Film and TV star Eddie Marsan and charity founder Darren Way walk us around Tower Hamlets to counter the idea that this is a no-go area, and talk us through Streets of Growth’s work tackling gang and knife crime
By Adrian Lobb
Eddie Marsan is in Tower Hamlets, at the impressive offices of local charity Streets of Growth. Alongside Darren Way, CEO of the charity that works with young people to combat gang and knife crime, Marsan is spending the morning taking Big Issue on a tour of Tower Hamlets.
Marsan and Way go back a long way. They grew up on neighbouring council estates off Bethnal Green Road, went to the same local youth clubs and night clubs in the early 1980s, and their lives have intersected at key points since – culminating in Marsan becoming an ambassador for Streets of Growth last year. In the wake of recent comments by Conservative MP Paul Scully, a former Minister for London, saying that parts of Tower Hamlets were “no-go areas”, Marsan is keen to show why he is so passionate about his manor.
It is the reason he is talking about Streets of Growth today, rather than his role in Amy Winehouse biopic Back To Black or big budget TV series Franklin alongside Michael Douglas. Because the words stung. “It’s populist, racist bullshit. That’s what it is,” says Marsan, never one to pull his punches. “And those words have real impact on the kids around here. Because these kids, whether they’re Muslim, Bengali, Pakistani, white or of Caribbean descent, they are all subject to the same challenges, which is what Streets of Growth is trying to address.
“And they’re the same challenges we went through. Demonising those communities to such an extent means you dehumanise them. And when you dehumanise them, you can justify not funding them and not helping them.
“But I look at those kids and see myself when I was young. So that’s why I want to champion their cause the best way I can. Because it’s a great injustice. It’s simply not true – there aren’t any no-go areas. There just aren’t.”
We set off through Tower Hamlets, walking through street food markets and traditional clothing and fabric shops, large council estates and gentrified coffee hotspots. All of East End life is here. Marsan and Way talk about their childhoods, recall their time as bodypoppers, and talk wi
