Cast in Stone

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• 1969, James Baldwin visits the Albert Memorial in London
• 2000, Winston Churchill statue defaced during May Day protests
• 2020, Decision by Westminster City Council that it does not have the authority to remove the statue of Robert Clive
  The Westminster City Council declared: 'Westminster City Council’s role in relation to the potential removal or repositioning of the statue is limited to the consideration of an application for Listed Building Consent to remove the statue, as it is Grade II listed. The statue is owned by English Heritage under a licence from Historic England which runs until 2023 and therefore the Council has no power to order its removal. Instead, the decision rests with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as the central government department responsible for Historic England.
• 2020, Equestrian statue of Prince George is graffitied
  The plinth and front relief of the statue were graffitied with BLM (Black Lives Matter) tags.
• 2020, Far-right protest "in defence" of the Winston Churchill statue
• 2020, Graffiti on the Winston Churchill statue
  The Churchill statue's plinth was graffitied with the words 'was a racist' during the Black Lives Matter protests.
• 2020, Graffiti on the Winston Churchill statue
  The Churchill statue's plinth was graffitied with the words 'is a racist' during a climate change demonstration.
• 2020, Petition to Westminster City Council to remove the statue of Robert Clive
  An e-petition started by Meera Somji ran from 11/06/2020 to 28/07/2020 and gathered 333 signatures. The petitioners argued: 'There are three main reasons to remove the statue: 1. The glorification of a mass murderer and looter in the heart of the nation’s capital is profoundly insulting 2. The location of the statue at the entrance to the FCO tells visitors that the British state condones the murderous activities of Robert Clive. It also tells our civil servants, MPs, and Whitehall staff that they are furthering his work 3. It’s time to improve the education that we receive about the British Empire, which starts with removing a statue that glorifies rather than educates The council can consult on where to preserve the statue. Westminster Council responded that it does not have authority to remove the statue, which is managed and owned by English Heritage, on licence from Historic England, which in turn is under the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
• 2020, Protest graffiti and placard on the statue of Abraham Lincoln
  The letters "A C" were graffitied in front of the ABRAHAM LINCOLN inscription (i.e. ACAB, or All Cops Are Bastards). A placard with the words HATE KILLS LOVE HEALS was placed in Lincoln's arms.
• 2020, Statue of Jan Smuts is graffitied
  The statue of Smuts was graffitied with the BLM (Black Lives Matter) tag.
• 2024, Yinka Shonibare exhibits his series 'Decolonised Structures' at the Serpentine Galleries
  Yinka Shonibare's Decolonised Structures (first shown in 2022-2023) consists of a series of miniaturised fibreglass sculptures of colonial figures, hand-painted with Dutch wax pattern and placed on top of wooden plinths. Individuals depicted include Winston Churchill, Frederick Roberts, Horatio Kitchener, Robert Clive, Queen Victoria, Henry Bartle Frere, Charles Napier, Colin Campbell, and William Pitt the Younger. The series was included in an exhibition titled 'Suspended States', which also included one of his wind sculptures, an installation titled 'War library', and 'Sanctuary City.' The series of statues called 'Decolonised structures' presents scaled-down version of public statues in London. Shonibare noted that the reduction in size and the height of the plinth was specifically intended 'to metaphorically reduce [their' grandeur ... [and] power over citizens.' Shonibare claims that by decking the statues in his signature 'African textiles' (which are in fact Indonesian patterns mass produced by the Dutch and marketed in Africa) and gold-leaf, he is '...making them more beautiful.' He says that he is '...changing their character, or the history of their character, into something much more interesting.' While the statues were expressly created in response to debates around public statues of colonial individuals, Shonibare comments, 'I don't think statues should be destroyed, the public should be able to see them, but there should be museums built for them so people can understand the history of these people and what they did.' The accompanying booklet, also available on the free app Bloomberg Connects, offers short histories of the careers of the individuals depicted by the resized statues.