemmed from the perception that these Cypriots maintained anti-British feeling.86 Concern surfaced about the activities of communists and the suggestion that collections took place in All Saints Church to help the cause of enosis in Cyprus by supporting the families of those detained.87 Constantinides, the commissioner in London, maintained that the perception of Cypriots in London as supporters of enosis in their homeland was flawed because the Metropolitan Police only had knowledge of a few political agitators whom it is their duty to watch. No direct evidence exists to suggest any racial or ethnic motivation on the part of the home secretary, and we also need to bear in mind the fact that Ruth Ellis came from indigenous British stock. R. Oakley, Cypriot migration to Britain prior to World War II, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, xv (1989), 50925, at p. 513. John Davis (Containing racism? According to the 1911 census of Cyprus (when Styllou would have been ten years old), 61 per cent of the male and 86 per cent of the female population was illiterate. In addition to the domestic Greek criminal organizations, the Sicilian Mafia, Camorra, and Albanian, Romanian and Serbian mafia groups have been operating in Greece in collaboration with the domestic criminal syndicates. Antonagis now looks very different to the young boy at Kings Cross. Our newsletter hand-delivers the best bits to your inbox. Londoners may find amusement in trying to guess where the exteriors were shot. Santorini Restaurant . They lived in a small bedsit with an outside bathroom in Fortis Road on the Tufnell Park/Kentish Town border, whilst Antonagis continued his work as a mechanic, trying to make ends meet. Additionally,since the UK and later in 2004 Cyprus, joined the EU,Cypriot businesses and professionals both from Cyprus and the UK have expanded to Europe and collaborated. [accessed 22 Dec. 2020]. 9. By the end of 1950 18,000 Cypriots may have been living in the U.K., with 13,000 of those in London. An example in London is the brutal turf war between Turkish gangs, such as the so-called Tottenham Boys and the Hackney Turks. 2653. He described the Greeks as lazy and living hand to mouth and also claimed that they had developed a Virgin Mary cult, thus making them the equivalent of Roman Catholics. However, no evidence exists to suggest that Hella had any connection with this group. A charming and homely little Greek taverna off Camdens main drag, Andys is a local classic with more than 50 years of service under its belt. See also A. Varnava, The origins and prevalence of and campaigns to eradicate venereal diseases in British Colonial Cyprus, 19161939, Social History of Medicine, xxxiii (2020), 173200. At sixteen, he spent two weeks at Wormwood Scrubs before being sent to Borstal, in Kent. Many of these refugees decided to move to the UK and join family members who had already moved. [accessed 7 Sept. 2021]. Ronnie and Reggie Kray, born on October 23 1933, are possibly the most notorious of London's gangster history. The Chicago Outfit, unlike New York City's Five Families, has a long standing tradition, dating back to Al Capone, of allowing non-Italian associates into positions of real importance and power. The focus of this article is the Greek Cypriot community rather than the Turkish Cypriots, who are an even smaller migrant grouping and have received even less attention in academic circles. For a community in which religion remained a key marker of identity, the church acted as the centre of the main rituals of life, including baptism, which all Orthodox children born in London during the 1950s and 1960s would have undergone, while attendance at Sunday services in these decades remained significant. J. G. Perestiany, Honour and shame in a Cypriot highland village, in Honour and Shame: the Values of Mediterranean Society, ed. R. Ballard (London, 1994), pp. Hampstead and Highgate Express, 24 Aug. 1954. And because Antonagis parents were still living in poverty, they were unable to visit their son regularly throughout his time in prison. This report, which found Styllou mentally deranged and insane yet medically fit to plead and stand trial,114 had not been introduced at her trial because Styllou had instructed her lawyers not to do so. Quoted in Ethnic Communities Oral History Project, Xeni: Greek-Cypriots in London (London, 1990), p. 4. See the critique of Saids concept, but also its broader application to imperialism generally and the British Empire, in J. M. MacKenzie, Orientalism: History, Theory and the Arts (Manchester, 1995).