Islington Council lit up its Town Hall building in solidarity with campaigners

ISLINGTON Council has launched an investigation into whether there are any monuments in the borough memorialising “slavers” which could be removed, including street and building names.

Town Hall leader Richard Watts has instructed cabinet councillor Asima Shaik to “lead a piece of work” with the council’s heritage team looking into whether there are any memorials to historical individuals who have had ties with the slave trade.

Cllr Watts has also called on members of the Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) community to contribute to a “wider conversation” about what can be done about the celebration of London’s imperial past in its street names and monuments.

The review comes after a bronze statue of Edward Colston, a 17th and 18th- century slave trader and textile mercant, was pulled down by demonstrators during a Black Lives Matter protest in Bristol on Sunday. It was rolled through the streets and thrown in the city’s harbour.

Other statues of controversial figures around the country have been removed or are being guarded amid warnings of unsanctioned removals. Tower Hamlets Council removed a statue of slave-owner Robert Milligan which stood on the Docklands.

Cllr Watts told the Tribune: “We don’t believe we have any memorials to slavers in Islington. I completely support what Tower Hamlets did to remove the statue to the slaver in West India Docks.

Protesters in Bristol threw a statue of Edward Colston into the city’s harbour on Sunday

“Had we had any similar memorial we would be rapidly removing them as well.”

He added: “We need a wider conversation about how we recognise the wrongs of our imperial past and how London largely as a city was built on wealth generated by the slave trade. It was an imperial slave industry city.”

The review will run through the list of street names in the borough, which often used historical figures.

Napier Terrace in Angel is named after General Charles Napier, who was a Victorian general who has been accused of being in charge when atrocities when colonial forces moved into India.

The Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg faced a furious backlash when he tried to defend him in a book published last year.

There is a statue of Napier in Trafalgar Square which is on list of monuments across the UK drawn up by a group called Topple the Racists.

It is estimated that 10,000 Indians were killed in the war in Northern India which resulted in Napier becoming the Colonial Governor of the Sindh province.

There is also a memorial statue to the Boer War in Highbury Fields.

The conflict was fought in the late 1800s when the British Army defeated a group of Dutch farmers in South Africa with the use of concentration camps.

Cllr Watts said: “Genuinely we are open to suggestions for what we can do to recognise Britain’s colonial past in our street names and monuments.

“Not least I would like to hear from black and BAME communities about how they think we should commemorate this.”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has ordered a review of all of London’s statues, plaques and street names which “largely reflect the rapid expansion of London’s wealth and power at the height of Britain’s empire in the reign of Queen Victoria”.

Neighbourig Camden may rename a council block currently honouring imperialist Cecil Rhodes and a primary school named after plantation slaver William Beckford.