Newham 100

The London Borough of Newham is probably the most diverse place on the planet and ‘Newham 100’ is a project which aims to celebrate this diversity by showing the stories of a representative sample of 100 people, aged 1 to 100.

Stevie: From the USA

Grace: From Jamaica

'My name is Mee Fo'ong Lee, I was born on the 2nd November 1953 in the small town of Kuala Lipis, which was the capital of the State of Pahang in Malaysia and still part of the British Empire, until 1957. My father ran two canteens for the police in the town, my mother was a home-maker, I had three younger brothers and one younger sister.

I came to the UK in 1977 to study for my A Levels at a private college in Oxford. I went on to study at university in Canterbury, Kent, where I met my husband and we came to Newham in 1987, the year of the great storm, because accommodation was cheap and affordable. We bought a small house in East Ham before moving to Forest Gate, where I think there is a lovely sense of community. 

I worked across Europe as an 'Access to Education Researcher' until I retired in 2020 and I settled in Newham and the UK because I was married to an Englishman, I was more suited to the way of life here and there was more on offer, than if I had returned to Malaysia.

I have only ever experienced racist abuse once, when the expulsions were taking place in Hong Kong in 1997; I was on the tube and a Black man shouted at me to go back home where I had come from. Nobody intervened to support me.

I dislike the dirt, the mess and the rubbish in Newham, but I like the good community feel, especially in Forest Gate and I get on well with people from different communities.'

Have You Seen This Man?

Corey: From Georgian England

In 2023 the population is estimated at 390,000  – with a ‘churn rate’ of more than 20% - i.e. in 2023, one in five left or arrived in the borough. Regarding deprivation, Newham remains within the worse 10% in the country, ranking 12th of 317 local authority districts and with regard to barriers to housing and public services, Newham is the most deprived borough in the UK.

Mee Fo’ong Lee: Aged 69