Government Guidance to Ensure Statues of Historic Figures Are Kept in Place

Culture Secretary wants cultural institutions to ‘educate and inform’ rather than ‘erase the parts of our history that we are uncomfortable with.’

Protesters throwing the statue of Edward Colston into Bristol harbour during a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Bristol, England, on June 7, 2020. Ben Birchall/PA Media

Ministers have published new guidance to “retain and explain” historic statues that have been subject to removal campaigns.

Guidance released on Thursday will apply to any statue or monument accessible to the public in the local community in England which faces calls for its removal or relocation on “the grounds of changing views about the people or events it commemorates.”

This is to “protect historical monuments from unwarranted removal by giving statutes legal protection so future generations can learn from their cultural and historical contexts.”

The Victorian-era statue of 17th-century merchant and slave trader Edward Colston was toppled into Bristol Harbour in 2020 amid protests related to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Others, including an Oxford College statue of British colonialist 19th-century industrialist Cecil Rhodes, have been subject to campaigns for their removal.

The controversial statue of colonialist Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College, University of Oxford, UK, issued on May 20, 2021. PA Media

Statue or Monument

“History is nuanced and complex,” said Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer.

“It is full of grey areas, which is what makes it so interesting and, of course, there are times when statues and monuments depict people or events that we very much disapprove of today,” she added.

The minister said that at the same time, the UK “has a proud history as an engine for progress, democracy, and liberal values.”

“That is why I want all our cultural institutions to resist being driven by any politics or agenda and to use their assets to educate and inform rather than to seek to erase the parts of our history that we are uncomfortable with,” she added.

The new guidance follows consideration by the academics and heritage experts of the government-appointed Heritage Advisory Board on how custodians should approach and manage such requests.

Britain's Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Lucy Frazer leaves after attending a weekly meeting of Cabinet ministers at 10 Downing Street in London on May 16, 2023. Carl Court/Getty Images

Historic England also released a set of case studies highlighting ways that “reinterpretation” has already been put into practice.

For example, St. Stephen’s Church in Bristol features an artwork in a Bristol church that “acknowledges the city’s connections with transatlantic slavery.”

The All Souls College Library, Oxford has a plaque “featuring the installation of a plaque commemorating enslaved people.”

Cancel Culture

Talking to the Conservative Conference on Tuesday, Mrs Frazer hit out at cancel culture and claimed that the UK’s culture and values had “come under threat” in recent years.

She told the party conference: “There are some that want to cancel, those who seek to erase our history, shut down the view they disagree with rather than argue against it, those who would apply a two-dimensional filter of moralist outrage on actions or statements rather than understanding the nuance of language or the context of history.

“These people cast Churchill as a villain, not as the man who kept Britain free.”

Protesters in Oxford city centre during a protest calling for the removal of the statue of 19th century imperialist, politician Cecil Rhodes from the Oriel college, Oxford, UK, issued on May 20, 2021. Joe Giddens/PA

Wales

The guidance only applies to England.

In July 2020, following the death of George Floyd, Wales First Minister Mark Drakeford ordered an “urgent” audit of statues, street, and building names to address Wales’s connections with slavery and the slave trade.

The audit identified 209 monuments, buildings, or street names, located in all parts of Wales, which commemorate people who were directly involved with slavery and the slave trade or opposed its abolition.

In 2022, the Welsh government announced its Anti-racist Wales Action Plan to “eradicate” racism from the NHS, hospitals, schools, and more in the country.

PA Media contributed to this report.