Global True Lithuania Encyclopedia of Lithuanian heritage worldwide

United Kingdom

United Kingdom has more Lithuania-born people than any other country in the world, besides Lithuania itself – some 180 000 in total. In the number of people who consider themselves to be Lithuanian, the United Kingdom may be second only to the USA, however, unlike the Lithuanians of Great Britain who are mostly immigrants, the Lithuaian-Americans have mostly been born in the USA.

That said, the Lithuanian migration to the United Kingdom is much older than the current “third” wave, and the old waves of Lithuanians have left significant heritage sites.

Pre-WW1 Lithuanian heritage in Britain (first wave)

The First Wave of Lithuanians arrived in Great Britain before World War 1. Some 7000 of them settled in southern Scotland working in coal mines around Belshill, 2000 in London (East Side), and 1000-2000 in the rest of England, many of whom in the Manchester area.

One of the few surviving tenements in Glasgow where First-Wave Lithuanians lived

This migration was part of a large trend of Lithuanian migration to the USA at the time when Lithuanians were leaving their Russian-ruled homeland where economic opportunities were few and discrimination (including Lithuanian language ban) rampant.

While the USA was the coveted goal for nearly all Lithuanian emigrants, some of them lacked money or were cheated, leading to them ending up in the UK. Britain thus became the second-largest Lithuanian community in the Western world by 1913, second only to the USA. The difference in numbers was huge, however: while the USA attracted more than 300,000 Lithuanians, the UK had just some 10,000 and their salaries were smaller, making the building of Lithuanian churches or clubs like those in America difficult.

Still, London Lithuanians managed to build their St. Casimir Lithuanian Church in the East End back in 1913. Still in operation, this is the oldest Lithuanian heritage site in Great Britain, as well as the only one dating to the First Wave of Lithuanian immigrants.

St. Casimir Lithuanian Church in London

In 1917, the first-wave Lithuanian communities in Britain were heavily hit by a British government request to either serve in the British army in World War 1 or go back to the Russian Empire to serve in the Russian army. Many were deported, to be followed by their families in 1920, and never allowed back. The remaining Lithuanians assimilated rather quickly, with few first-wave Lithuanian descendants participating in Lithuanian activities by the later 20th century (when these activities were dominated by the Second Wave).

A monument in London for Lithuanians who died serving the British military in the World War 2

1950s-1970s Lithuanian heritage in Britain (second wave DPs)

Most of the Lithuanian heritage sites in Great Britain were built by the Second Wave of Lithuanians in Britain. Known as DPs (Displaced Persons), these people had extremely similar life stories:
1. They saw the horrors of the first Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1940-1941 when they suffered persecution and maybe narrowly avoided exile or death.
2. When the Soviet armies were approaching Lithuania again in 1944, they thus fled, spending a few years in the DP camps in Germany, Denmark, Austria, and elsewhere after the World War 2 ended.
3. With no possibilities to return them to their Soviet-occupied homeland where they would likely killed or imprisoned, Western allied nations spread them among themselves ~1948-1951. The United Kingdom offered multiple programs for the DPs to settle there in return for mandatory labor. For example, the Baltic Cygnet program invited 1000 women to work as nurses for a year, Westward Ho aimed to import up to 100,000 workers, among them DPs (not just Lithuanians).
4. After mandatory work, the DPs were free to settle anywhere in Great Britain ~early 1950s. Typically, they sought to stay among other Lithuanians so they could have Lithuanian activities within the pieces of Lithuania they would create and campaign for Lithuanian freedom.

A plaque installed in Bradford Cathedral by the DPs from various countries campaigning against the Soviet rule there

In total, some 3000 DP Lithuanians settled down in Great Britain, with some estimates giving the number of 5749 but this number includes those who soon left for the USA, Australia, and other countries, staying in Britain only a short time. They were also joined by 250 Lithuanian war veterans who served in the Polish forces, something still controversial at the time when the memories of the Lithuanian-Polish conflict were still fresh.

The main Lithuanian DP hubs of Great Britain developed in the Glasgow area, Manchester, London, Bradford, Nottingham, and Coventry. The first three areas were chosen by the DPs as they already had first-wave Lithuanian communities which may have invited or helped DPs initially. While London is the capital of Britain, in terms of DP numbers, it was overshadowed by smaller cities such as Bradford, which may have had 1000 Lithuanians at its peak. Meanwhile, Manchester had ~800 DPs, Glasgow area had 400 DPs, and Coventry had 300. London area had ~500.

In each of their main cities, DPs established their pieces of Lithuania.

In Manchester, Bradford, London, and Belshill (near Glasgow) they opened Lithuanian Clubs ~1950. In Nottingham, a Lithuanian chapel that doubles as a club opened in the 1960s, while another large Lithuanian club “Sodyba” operated in Headley countryside, mostly for London Lithuanians. Lithuanian clubs typically included Lithuanian bars, canteens, dance groups, choirs, and Saturday schools where the DP kids would be taught Lithuanian after the regular school week.

Lithuanian Center "Židinys" in Nottingham

Moreover, Lithuanian DPs have established three Lithuanian cemetery zones so they could buried together, usually under gravestones with inscriptions about their beloved homeland Lithuania, and Lithuanian symbols. These cemetery zones exist in London, Manchester, and Nottingham, the first two also having multiple Lithuanian monuments built there. Even where there was no separate Lithuanian zone, Lithuanians often tried to be buried in the same cemeteries, leading to high concentrations of Lithuanian graves there.

Lithuanian Cemetery Zone monument in Manchester

Another Lithuanian monument complex was built in Carfin near Belshill (Scotland), the only one in Britain located outside a cemetery.

Lithuanian monuments at the Carfin Grotto in Scotland

While the monuments and cemetery zones still survive, the clubs generally folded ~2000 (except Belshill and Nottingham). Unlike in America or Australia, the children generation of Lithuanian DPs in Britain quickly drifted away from their roots, often because of discrimination. Most of them did not want to learn the Lithuanian language or participate in the activities. This group sold the inherited Lithuanian clubs after their parents’ generation passed away, sometimes garnering quite a controversy and court battles. In the closed Lithuanian clubs, nothing reminds the Lithuanian history today. While the buildings often still stand, they were not Lithuanian-built and thus not Lithuanian in architecture, while any Lithuanian decor was removed by the new owners.

The former Lithuanian House in London

Another reason for the decline of the DP community in Britain was rapid emigration to the USA and Australia, where there were higher salaries, less discrimination, and a larger distance from the dangers of Soviet expansion. The USA and Australia also established schemes to make such migration easier. So many Lithuanians migrated from Britain to the USA that there were two clubs of “Lithuanians from Britain” in Chicago in the 1970s.

A book of the now-closed Bradford Lithuanian Club

Modern-day Lithuanian migration to Britain (the Third Wave)

Soviet occupation of Lithuania meant that in the years 1944-1990 emigration from Lithuania was next to impossible. When Lithuania became independent in 1990, however, Lithuanians began emigrating again. While their country was free from occupation and discrimination, decades of Soviet rule had completely ravaged its economy. The United Kingdom became a popular choice for emigration, often illegal.

However, this third wave of emigration from Lithuania reached epic proportions only after 2004, when Lithuania joined the European Union. With the United Kingdom also within the EU at the time, any Lithuanian could have legally migrated to the UK at any time without any reason or bureaucratic hurdles by the late 2000s.

United Kingdom’s Lithuanian community swelled to 180,000, almost half of them in the London area. However, every key city in the UK has a significant Lithuanian community and often a Lithuanian shop or restaurant. Several cities have especially major Lithuanian presence, such as Peterborough or Boston.

A Lithuanian restaurant in Peterborough

That said, there remained an invisible divide between the third wave of immigrants and the second wave. The second wave often saw third wavers as trouble-makers and all-too-often criminals, who just wanted to receive charity from the second wave without volunteering for the second-wave Lithuanian institutions (which, in their view, made transferring such institutions to the third wave impossible). Third wavers, meanwhile, often saw second wavers (at least their born-in-Britain generation) as not so much Lithuanians at all anymore, speaking little Lithuanian and all too willing to sell the Lithuanian clubs their parents built (instead of allowing the third-wavers continue their Lithuanian tradition).

It was not simply "third wave vs. second wave", as some of the second-wave DP descendants sought to save the clubs, however, they were often outnumbered by their peers who preferred selling the clubs, and, in the end, Scotland's Lithuanian Club was the only one that was saved from attempted closure through litigation. Likewise, only some of the third-wavers participated in or wanted to save the Lithuanian organizations, with others not being interested.

All this led to a strange situation whereby while the United Kingdom's Lithuanian population grew to unprecedented proportions increasing some 2000% in the 1990s-2010s, the number of Lithuanian clubs that own their buildings has rapidly dwindled in this same era.

Now-shuttered Lithuanian Sodyba at Headley

The only institutions that were taken over by the third wave were religious ones, including London’s Lithuanian church and Nottingham’s “Židinys”. Third Wave also established a unique Pentecostal Lithuanian church in London. The third wave would also care for the second-wave cemeteries. The only new monument built by the third wave, though, is Perkūnas the Pole of Folkestone, although its true builders are not known. A commemorative plaque was also unveiled in Peterborough and a tree was planted in Leeds.

The Third wave community of the St. Casimir Lithuanian Parish in London

Only a minority of third wave Lithuanians participate in any Lithuanian activities but those who do do so in rented premises, where the Lithuanian Saturday schools operate, continuing the tradition of teaching the kids their language and culture in weekends.

A second-wave Lithuanian grave in Bradford with a Lithuanian tricolor put around it by the third-wave caretakers

With Brexit, Lithuanian immigration to Great Britain somewhat declined. While some have returned to Lithuania after Lithuania became richer, most have stayed in Great Britain. Yet the largest part of current Lithuanian in Britain have immigrated ~2004-2012.

Lithuanian Saturday School operating in rented premises in Peterborough