31 January 2022
Your requests and our responses
1. Could you please provide any list or review/research/report/survey of locations (streets/buildings), objects and organisation has produced in relation to slavery, colonialism, empire/British Empire, racism, white supremacy, Black Lives Matter, decolonising, racial justice
Lambeth Council initiated a review of our public realm in September 2020, which culminated in an extremely well attended online event which reviewed sites and locations in the borough with historic links to the trans-Atlantic slave trade. A second phase engagement process will commence shortly which will examine Lambeth’s cultural history today, which will focus on inter-generational perspectives.
This link explains the process:
https://love.lambeth.gov.uk/public-debate-on-slavery-related-monuments-and-street-names/
The research attached outlines those sites within the borough which have been positively identified as having links with the trans-Atlantic slave-trade, either directly or indirectly.
Phase one of the review commenced in autumn 2020. Phase two will commence w/c 31/01/22 and will focus on:
- Those sites which will be the focus of further engagement (i.e. those sites rated ‘red’)
- Education and information for audiences on the new legal position, planning constraints, ownership and the challenges of re-naming existing sites, including changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, as announced in 2021.
- Education on Lambeth Council’s pioneering process of naming places and buildings through the 1980s
- Moving away from historic discussions to a focus on Lambeth today and tomorrow
- Engaging with audiences on the concept of ‘Retain and Explain’.
An online engagement event will look at how the council can look to repeat similar naming of locations reflect Lambeth today, as was done in the 1980s, see this link: https://beta.lambeth.gov.uk/events/renaming-anti-racism-anti-colonialism-lambeths-streets
2. A list of buildings, structures, monuments, statues assessed in relation addressing legacies of slavery and colonialism, in any work undertaken from May 2020 up to date.
See attached.
3. Could you please provide a list and relevant documentation, including email correspondence if possible.
We note that this part of the request would include a significant number of emails which would be likely to include personal data. Please can you confirm a timeline for this part of the request and be more specific about the types of emails you would request?