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Racial segregation in the United Kingdom

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Rear face of a Holborn Trades Council leaflet promoting a 1943 anti-discrimination meeting, and citing the cases of Amelia King and Learie Constantine (transcription)

In the United Kingdom, racial segregation occurred in pubs, workplaces, shops and other commercial premises, which operated a colour bar where non-white customers were banned from using certain rooms and facilities.[1] Segregation also operated in the 20th century in certain professions,[2] in housing[3] and at Buckingham Palace.[4] There were no British laws requiring racial segregation, but until 1965, there were no laws prohibiting racial segregation either.[5]

The colour bar, according to author Sathnam Sanghera, was an import from the British Empire, where people living under British rule would be segregated depending on their race and colour.[6]

The colour bar in pubs was deemed illegal by the Race Relations Act 1965, but other institutions such as members' clubs could still bar people because of their race until a few years later. Some resisted the law such as in the Dartmouth Arms in Forest Hill or the George in Lambeth which still refused to serve non-white people on the grounds of colour.[7][8]

  1. ^ Waters, Rob (3 April 2017). "The rise and fall of the drinking club". Black London Histories. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
  2. ^ "What was behind the Bristol bus boycott?". BBC News. 26 August 2013. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
  3. ^ "3. Settling In". Reading Museum. 4 June 2020. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  4. ^ Pegg, David; Evans, Rob (2 June 2021). "Buckingham Palace banned ethnic minorities from office roles, papers reveal". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  5. ^ Wild, Rosalind Eleanor (August 2008). 'Black was the colour of our fight.' Black Power in Britain, 1955–1976 (PDF) (Thesis). University of Sheffield. p. 54.
  6. ^ Sanghera, Sathnam (28 January 2021). Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-0-241-44533-4.
  7. ^ "'Trial' of Colour Bar at a Pub". South London Press. 22 February 1966. pp. P1.
  8. ^ "'Coloured Men Were Refused Service in Saloon Bar'". South London Press. 15 September 1964. pp. P1.

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