Discover some of the many Black statues and memorials around London.
A memorial outside the Museum of London at West India Quay will pay tribute to the victims of the transatlantic slave trade, in which London played a key role.
The Mayor of London's office has committed £500,000 towards the memorial, said to be the first of its scale in the UK to honour the victims of the slave trade and their resistance to it.
Said the Mayor's office: "While there are monuments commemorating abolition, and many statues and buildings reflecting the wealth and power the slave trade created, there is little to memorialise the millions of African people who were enslaved and abused as a result — or its impact on generations of Black communities."
There's little information on what the memorial will be, or who will create it, although we know there will be 'satellite' sites dotted across London, to "help bring the weight of this history and the legacy of the trade throughout the capital, the UK and the world, to life."
The memorial is planned to be unveiled by summer 2026.
In June 2020 — in the wake of the the George Floyd protests — a statue of slave owner Robert Milligan was removed from the front of the Museum of London Docklands, with the museum saying it was "part of the ongoing problematic regime of white-washing history, which disregards the pain of those who are still wrestling with the remnants of the crimes Milligan committed against humanity." The statue is currently being held in storage.
We reported back in 2019 that London could be getting a slavery museum, although plans for this have fallen silent. The Museum of London Docklands has a free, evolving London, Sugar and Slavery gallery, based in the warehouses where spoils of the slave trade were processed.
