Community Conversation about Memorial to Victims of Transatlantic Slave Trade

Park Village Oasis is hosting a Community Conversation about the establishment of a new Memorial to the Victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in Docklands area of London.

In March 2023, the Mayor of London's Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm announced plans for this memorial to honour the victims and recognise London’s role in the trade itself. The primary site will be in West India Quay, outside of the Museum of London, Docklands, with satellite sites at undetermined locations.

The questions that will be discussed are as follows:

• Who should pay for this memorial? Given how much the British financial institutions benefitted and continued to benefit from the trade of enslaved Africans, would their financial contribution to this memorial be welcomed? Should London’s Black Communities pay for the memorial to ensure that the money is ‘ethical’?
• What are the dominant themes or complexities of the memorial and what is it trying to achieve – what are we trying to express (feelings and emotions)?
• What characteristics or process should inform the creation of the shortlisted artists?
• Should satellite sites be connected to the artistic development that links to the primary sites?
• What needs to happen around the memorial to deliver it?