Lambeth Council has announced a public listening exercise with residents and community/faith-based groups to decide on the next steps to assess and review locations in the borough with historic direct and indirect links to the trans-Atlantic slave trade (TAST) and colonialism.

A council review group commissioned by Councillor Sonia Winifred, Cabinet Member for Equalities and Culture (and Councillor for Knight's Hill Ward) has found:

• A small number of Lambeth street names have clear associations with TAST and historic exploitative economic expansion during the early 18th century;
• A number of memorials and statues also commemorate key individuals’ who were involved in TAST, profited from TAST directly or via links with family;
• There are statues and tombs in the borough’s locations and cemeteries which mark families who were involved in TAST or profited from it, or similar economic policies which exploited people living in the Caribbean, India and Africa.

The community listening exercise expected for mid-October 2020, will include:

• Invitations to Lambeth residents, community, faith-based organisations and the wider voluntary community sector to debate and discuss the past and develop potential new names and commemorations in line with Lambeth today;
• Key linkages with Lambeth schools to review and amend the existing curriculum around the history of slavery and how the British economy developed in the 17th and 18th century, including decisions such as the use of slavery, its eventual abolition in 1807 and then implemented across the British Empire in 1811;
• A context-setting educational programme with Lambeth Archives and Lambeth libraries, both of whom have played a key role in the review of locations with existing historic links;
• An opportunity to commence a public debate on EDI and locations, including a new poll to enable the suggestion of new ideas and proposals to re-name key locations, where it is legally possible to do so.

The full list of locations and place-names reviewed by the process led by the board convened by Councillor Winifred will be made publicly available as the final announcement on dates and shape of the listening exercise and debate are agreed, later in October.

You can read more on this review here.