Abandoned, destitute, with no way of returning home. For hundreds of Indian women brought to London at the height of empire, the lure of Britain proved a cruel lie. These were the Ayahs: South Asian nannies hired by wealthy families to mind their children during the weeks-long sea voyage from India to Britain.

Often widowed, Ayahs travelled with the promise of a return fare or continued employment, but upon arrival, many quickly found themselves left homeless and penniless by families who no longer needed them. Many found their way to Hackney, where, in the 19th century, a Christian mission group founded the Ayahs Home.

Working to return home

At its busiest, up to 220 women passed through the doors of the Ayahs Home every year. Those living in the home worked to raise enough money to return home, or tried to find employment with another family. Women were allocated rooms by nationality, with Ayahs coming not only from India, but also China, Nepal, and elsewhere in South Asia.

On Saturday, just up the road from the Ayahs’ old building on King Edward’s Road, a series of events at Hackney Museum celebrated the stories of the women who once sought refuge here. Organised by Farhanah Mamoojee, a 28-year old east Londoner, the day was the culmination of a year-long effort to bring this buried piece of Hackney history to life.

Uncovered by chance

Little is known about these Ayahs: that they existed at all was only uncovered by chance, after a historian noticed the word on several passenger lists dating from the 18th century to the interwar period. With no record having been made to preserve their stories while they were alive, Mamoojee spoke of her outrage at not knowing this piece of local history. “I thought, there’s so much feminist history here [in Hackney]” she said at the event on Saturday “why has no one been talking about Ayahs? How am I 28 years old and it’s the first time I’ve heard about them?”

It’s a sentiment echoed by many of those introduced to the project. “I was horrified” said Jackie, a volunteer at the East End Women’s Museum. “I’ve lived in Hackney for almost 29 years and never heard about these women.”

Mamoojee’s work on the Ayahs Home Project aims to bring the history of the Ayahs out into the open. The building, which once belonged to the Ayahs Home, was recently shortlisted by English Heritage for a Blue Plaque, denoting significant landmarks in London and beyond.

“Like looking for a needle in a haystack”

Speaking at a panel discussion at the event, Rozina Visram, a retired academic who pioneered research into the Ayahs, explained the challenges of finding these women as “like looking for a needle in a haystack”. There are no first person accounts from the Ayahs, only passing mentions in letters by those with whom they crossed paths. We do not even know their names: in records they are listed under their employers. Documents on display at Hackney Museum showed a passport identifying one woman as “Mrs Anthony Ayah”, while another appeared on a passenger list as “Ayah Leggatt”.

Vizram sees this lack of information as emblematic of a time when working-class people, and women in particular, rarely felt compelled to document their own lives, leaving their stories and identities lost to history.

International Women’s Weekend

For locals visiting the Museum as part of Hackney’s International Women’s Weekend celebrations, the event was a chance to discover who the Ayahs were: their lives, loves and losses. Bringing their voices to life were The Yoniverse, a poetry collective of South Asian women who, after being approached by Mamoojee last year, created a series of poems exploring the experiences of the Ayahs.

“Memsaab, did you always see me less than?” asked Shareefa Energy, in one soliloquy in which an Ayah comes to terms with her abandonment, “is the dark in my skin, once a trophy of your wealth, now embarrassing?” This was a searing portrait of lives torn apart by empire, exploring the loss of family, country and even identity.

Refuge from the streets of London

The British Library describes life inside the Ayahs Home as “a mixture of eastern and western cultures”. It was a refuge from the streets of London, and allowed Ayahs to regain a sense of their cultural identity. But pictures from the time also show women gathered round a table for bible study – a captive audience for Christian missionaries who saw it as their duty to evangelise the Ayahs. The Yoniverse captured this paradox, contrasting the lyrics of the famous Missionary Hymn with the voice of an Ayah, so displaced from her homeland that her body has “forgotten how to pray its own prayer”.

Many Ayahs returned to India, but records suggest that many more did not. There is so much about the lives of these women that may never be known, but the Ayahs Home Project aims to protect the voices and stories of the Ayahs that would otherwise be “lost in the winds of times”.