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In 1960’s it was very much predominantly a white
neighbourhood. In the last hundred years the community has
developed from being a rural one dominated by just two farms
in the area to many other industries such as the Butte sawmills,
gas works and others that really powered the Luton industry.
The Football ground along with parade of shopping places made
the area quite spectacular and an attraction for most people.
The Gas Works were very prominent at the time, people used
to take fill up their prams with Coke and that was the way they
did things. It was a very different lifestyle to what we have
today. The Odeon cinema was located in Bury Park, Beatles
played there during the 1960s and that was very much the place
to go. In the 1950s we had a sizeable Jewish community there
was the synagogue in the corner of the Bury Park where the
Islamic centre is now.

An old cinema was turned into a synagogue and the Jewish
community then thrive for a number of years. It was in the 90s
that the synagogue was sold on to the Muslim community, in
a very respected manner. That interesting building started off
in the 1920s as propeller Factory then became a cinema then
became a synagogue and now as a Muslim place of learning In 1960’s it was very much still I
and when I spoke to people around at the time, they used to would say who predominantly a
say that the kosher butchers was the only place they could get white a white neighbourhood.
Halal meat because there’s a commonality in the way that the
animal is slaughtered which is interesting.
Over the decades you can see the way that Communities have changed, and they will continue to change is because
the area has many positive things such as good schooling for example we have Denbigh High School, Challney Boys,
and you will see that majority of the schools are good in Luton. Luton has communities that may have been the first to
benefit from universities in the majority. Luton is close to London and so it is easy to travel to for the purpose of jobs
and education. I recall many of my ex-students being present there whom I often see as they tend to return to Luton
bringing back the wealth and the ambition back to their families. I really see it as a place where there’s a good amount
of commerce, good amount of business. There is an immense amount of ambition in Luton you can see this as many
people who belonging to the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities have now branched out into areas where they can
access schools such as Icknield High School, Bushmead etc giving all of Luton a diverse mix.

Paul Hammond
Heritage Development Manager, Curating Luton

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