Celebrating and recognising our diversity across London's public realm

I like the idea of sharing stories about local people of different ethnicities (historical or more recent) so people are aware how London has evolved because of it's people. The number of stories can change as much as there's content. These can be put in local tube stations,bus stops or even on the tube. The London poems on the tube have always made my journey more interesting. I get on the tube and finding where they are so I can read them. Perhaps the same format for these stories too, given it's possible.

I do think the places named after problematic people should be changed. People should have examples to look up to, not just because they were rich or powerful. That normalised that you should do whatever you can to amass wealth and power, and the people you hurt are just stepping stones to success.

That thought process has caused alot of problems that continues to affect people in the present. We need to show people that thoughtfulness and compassion is worth immortalising. 

New monuments

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Make it mandatory for ALL Uk   corporate organisation's operating to recruit a more diverse group.

Set a date to discuss repatriation for the truma caused by the slave trade by supporting charities and organisations dedicated to supporting these individuals. 

Invest in teaching diversity instead of British values in educatioal institutes.

I could suggest many better ways to use I time & money.   First reverse all these road blockages that are increasing traffic congestion & additional carbon emissions in our city.   Many have no option but to use a car - to avoid using public transport in these COVID days, to get to work, or shop when small children cannot be left alone at home while Mum goes off on a bicycle to shop.    Get real.

I'd like to take part, as I can, in this project. I think it's really important, especially in this difficult times. Brexit, and covid, have created a war betyween people, all are enemiers, and we need to be uinite. Different people, but one. 

London can show lots of diversity. I work in culture and tourism, and I use to introduce to my tourists, when I work as a guide, different tours about forgotten areas of London, strange, different, but important old people and characters, and I let them imagine different areas of London in different periods. No book talks about this, so I look for the hidden London, and people, and I've found many interesting things. I'd really like to help, if I can be useful. 

Stop virtue signalling. Londoners don't need to be told to celebrate diversity. We live diversity every day. Bus drivers should all be celebrated with what they put up with every day. Stop it. 

A capital city should reflect both its and its history and that of the country it is capital of.  In the case of London that begins with the Romans, going through to people like the Vikings, onto the middle ages, the plague, the fire of London, the battle of Britain, etc.  As such we are talking about 2,000 years of history.  A large part of that time the simple peasants were essentially slaves, to be used by the wealthy.

The "rich diversity" of London is a single page in a large book.  Should we really be celebrating people who drive buses because they are black?  Many white drivers who spent their life working on a bus would probably wonder why their contribution is worth less.

If we want London to tell its story maybe we could have more memorials to help people understand life before modern times and thus see how good we have it now.  Children being sent up chimneys, peasants across the country who were essentially slaves to their Lords and who were forced to go to war whenever the King decided he wanted to.  Or the people who lost their homes and lives in the second world war bombings.

Is a bus driver really worthy of a memorial if he just did his job?  We've had people running towards terrorist attacks risking their own lives to save others.  Irrespective of their colour they are more worthy, but in a 2,000 year old city I'm still not sure that deserves a memorial or street name.  Our city should celebrate English people (of any colour) who have changed the country (or even the world) and are in our history books.  The likes of Nelson, Boudicca, Queen Victoria, not Harry the bus driver and Bob the busker.

Until very recently the population of London was predominantly white, and so statues and street names etc  of those times will reflect that. This is London’s history and should not be destroyed in the name of wokeness. It is part of our richness and heritage, which attracts millions of tourists. There are more pressing matters for the GLA to deal with, than these politically motivated attacks on figures in British history.

New buildings and streets should be named after today’s heroes and those of the recent past, which will reflect the new make up of the population.

No! Enough.

Stop with the self-promoting, extravagant, mindless vanity projects and virtue signalling. Get off your high horse and be thoughtful, humble, and discreet for once. Use my money, our money (and I’ve been paying in for all my 40 years of working life) for ANYTHING other than stupid explanatory plaques, idiotic patronising history lessons with different forms of dumbed-down “signposting”. Build swimming pools, open boxing clubs and free crèches where worn out mothers can leave a baby for an hour or two, re-open libraries, offer free cookery lessons to get people off junk food. Offer quiet, calm, free spaces where people who want to know about London’s history can go and learn in an interesting way.  Create more gardens for communities to look after. Clean up the filth and graffiti. No more street furniture and clutter all over the place. Do something about the vandals and yobs. 

Londoners, and I’ve been at the beating heart of this city my entire life, already know their  London thank you very much, and those who don’t should be given opportunities to learn more about it, for free, seeing as you seem to have money, our money, to burn. As our servants you must be careful with it, and accountable for how you spend every penny of it. 

Londoners always stand together and help each other out and if some choose to stand apart and live separately then so be it. It’s a live and let live society and has been for centuries. Read for example Chaucer, Pepys, Johnson, Blake. Stop trying to tell us how to live or how to be. Londoners don’t want to hear your clichés and platitudes. You’re boring. 

Enrich Londoners’ lives and stop preaching.

There seems to be an assumption that this requires huge amounts of money. I agree it is the wrong time to spend on anything other than priorities, such as health, inequality and poverty, crime, environment, keeping our city moving, jobs and businesses.  We have much to be concerned about right now.

This process of embedding diversity in to our city is not about monuments and street names, which feels like lip-service and a knee-jerk reaction to recent events. It should be about ensuring communities and groups are genuinely able to influence every corner of London's development and governance looking ahead to the future.  That we ensure our city evolves in to a place where all it's communities and residents feel they fit and have equal access to the things that matter.  That we do not allow public bodies to get away with atrocities such as cheap cladding on council accommodation. That we give people from every corner of London an effective voice and a place at the table. This should be a forward-looking commission not a retrospective one.

Every street corner in Rio de Janeiro has street signs which explain the origin of the street name and/or the significance of the street. London could do the same - at least for streets which have a diversity significance. It also makes the city more interesting for tourists - and the residents!
China Town in New York City Manhattan has street signs in Chinese as well as English. That's a way of celebrating the diverse cultural/ethnic identities of areas rather than just regarding them as "ghettos".

My children have gone to school in (outskirts of) this city with families from all over the world. We are lucky to have this great diversity and it seems to me that everyone's lives are richer for it. 

Money is short now and circumstances are very different to a year ago, so my feeling is that any funds would be much better directed in helping those in need, no matter what their cultural identity. Food banks, proper 'green' jobs, rent assistance, wages that reflect the key workers essential work. Proper help. Acknowledging negative things that happened in the past should definitely be highlighted but the immediate needs of real, live people are much more important. 

Why can't we all just be Londoners?

Mayor should focus on the basics and stop all this woke nonsense

Although I was born in Kensington and am mixed ethnicity,I grew up in the melting pot of neasden in Brent.all our 16 buses to Victoria were manned usually by black conductors,who took the fares from us on the old route master buses.when I was knocked up in the air by an overtaking car on dudden hill lane NW10 in 1978 the ambulance girl was a young and very cheerful black girl who talked to me , kept me from chattering shock by telling me she had seen me on top of the pops the previous night : she thought I was Siouxie sioux from the banshees .I had told her that I had to rehearse with my punk group the next day .in the post office , I worked with many black colleagues on the counter and many indians who had had far better professions back home ,were very educated and lovely to talk to, but needed to work to support their immediate families..many had to leave countries like Uganda and kenya via expulsion and begin new lives here in London. We had a few girls in John Kelly girl's who went on to have good careers. My form class had many west Indians from different islands,my best friend.came.from grenada Veronica Frederick,her mother was  very handsome tall well spoken and dressed district head nurse..very strict too..kept Veronica on the straight and narrow so she ended up as a primary school teacher after attaining her Bed degree in early years teaching. Many of the boys i knew  were in the Brent wind band all went on to have good jobs ,our education was excellent in the comprehensive system of the 70's .our science teacher was Asian and such a good woman..very beautiful always wore red lipstick .we had Mr Kumar for maths ,such a good teacher and married to a German primary school teacher ,like my parents:indian father,german mother father was a captain, merchant navy big cargo jute,oil cakes.until may 1965 when the ship was destroyed by fire ,we had to be rescued by the walmler lifeboat.honour these people in any way u can!

This not as important as the mayor thinks..  Concentrate on running London well.    All statues that exist today are valid.   Even if someone was involved in the slave trade, the statue serves as a reminder.   Maybe put a plaque up explaining this , but do not take the statue down.  Everyone of every race should be wanting every position open in as fair a way as possible and given to the best candidate, not influenced by the silly idea of getting the exact percentage of every race, religion etc.  

I believe the Windrush Generation who came here between 1948 - 1970 should be recognised/celebrated for their huge contribution on rebuilding this country after the second world war ended. They left their homes and families in the caribbean hoping and wishing for a better life not knowing the extreme circumsatnces they were walking into however they have played an integral part in the infrastructure of our transport system and NHS, Lets say Thank you

Complete waste of time and money - utter woke nonsense.

I think this is a good idea if done sensitively.  Like all countries there are things in our past we should re-examine and re-evaluate.  The money for some of these monuments  and buildings came from exploiting people, not just through slavery but also through the appalling working and living conditions in the mill towns and factories of 19th Century England - for many of us our ancestors.  And I don't think that's something to be proud of. That doesn't mean they should all be torn down - people might learn more if information was provided about the historical context and circumstances. And something like a sculpture trail would attract tourists when they come back. Of course COVID 19 is important but that doesn't mean we can't think of anything else. And this would take only a small amount of money compared to the overall budget for London and would benefit those of us who don't think the past was perfect. It's not about imposing uniformity but about being to look at the past and see both good and bad, and enabling the next generation to learn about these things

I am unsure why you are looking at this now, surley we need to get on top of the Covid issue, and get London back open for Londoners, businesses and tourists.

Are you looking to leave a leagacy in the name of Mr Khan, if you are wouldn't it be better to say that you got London open, rather than had a few statues and plaques errected that nobody seems insterested in (reading the below comments)

Stop wasting money on this scheme and put it to what Londoners really want.

This is an absolute waste of time. Accept our long and glorious past - there is so much to be proud of. Our past is our past. Trying to erase it will achieve nothing. Forget this divisive rhetoric of skin colour / ethnicity and the focus on magnifying differences.  Why don't you instead put your efforts into reducing crime? I haven't seen a single police officer on the beat since the beginning of the year. Yet all day long I see police cars flying past. If you got bobbies on the beat there would be much less crime in the first place. THAT should be your focus - not these divisive side issues aimed and belittling British culture.