Six years after initial debates about the removal of statues of enslavers and colonial figures, a new memorial landscape is slowly taking shape across Britain. This shift is often driven by artists, campaigners, and community groups.
While many imperial monuments remain, some changes have occurred. Sir Francis Drake primary school in Lewisham became Twin Oaks primary school, and Black Boy Lane in Tottenham was renamed La Rose Lane. In Glasgow, the city council confirmed in July that 11 statues returning to the revamped George Square will include material explaining their links to enslavement, colonialism, and imperial conflict.
Among the new interventions, Black British-Caribbean artist Rayvenn Shaleigha D’Clark is creating iron entrance panels for the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool. In London, Khaleb Brooks' memorial, The Wake, is scheduled for unveiling outside London Museum Docklands in 2027. This seven-metre-high structure will feature a bronze cowrie shell for reflection.
The longstanding Hackney MP Diane Abbott has highlighted ongoing calls for the removal of a statue of Robert Geffrye, a 17th-century merchant whose wealth was partly built through investments in the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans. The statue remains outside the Museum of the Home despite a 2020 public consultation supporting its removal.
Internationally, Jamaican officials are set to petition King Charles this month regarding their claim for reparatory justice from Britain. They will ask him to request legal advice from the judicial committee of the London-based privy council on the lawfulness of the forced transportation of Africans to Jamaica.