The City of London Corporation has launched Revealing the City’s Past – its landmark project to reinterpret the statues of slave traders former Lord Mayor William Beckford and former MP Sir John Cass.
The “enormous wrongdoings” of the two men are laid bare in the initiative, which marks a significant shift in how these figures are presented. It reflects a commitment to historical accountability by the City Corporation for its role in the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved African People.
Revealing the City’s Past brings together Caribbean experts and cultural organisations to guide the re-interpretation of the statues.
The project’s steering group, including Culture&, Creative Arts Social Consultancy, and the City Corporation, worked with the City Corporation’s staff and local residents, and consulted inter-generational and accessibility panels to enable content from a range of different perspectives.
At the City Corporation’s Guildhall headquarters, plaques unveiled today and fixed to the Beckford and Cass statues, acknowledge and condemn the men’s role in the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved African People.
Featuring texts by artist and heritage professional, Rachael Minott, the plaques are accompanied by poems from John Agard and Courtney Conrad, whose powerful words confront the racism, greed, and cruelty that underpinned Beckford and Cass’s wealth [see notes to editors].
The project’s rich digital platform extends the conversation beyond the statues, offering visitors and online audiences a deeper exploration of the City’s historic ties to slavery.
Through poetry, interviews, and artistic responses, award-winning artist Sonia E Barrett and visual artist Ofilaye reimagined the statue spaces – captured in works including I See You: A Reckoning.
The project’s content brings Caribbean diaspora voices to the forefront and encourages reflection on how the legacy of enslavement continues to shape shared spaces.
William Beckford derived his wealth from generations of enslavement on his plantations in Jamaica. On his death in 1770, he held 1,356 enslaved Africans who, together with his plantations and estates in Jamaica, accounted for the overwhelming majority of his fortune.
As company assistant of the Royal African Company between 1705 and 1708, Sir John Cass was actively involved in the transportation of an estimated 150,000 African people into slavery. During those three years, five company ships reported uprisings by enslaved Africans fighting for their freedom.
In January 2021, the City Corporation’s primary decision-making body, the Court of Common Council, voted to remove the statues. However, after the then Government later introduced its Retain and Explain policy – advising that public memorials should remain in place with added historical context – the City Corporation reconsidered. The Court of Common Council ultimately voted to keep the statues and develop the Revealing the City’s Past project in response.
Policy Chairman of the City of London Corporation, Chris Hayward, said:
“This project has brought together many talented people – most importantly, voices from the Caribbean diaspora who have historically been excluded from the narrative on Beckford and Cass’s legacy and wealth. We are deeply grateful for their expertise, creativity, and insight.
The enormous wrongdoings of Beckford and Cass are laid bare by this project – leaving no doubt about the contempt in which these two men should be held.
Against the wishes of many, these statues remain. Here at Guildhall, two slave traders still stand – but we do not stand with them. We are fully committed to race equity and to making our spaces safe and welcoming for all.”
Chair of the City of London Corporation’s Culture, Heritage, and Libraries Committee, Brendan Barns, said:
“These statues represent prejudice, cruelty, and greed.
It cannot be denied that the City’s links to slavery are a stain on our history, and we should never attempt to erase or gloss over the past.
With the installation of these plaques and the creation of a wealth of online resources, we are taking positive action to educate current and future generations about this evil form of commerce.”
Chief Executive Officer and Artistic Director of Culture&, Dr Errol Francis, said:
“Culture&’s involvement in this project to ‘retain and explain’ the statues in the City of London’s Guildhall has called upon a wide range of our skills as well as our lived experience as people with ancestral links to the atrocities associated with the legacy of William Beckford and Sir John Cass.
We have helped convene the inter-generational advisory panel, choose designers, commission poets, work on the editing of historical texts, and more still.
We hope that this work will go some way towards explaining how London’s merchants and politicians were involved in profiteering from the enslavement of Africans.
We are aware of the historical importance of this work, from which we hope that the learning will inform the future policy and practice around contested heritage.”
Artist, heritage professional, and researcher of the plaques’ texts, Rachael Minott, said:
“It was important for me to work collaboratively to write the interpretive text, spending time to think collectively about the people affected by these memorialised men, many of whom will remain anonymous due to the violences they perpetrated.
I hope that the words that we’ve contributed expand people’s imagination of who these figures were, and encourage critical engagement with public art that venerates colonial figures.”
Poet, playwright, and educator, John Agard, said:
“In the case of the statue of John Cass, it’s not for me as a poet simply to repeat dry historical facts, but what I can do and enjoy doing is to make history the subject of a poetic microscope.
I never take on a commission unless I feel a pathway to the subject and, having been born and educated in the Caribbean and having lived in Britain for over 40 years, I would like to think I am psychically equipped to navigate such transatlantic and cross-cultural trauma.
What I most enjoy is coming up with something that resonates, challenges, and has a direct appeal to diverse communities and audiences. A poem that slantingly questions the past, maybe even drawing some alchemical healing from a negative historical reality.”
Poet and playwright, Courtney Conrad, said:
“I am grateful to have contributed to this vital project dedicated to bringing much-needed awareness to the grievous contributions made by these historically celebrated individuals, to the enslavement of Black bodies.
Given the one-sided narratives which have so far dominated taught history to the exclusion of all else, this was an opportunity to contribute to reshaping perspectives and fostering a more inclusive understanding of our shared history.”
The City Corporation last year commissioned detailed research into its links with the Transatlantic Traffic in Enslaved African People . The research will explore the involvement of its elected Members who served between 1640 and 1807, along with their legacies and donations to the City Corporation in this period, when the UK was active in the trade.
At last! Some common sense about our past history. We must learn from our mistakes and not try to hide them. Congratulations to the City for being truthful and acknowledging the mistakes and injustices of the past in such a sensitive manner.