Museum of the Home’s Slave Trader statue & why it’s still up.
I noted this week an update to the petition calling for the statue of the slave trader Sir Robert Geffrye to be removed from the front of what is now the Museum of the Home in Hackney. Despite a consultation with the local community finding it should be taken down its still there. Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has weighed in to demand it stays.
The petition however seemed to think that the people to complain to were the Mayor of Hackney and the local Labour MP Meg Hillier. No doubt neither are perfect but unfortunately it’s not their decision.
The Chair of the Museum Samir Shah is one of a small number of people appointed to a new Heritage Advisory Board set up by Dowden. He announced this in the obvious place to do so, the Sunday Telegraph on 15th May.
The purpose of this Board is to enforce Dowden’s policy of ‘retain and explain’. Shah has publicly backed this.
The Museum is due to re-open shortly after a period of repair. The statue is still there so it has been retained so far. One wonders what has been done about the explain bit?
Sardonic and cynical.. And true