British history is a story of empire, slavery and plunder. And so it’s not surprising that the statues, street names and buildings in our cities so often commemorate slavers, plunderers and the genocidal.
This weekend, a statue of the slaver Edward Colston in the centre of Bristol was pulled down and thrown into the harbour, symbolically reflecting the thousands of people thrown into the sea from his slave ships when they got sick on the crossing from their kidnap in Africa.
The statue of Colston, though, isn’t unique, or even unusual. Across the UK, many of our most famous buildings, streets and monuments are named after people deeply implicated in the worst crimes of empire. Here is a small sample of some of the most controversial memorials – please add more, from the UK and beyond, in the comments below.
