Open Britain: Portrait of a Diverse Nation

Open Britain: Portrait of a Diverse Nation This is a personal photographic project with one goal, to remind people of the value of inclusivity and open borders.

It is a celebration of multicultural Britain and the give and take that serves our country so well.

14/01/2026

IMPORTANT: RUDY WASNT HAPPY WITH HIS CHOICE OF THE WORD ‘INVADING’.

Umit Mesut was born in Lefke, Northern Cyprus in 1962, His grandfather, Behjet, owned a cinema in Lefke, and Umit speak...
11/12/2025

Umit Mesut was born in Lefke, Northern Cyprus in 1962, His grandfather, Behjet, owned a cinema in Lefke, and Umit speaks of him with deep affection. His family came to the UK when he was nine. After school he found work as a rewind boy at the Rio Cinema in Dalston, slowly working his way up to head projectionist.

‘Umit and Son’ began as a grocery store 35 years ago, but his grandfather’s influence quietly took over. Renting videos became renting projectors, and eventually the entire place evolved around film. His top three favourites? King Kong (the original), Bicycle Thieves, and Sunset Boulevard.

Umit gets a lot of attention from Journalists, filmmakers—even the famous ones—and actors. There’s even a feature-length documentary about him. Step inside his shop and you understand why. It’s more like a time capsule: celluloid reels, videotapes, memorabilia, and—hidden at the back—the hidden gem: a cinema.

Today, Umit is surrounded by analogue. The radio plays, vinyl and VHS tapes line the shelves, he has no mobile phone or computer, and he only accepts cash. “Soon the telephone lines will be cut off, you know,” he says with resignation. He doesn’t hate digital—it’s just not his thing.

TimeCapsuleShop HeritageAndCulture

08/12/2025

Racism in the 60’s and 70’s



07/12/2025

The joy of midwifery.


💕

06/12/2025

Assimilation!



05/12/2025

Allyson Ingrid Layne Williams MBE was born in Trinidad and Tobago in 1947. Her mother was a nurse and her father a fire officer at the US naval base. At 21, ‘after a lot of partying’ in Trinidad, her mother “persuaded” her to come to follow her dream and come to the UK to train as a nurse. Post-war Britain needed nurses, and Allyson was one of many West Indians invited to help ‘rebuild the motherland’.

Whilst Allyson was training, her father migrated with the whole family to New York. Allyson planned to only stay in the UK a few years after training and then join them, ‘but life is what happens when you’re busy making plans.’ She met her future husband, Vernon, a musician, dancer, actor and founding member of the Notting Hill Carnival. Allyson is still a member Carnival board today.

Allyson worked for 38 years as a midwife in the NHS, loving ‘bringing life into the world’. She received an MBE for her ‘outstanding contribution to midwifery services in London’. When Allyson joined the service, midwifery was very outdated, so she made waves: always innovating, thinking outside the box and helping to shape policy.

Reaching a senior management level was unusual for a black person at that time, as racism from patients and staff was extremely common. But Allyson confronted it directly: “I know I am Black. I was born Black. I love being Black. Tell me something I don’t know.” She has just finished her autobiography, ‘Tell Me Something I Don’t Know’.



Allyson Ingrid Layne Williams MBE was born in Trinidad and Tobago in 1947. Her mother was a nurse and her father a fire ...
04/12/2025

Allyson Ingrid Layne Williams MBE was born in Trinidad and Tobago in 1947. Her mother was a nurse and her father a fire officer at the US naval base. At 21, ‘after a lot of partying’ in Trinidad, her mother “persuaded” her to come to follow her dream and come to the UK to train as a nurse. Post-war Britain needed nurses, and Allyson was one of many West Indians invited to help ‘rebuild the motherland’.

Whilst Allyson was training, her father migrated with the whole family to New York. Allyson planned to only stay in the UK a few years after training and then join them, ‘but life is what happens when you’re busy making plans.’ She met her future husband, Vernon, a musician, dancer, actor and founding member of the Notting Hill Carnival. Allyson is still a member Carnival board today.

Allyson worked for 38 years as a midwife in the NHS, loving ‘bringing life into the world’. She received an MBE for her ‘outstanding contribution to midwifery services in London’. When Allyson joined the service, midwifery was very outdated, so she made waves: always innovating, thinking outside the box and helping to shape policy.

Reaching a senior management level was unusual for a black person at that time, as racism from patients and staff was extremely common. But Allyson confronted it directly: “I know I am Black. I was born Black. I love being Black. Tell me something I don’t know.” She has just finished her autobiography, ‘Tell Me Something I Don’t Know’.

The Lego figure in the last picture is of her actor son’s character Finch Dallow in Star wars: The Last Jedi. He was first black No.1 Bomber pilot when he appeared.

The Lego figure in the last picture is of Finch Dallow in Star wars: The Last Jedi played by her son Kevin. He was first black No.1 Bomber pilot when he appeared.



Ovidio Salazar, aka Abdul Latif, was born in Santa Monica in 1950 to a Guatemalan father and an Ohioan mother. As a kid ...
27/11/2025

Ovidio Salazar, aka Abdul Latif, was born in Santa Monica in 1950 to a Guatemalan father and an Ohioan mother. As a kid he was taught to swim by Johnny Weissmuller — the Olympic champion who played Tarzan (See Picture 2).

Acting and surfing shaped his early life, but a search for meaning led him to Sufism. At twenty he travelled to France for a meditation camp in the Alps, then spent two years in a commune in the Pyrenees (See Picture 3). His growing devotion took him to Turkey to live with dervishes and later to Jerusalem.

In his mid-twenties he chose Arabic studies in Cairo over an acting role in L.A., prompting NBC to recruit him to their Cairo news desk — the beginning of his life in filmmaking within the Muslim world. Work with London Weekend Television and marriage to an Englishwoman eventually rooted him in North London.

He has filmed the pilgrimage to Mecca many times, and when we met he was heading to Bradford Film Festival with In The Steps of the Prophet, tracing the Prophet Muhammad’s Hijrah, sponsored by Ithra as part of a major travelling exhibition.

A surfer at heart, he still swims daily and once made a documentary on surfing legend Mickey Dora, keeping alive those strokes taught by Tarzan.

Ovidio Salazaar from Hollywood to Holloway Via Mecca.

#🇬🇧🇺🇸

18/11/2025

Rest in Peace Vera 1930-2025

18/11/2025

Rest In Peace Vera 1930-2025

i met Vera in February. She didn’t take any nonsense from the care home staff. Capturing Hollocaust survivors is importa...
18/11/2025

i met Vera in February. She didn’t take any nonsense from the care home staff. Capturing Hollocaust survivors is important to me due to my family history and time running out. Vera’s passing is a timely reminder to crack on.

Rest In Peace Vera.

Vera Schaufeld, MBE was born in Prague in 1930. Her father was a lawyer and her mother was studying to become a Doctor, unusual for a Jewish lady at the time.

Vera’s happy childhood was interrupted by the N***s occupying Czechoslovakia in March 1936. The impact of the antisemitism was immediate. Her father was arrested.

Aged 9 her mother took her to the park after school and told her she was sending her to England on her own. Her parents were not allowed onto the platform as she left on the famous ‘Kindertransport’. It was the last time she would see them.

Vera arrived in May 1939 at a very noisy Liverpool Street Station to loud announcements and people speaking in a daunting foreign language. Something that would have a big impact on her life.

She went to stay with Mr and Mrs Fairs and their daughter Betty. Betty was instructed to split her pocket money with Vera, which she did ‘without complaint’. Vera and Betty remained best friends for life.

After the war she learnt that all her family had been murdered at Terezin and Tawniki camps.

After school she studied to be an English teacher. However, feeling completely disconnected from her Jewish routes, she went to work on a kibbutz for a year. Here, on the first night, she met her husband Avram. A survivor of Auschwitz Berkanau, he still had his identification tattoo.

They married in 1952 and returned to England. Vera went on a linguistics course care of Brent Coucil and became a recruiter and examiner of teachers for migrant children that were unable to speak English. At that time there were many Indian migrant refugees from Uganda and Kenya. Through EU funding she was able to place over 100 teachers to help children to assimilate. She continued to work in this field for many years

Vera received an MBE for her work helping migrant children. Something that was driven by her own daunting experience of arriving in a foreign land to a language she did not understand.

Address

London

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Open Britain: Portrait of a Diverse Nation posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Open Britain: Portrait of a Diverse Nation:

Shortcuts

Share

Category