St Pauls Carnival launch festivities to honour the 'Windrush Generation'
Watch Richard Payne's report here
When Antonette Clarke-Akalanne arrived alone in Britain from Barbados as an 18-year-old girl hoping to qualify as a nurse, the contrasts were unimaginable.
She said: "My mother was a dressmaker. She didn't want me to come - my father did - but she dressed me all in pink for the journey. When I arrived and saw everyone in black and grey, I couldn't believe it! I thought 'where am I?'"
Now 81 and with a lifetime of public service behind her, not only as a nurse but social worker and foster carer, she is among those being honoured by St Pauls Carnival as part of the Windrush Generation.
It was on 22 June 1948 that the Caribbean passengers disembarked from Empire Windrush at Essex's Tilbury Docks to start a new life in Britain.
Antonette arrived by plane in 1960, following thousands of others who'd made the journey to the Motherland.
She said: "It was an adventure because I'd never left Barbados before. I was in my last year at school, I thought 'oh this is wonderful'. All my education was British so we were steeped in British culture, British history."
Making its return after three years, Carnival is celebrating with the theme 'Learning From Legends'. Many of them can be seen depicted in murals on walls around St Pauls today.
Antonette recalls 'good and bad' in the early days, not only tested by the British weather and food but racism, too.
"One of the patients said to me 'where is your tail?' and she really meant it and I thought 'is this woman a bit crackers?' so I said 'if you look, you'll see it waggling.' I wasn't offended I just thought people were stupid!"
Antonette was one of the guests at the opening fringe event of Carnival, hearing the first hand tales of growing up here.
Lewis Wedlock, an academic and mental health professional, tells his family's journey to help educate audiences new to the Windrush story.
He said: "We often frame this as a past experience but these stories still live in the present. Our city is one that has numerous links to resistance, activism, magnificence and really honouring that in our collective prizing of these stories is key."
It was those early arrivals who helped shape St Pauls, not least through carnival, or festival as it was at its inception in 1968. Now, 55 years on, those community activists will be at the centre of next weekend's events (1-2 July).
Keziah Wenham-Kenyon, the carnival's Community Engagement Co-ordinator, said: "They brought over the flavour, they brought over the spice, they bought over the music which is why we have the vibrant colours of carnival. We always want to give thanks for those who have laid the way before us."