A tribute to Derek Cox
Ansar Ahmed Ullah
Contributing Editor,Shottobani
London: the East End lost one of its quietest and greatest sons. Muhammed Derek Cox, known to generations simply as Derek bhai, passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loving family, after a lifetime of selfless service to others. He was 82.
Derek’s funeral prayers were held at Brick Lane Mosque on 19 December, followed by his burial at the Gardens of Peace on 20 December, a fitting return home for a man whose life was inseparable from the streets and people of Spitalfields and Brick Lane.
For more than fifty years, Derek walked those streets, estates, and stairwells carrying little more than a duffel coat, a battered metal flask of tea, and an unshakeable belief in young people. To frightened Bengali teenagers arriving in the 1970s and 1980s, he was safety itself. To countless families under threat from racism and poverty. And to the vulnerable children he fostered during the last fifteen years of his life, he was father, protector and home.
In 1973, Derek founded and led Avenues Unlimited, a pioneering detached youth project that met young people exactly where they were on the landings of Wheler House, under the Pedley Street arches, along Sheba Street and Brick Lane. Alongside colleagues including Caroline Adams, John Newbigin, Clare Murphy, Liz Cooper and others, he transformed cold concrete into places of trust and belonging. Derek was there during the darkest moments of the East End’s anti-racist struggle. He was present on the night Altab Ali was murdered, listening, supporting and standing firm as fear gave way to collective resolve. While others stood on barricades, Derek protected children, comforted families, and made sure young people were not left alone.
He was also there in the moments of joy every summer driving a rattling minibus full of wide-eyed children to the Lake District, so they could see mountains, lakes, and horizons they never knew existed. Many adults still speak of those trips as life-changing. Through Avenues Unlimited, Derek helped establish vital community institutions, including the Montefiore Community Centre, which became a hub for organising, debate, and mutual support throughout the 1980s. His approach was simple but radical: enable people to run things for themselves, then quietly step back.
In 2002, after decades of close friendship with Muslim communities in the East End and abroad, Derek embraced Islam, taking the name Muhammed. His faith deepened a life already shaped by humility, discipline, and service. He prayed, fasted, and lived his beliefs without performance, earning respect wherever he went. When Avenues Unlimited closed, Derek did not retire. In 2003, he became a foundational mentor to SOUL (Social Organisation for Unity and Leisure), guiding its young founders through every struggle and celebrating every success. Even in his final weeks, he spoke with pride about the vision they built together. For the last fifteen years of his life, Derek opened his home as a foster carer, offering stability, love, and protection to children who needed it most. This quiet, continued service says everything about the man he remained until the end.