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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Lanre Bakare Arts and culture correspondent

Pioneering London playwright decried gentrification of ‘writer’s paradise’

Mustapha Matura
Mustapha Matura used Ladbroke Grove as an inspiration for many of his plays. Photograph: Mustapha Matura

A groundbreaking Trinidadian-British playwright who paved the way for modern Black British theatre makers warned about the dangers of gentrification in Ladbroke Grove, which he believed would ruin the “writer’s paradise”.

Mustapha Matura was the first British writer of colour to have work put on in the West End, and used the west London area as an inspiration for many of his plays, which were also staged at the Royal Court and National Theatre.

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