Statues have been on the agenda since the Black Lives Matter movement caused a mass-removal of various statues this summer – and kickstarted a debate about who it really is we look up to and celebrate. To get the conversation started about the next generation of statues, Hackney Tours will host their second ‘Alternative Statue Tours’ happening over Zoom on 18 November, from 6pm to 7.30pm.
The event will be run by Simon Cole, founder and guide of Hackney Tours, and sponsored by the Newington Green Meeting House.
Cole explained that the reason for running the first tour back in July was in response to the news coverage of statues being taken down over the country. He began questioning “who we look up to and why.” He came across the campaign group ‘Mary on the Green,’ who recently successfully had a statue of Mary Wollstonecraft commissioned for Newington Green.
Cole hopes the tour will “connect people with the borough.” Although there are not yet any definite plans to continue the tour, Cole said “Zoom is great …. But I would love to run the tour in a physical way.”
His goal is to help people think of future statues, and he plans to kickstart the debate using images provided by local artist Deborah Allwright, who has drawn hypothetical pictures of new statues placed in specific locations such as the Jewish Resistance 43 Group placed on Ridley Road.
Cole suggests a statue in Dalston representing the Turkish and Kurdish community, or perhaps a representation of Dr Price, Wollstonecraft’s mentor. He believes in “social history, not just Kings and Queens.”
Amy Todd, Community and Learning Manager at the Newington Green Meeting House, which sponsors the tour, hopes the event “will help Hackney to think about exactly who is changing the borough and the world right now.”
The event will begin with a discussion of key historical figures linked to the Hackney borough—including the prison reformer, John Howard; the anti-slavery campaigner, Olaudah Equiano; and faith leaders and female factory workers.
Online group discussions will follow next to encourage conversation around the next generation of statues.
