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Way back in the late 60s, Bury Park
had almost place stores in Oak
Rd and the Food World stores in
Dunstable Rd. At that time we had
West Side Shopping Centre, which
was shortcut into the Town Centre.
They had a pub there which was
very famous for its troubles.”

Immediately after we had a bridge and then after the bridge we had some public toilets and a fashion shop called
Eddie’s Fashion. We had some hat works which have all disappeared. We had the Odeon Cinema, which then became
Mecca Bingo Place and afterwards it became the West Indian Church Centre in England called Kojic. Next to that we
had a Texas store. Opposite the Odeon we had a pet shop and we had banks. All the banks in Bury Park were there.
Lloyds Bank, Martins Bank, NatWest Bank, Midland Bank, Barclays Bank, all of them were there. And then there was
some landmark places like Allied Carpets, a motorbike shop called Coburn Hughes, which have all gone. We also had
McDonald’s, which is now, I believe, the Community Centre in Bury Park. We had an old people’s gathering place, which
is again a fast food place. Calorama was there, which is a carpet shop. John Pope, a very exclusive tailor at clothing shop,
was there.

When I came to England and Luton in the late sixty’s, the initial concept was people were not friendly at all. There was
a lot of discrimination. Most people did not like coloured people at all. There were some people around if they saw
an application and it had a foreign name they didn’t even look at it. We were knocking on doors most of the time the
knocks went unopened. But when that knock opened the door, we fully made use of the opportunity and progress.
Not for ourselves, but this is how progress has been made by our people, so that now there’s still discrimination.
Human minded discrimination but it’s a lot less there.
Back in the six to late 60’s if you wanted to rent a room and there was a sign outside the window saying room to let
as soon as you knock, they would say is gone. In fact sometimes you wanted to buy a house, as soon as they saw a
coloured face interested in the house they would say it’s sold. But that thanks to the efforts of many people and I
say someone like myself who have fallen out against discrimination and try and sort of eliminate it we haven’t quite
eliminated it, but we’ve got there.
One good way of fighting discrimination is to be patient and keep on diplomatically, politely keep on fighting it. I’ll give
you a good example. When I set up BP Shah and company in 1978 from Leagrave Road, I was only 28, and many a time
people would knock on my front door of the office and when they saw a young man, they would wonder, a coloured
face, a young guy, does he know what it is? He says he’s an accountant. I saw this happen especially with the English
people. And then I said to myself, right, if I’m opening the door, I’m going to wear my glasses, I’m going to wear my coat,
and then invite people in and the first thing I would say is that, no obligation, ten minutes. If you like me and I like you, I
can export you. If not, go away. No obligation and that works. I think this is where we’ve got to appreciate it. We don’t
have to say that there is discrimination. Of course there’s discrimination.

Every Friday is lively and Bury Park is the self-independent private community where we do not need any outsiders
or any services. Bury Park has changed, the roads have changed, although Bury Park gets a lot of negative publicity in
the press and outside in the country, its good little community thriving and attracts a lot of business from outside.
Saturdays and Sundays people from old towns outside come to do their shopping and you just have to go from
Dunstable Rd, beginning of Dunstable, right up to the Bury Park and see if you would try the community place and
itself.
B P K Shah

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