Black and White Café

The Black and White Café was a cafe in St Pauls, Bristol in the United Kingdom, opened in 1971.[1] The Caribbean food café had a notorious reputation as a drug den and was raided more times by the police than any other premises in the country.

Events during a 1980 police raid on the cafe were a catalyst in the St Pauls riot.[1] The cafe remained a centre for drug dealing and violent turf wars through the 1990s, to a peak in the early 2000s,[2] and raids also revealed weapons and illegal immigrants.[3]

The cafe closed in 2004 under legal action as a result of new anti-social behaviour laws[3] and was later demolished.

Bertram Wilks

Bertram Wilks
Born 1938
Clarendon, Jamaica
Home town St Paul's, Bristol

Bertram Wilks is a well-known member of the Bristol community. Born in Clarendon, Jamaica, in 1938, Wilks moved to the U.K in 1959, where he opened the Black and White Café in the St Paul's district of Bristol in 1971. [4] Wilks is the father of prominent singer-songwriter and producer Emmanuel Abebsa (born Stephen Emmanuel Wilks). The Guardian dubbed the cafe "Britain's most dangerous hard drug den", with the cafe frequently subjected to raids by the police.[5] The Cafe eventually closed for good in 2004.[4] Wilks has been featured in the books Policing Notting Hill: Fifty Years of Turbulence, by Tony Moore,[6] and Uprising! The Police, the People and the Riots in Britain's Cities by Martin Kettle and Lucy Hodges.[7]


References

  1. 1 2 "Infamous cafe could close". BBC. 28 January 2003. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
  2. ↑ The Guardian: Britain's most dangerous hard drug den
  3. 1 2 Jason Bennetto (25 June 2004). "Legendary Jamaican drugs cafe is closed". The Independent. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Legendary Jamaican drugs cafe is closed". The Independent. 2004-06-26. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
  5. ↑ Thompson, Tony; correspondent, crime (2003-02-08). "Britain's most dangerous hard drug den". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
  6. ↑ Moore, Tony Mphil; Blair, Lord (2013-07-01). Policing Notting Hill: Fifty Years of Turbulence. Waterside Press. ISBN 9781904380610.
  7. ↑ "Burnt out police cars, St Pauls riots, Bristol 1980". Flickr. Retrieved 2017-03-27.

Coordinates: 51°27′52″N 2°34′57″W / 51.4645°N 2.5824°W / 51.4645; -2.5824

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