Bukky Bakray: ‘London has its ugly, but the people here are very generous’

Bukky Bakray is in demand. But when she isn’t acting, the 19-year-old Hackney native can be mostly be found wandering east London with her friends, an area that for a long time was all she knew. Growing up in Lower Clapton, her early childhood memories are of the Asda carpark in Leyton, eating KFC in the car while her mum did the shopping or playing with her brothers in the park. ‘I walk past there now and there’s nothing in that park,’ Bakray laughs. ‘But to me and my brothers back then, it was like Chessington or Thorpe Park. I remember it being amazing.’

Bakray was five when work began on nearby Stratford City that preceded the 2012 Olympics, and was turning 10 when it was completed. She thinks the regeneration had a positive effect. ‘I started to go to the gym by the Copper Box and now I’m walking around there all the time, I’m reaping the benefits,’ she says. ‘People are nicer when they’re close to green spaces, people are always smiling round there. It’s refreshing being around places like that. Everyone is deserving of that refreshment.’

As a teenager she began venturing into central London, dressing up with her friends (‘in the dumbest outfits!’) and ending the day at Pret. ‘We’d do that for bants, to feel like we were busy people,’ she says. School trips to places such as Buckingham Palace gave her a respect for the city’s landmarks, but she prefers the street art. ‘The graffiti in London is crazy. There’s a Jay Z one in Shoreditch that’s just dope.’