New project to document 50 years of Bengali football heritage in London’s East End

Ansar Ahmed Ullah:

A major new heritage project has launched in Tower Hamlets to document and preserve the largely untold history of football within the borough’s British Bengali community over the past 50 years. Bengal United: The Story of British Bangladeshi Football in Tower Hamlets is a Swadhinata Trust project supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. It will trace the development of football in the community from the arrival of large numbers of Bengalis in London’s East End during the 1970s to the present day.

The project is being led by local historian and author Tharik Hussain, who has written extensively about minority histories and cultures across Britain and Europe. For Hussain, the project is also deeply personal. He grew up playing football in Tower Hamlets for Bangladeshi-founded teams including Stepney FC, Sporting Bengal and Beaumont Athletic, giving him a direct connection to the history he will be documenting. Over the next year, Hussain will work alongside young volunteers and community members to collect photographs, documents, memorabilia and first-hand accounts covering more than five decades of local football.

“For people like me who grew up in Tower Hamlets, football was never just a game,” said Hussain. “It was where lifelong friendships were made, where we found community and where many of us first began to feel that this part of London belonged to us too.” He said football had played a range of roles in British Bangladeshi life, from helping communities respond to racism in the 1970s to providing young people with positive opportunities during the social problems of the 1990s. “Football has played so many different roles in British Bangladeshi life,” Hussain said. “In the early years, teams and youth organisations became part of the struggle against racism. By the 1990s, when drugs and substance abuse were devastating parts of our community, football gave many young people somewhere to go, something positive to focus on and people to look up to.”

He added that football tours also took young East Enders across Britain and abroad, broadening their horizons, while today village and Upazila tournaments are helping British Bangladeshis reconnect with the places their parents and grandparents came from. “When you follow this history, you realise that football provides a remarkable way of telling the story of British Bangladeshi life itself,” he said.

Despite its importance to the community, the history of organised Bangladeshi football in Tower Hamlets has never been comprehensively documented. Many people involved in the earliest teams are now elderly, while others have passed away. Photographs, team kits, flyers, trophies and other memorabilia remain in private collections and could be lost without efforts to preserve them. As part of Bengal United, young volunteers will receive training in local-history research and oral-history interviewing. They will then help identify and record the experiences of players, coaches, managers, organisers, families and others who helped shape the community’s football culture. The project will also place the history of football within the wider social and political story of London’s East End.

Early Bengali football teams were closely linked to youth organisations that became involved in Tower Hamlets’ anti-racist movement during the 1970s. As clubs became more established and competed beyond the community, football also created opportunities for interaction between Bengali and non-Bengali communities.

Jamil Iqbal, Chair of the Swadhinata Trust, said football was “one of the great untold stories” of the British Bangladeshi experience in Tower Hamlets. “It has been part of our community for generations, but so much of that history survives only in people’s memories, family photographs and personal collections,” he said. “We are delighted that Tharik is leading Bengal United. He brings considerable experience as a historian, writer and heritage professional, but importantly he also knows this story from the inside.” Jamil Iqbal said the trust hoped the project would give the history greater visibility and ensure it was preserved for future generations.

Material collected through Bengal United will eventually be made available through a free online resource, educational publications and a touring exhibition. Oral histories and selected digitised materials will also be permanently preserved and made publicly accessible through Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives. The project is being delivered with support from organisations including Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives, Queen Mary University of London, Four Corners and the Oral History Society, bringing together expertise in archives, research, oral history, community heritage and public engagement.

Bengal United will culminate in a public celebration showcasing the project’s research and outputs and bringing together, for the first time, the stories of generations of people who helped make football an integral part of British Bangladeshi life in Tower Hamlets.