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

In 1992 letter, Mustapha Matura warned of risk to Ladbroke Grove, home to strong Caribbean creative community

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.