Lord Kitchener, the late Trinidadian calypsonian, arrived in England on the Empire Windrush in 1948, with several songs in his back pocket. Kitchener, a then fresh-faced young man, not yet the calypso titan he would become, had a song ready for the Pathé News crew, when the Windrush docked at Tilbury: London is the place for me. A jocular, optimistic anthem, London is the place for me held within its upbeat melody the hope of an entire era of black, Caribbean Britons, making their way into Brixton’s industrial austerity. The ballad is, unmistakably, an immigration song – Paddington Bear, who hails “from darkest Peru”, navigates London to its tempo in 2014’s Paddington. London, the sanctuary and stomping ground of Paddingtons and Kitcheners alike, has been claimed – triumphantly and tempestuously – as the place for so many.