Celebrating and recognising our diversity across London's public realm
What suggestions do you have to celebrate and recognise London’s diversity across the public realm?
London is one of the most diverse cities in the world. There are more than 300 languages spoken every day, yet statues, plaques and street names don’t reflect the capital’s diverse population and history.
City Hall is recruiting a Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm. Once set up in December, the Commission will work with boroughs and communities to ensure our street names, squares, statues and monuments tell the full story of London's rich diversity, which includes people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, women, LGTBQI+, disabled groups and people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Since the announcement of the Commission, City Hall has received a lot of suggestions from Londoners. For example:
- sculpture trails
- bus stations to celebrate black bus drivers
- new murals
What do you think of these suggestions?
Imagine there were more sites that tell the stories of women, people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, LGTBQI+, disabled groups or self-made and working class Londoners. What suggestions do you have to celebrate and recognise London’s diversity across the public realm?
This discussion is co-moderated by the GLA Communities and Social Policy unit who are co-leading the Commission with the GLA Culture and Creative Industries unit.
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Community Member 3 years agoIn terms of introducing art and cultural, local iconography into the public realm, I think there's a lot to be learnt from the recent (great) London Mural Festival. The incidental placing of many of the murals meant they could be...
Show full commentIn terms of introducing art and cultural, local iconography into the public realm, I think there's a lot to be learnt from the recent (great) London Mural Festival. The incidental placing of many of the murals meant they could be experienced just by walking past, and there was clearly an effort to concentrate a lot of the pieces in places throughout East London in particular that perhaps don't have a lot of investment in public spaces. Artists were not asked to follow any particular theme so there's a big opportunity to build on the success of the festival and introduce vital representations of overlooked, under-reported or forgotten stories of the non-white history of London. One of my favourite murals is the Battle of Cable Street, the anniversary of which occurred recently, and for obvious reasons it remains a really popular and well-known piece of public art and history. I would also suggest a focus on placing these works in high-traffic areas where people can stop and look, especially if the story being represented relates to the local area.
Show less of commentCommission for…
Official Representative 3 years agoHi Paperfriend.
Thank you for your interesting example of the London Mural Festival and its success. We will be sure to feed these back.
Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm Team