Repercussions were felt throughout the UK after the statue of enslaver Edward Colston was toppled in Bristol in June 2020 and thrown into the city port. A historic public reckoning with the legacy of slavery in Britain took place over the course of the next six months. Most notably, nearly seventy tributes to enslavers and colonialists were removed or altered, including thirty statues, plaques, and other memorials, as well as 39 names on streets, buildings, and schools.
It was a turning point in how we interact with history in our public spaces. An audit of public monuments was commissioned by the Welsh government, and 130 Labour-led councils nationwide, including those in London, Manchester, and Birmingham, indicated plans to conduct similar reviews. Unexpectedly, a national debate erupted over the best way to interpret and contextualise these monuments—should they be shown in museums, for example? Do they need to add any new plaques? or be eliminated completely? There have been discussions regarding how societies should deal with the past in each of these locations.
