{"id":946146,"date":"2026-05-08T13:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/946146\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T13:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:30:19","slug":"was-charlie-chaplin-born-in-a-smethwick-gypsy-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/946146\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Charlie Chaplin born in a Smethwick Gypsy camp?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Black Patch Park has been home to members of the Gypsy, Romany and Traveller community since the mid 19th Century, <a href=\"https:\/\/bclm.com\/our-museum\/blog\/gypsy-roma-and-traveller-history-month-the-black-patch\/\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">living in caravans and tents. , external<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The community was officially evicted in 1909, their presence now commemorated with a plaque unveiled in 2015.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Carmen Chaplin said it was &#8220;very important&#8221; to screen the film in Birmingham, close to the Black Patch. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The director added: &#8220;For my father this movie was very much about honouring my grandfather&#8217;s Romany heritage and he really wanted to say that Charlie was part of the Romany culture.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Without a birth certificate, no one will ever know the truth. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But the story of the Black Patch, the Spirit of the Tramp, and a mysterious letter locked in a bedside table, romanticises even more the man who made his humble beginnings and rebellious spirit the calling cards of his worldwide fame. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">As he said in his 1952 film Limelight, as he reflected on his career: &#8220;It&#8217;s the tramp in me, I suppose.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Black Patch Park has been home to members of the Gypsy, Romany and Traveller community since the mid&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-946146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}