Cleo Lake on why Bristol needs a space to acknowledge slavery past

In 1999, Cleo Lake was a gallery assistant at the Respectable Trade exhibition, the first major public acknowledgement that Bristol was even connected to the trade in enslaved Africans.

The city never built on the success of this exhibition, however, says Lake, who on becoming lord mayor in 2018 removed a painting of Edward Colston hanging in the lord’s mayor parlour at City Hall – two years before the slave trader’s statue was pulled down

“What really sticks out to me was the number of people from all backgrounds who came (to the Respectable Trade exhibition), but in particular the number of older white Bristolians who came and said they knew nothing about this,” Lake said.

“They were actually quite angry that they had not been educated or informed. Some people were in tears.”

There are displays in the M Shed and the Georgian House museum to acknowledge Bristol’s slavery past, but Lake believes that much more is needed.

This is where the Abolition Shed collective comes in. The group is so named because they originally had plans to transform the O and M sheds on Welsh Back – which later this year will now become Box Hall – into a slavery museum.

The latest ambitious plan for the group is to transform the former Seamen’s Chapel & Institute on Prince Street

Hogarth’s famous Triptych is included inside the Seamen’s Chapel as part of the Abolition Shed collective’s plans – illustration: Sam Kendon

“Has Bristol gone backwards?” asks the Abolition Shed collective’s proposal for the Seamen’s Chapel.

“Other museums have come and gone. What is apparent, and came out of recent campaigning and the toppling of the Edward Colston statue during a Black Lives Matter demonstration… is a perceived need in Bristol for a national memorial to the victims of enslavement and an Abolition Shed interpretation centre.

“An opportunity for a unique museum telling the story of both African resistance and of unsung Bristol abolitionists who combined to end the Trans-Atlantic trade. This would be a dedicated space in the heart of where the history actually happened.”

Episodes of history that would be covered in detail in the museum include African resistance on the coast, on the slave ships and on the plantations; the rise and fall of Colston; the Bristol Bus Boycott; African American abolitionists in Bristol; and reform and emancipation.

Lake said that it remains baffling that Bristol does not already have our own equivalent of the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool.

“There’s a lot of things in Bristol that don’t make sense and I guess this is one of them.

“The city needs to have somewhere where people can be educated and informed, so they can understand this history. Because this history isn’t going away. In fact, more momentum and more drive is circulating for people to really try and reconcile with it.”

“There is more will and understanding to have this now. I think there will also be international visitors as well as local and from across the UK who will be looking to Bristol.

“On the surface of it, people think we are so advanced here. Of course, we had the statue toppling. This is the epicentre of a global movement.

“If you want to find out information, you imagine you would go and find it out here, but it’s actually quite hard to do that at the moment.

“It isn’t transparent. It isn’t obvious. I think this (a new museum) would be something to attract the diaspora as well as the wider international community.

“I think it would be a brilliant draw for Bristol at a time when the museums and culture departments are under a lot of pressure. I think this could be a real positive.”

The potential streetscape outside the museum – illustration: Sam Kendon

Lake added: “Some people are hell-bent on anniversaries. We had Abolition 200 which was a bit wishy-washy; what did we really get out of it?

“Some people might be thinking of 2033 which is another date for commemorating abolition. But why do we need to wait until then? We need to get it going now…

“I do hope and I’m pretty sure that Bristol will have this centre one day. Somewhere, somehow. Of course in an ideal world, it would be council owned to save on some costs and there would be a capital budget to go with it.

“We can’t dwell too much now on the £83m that will be given to the Bristol Beacon. But that is a reality. And even if we had two per cent of that, then we would be alright.

“I think it is about political will and the will, the requests and the demands of certain individuals, and certain stakeholders to keep trying to drive this forward.

“And if nothing else, this bid and plan keeps it out there in the consciousness of the wider public who aren’t as obsessed with it day to day as people like myself…

“While it would be good to be part of the city offer and city council-led, I’m not confident that we have got the right capabilities and competencies at the moment.

“I’m also not sure that council staff in the culture department and other areas are supported enough to be moving along with the decolonising journey. I think there needs to be more support and more training.”

“I think people need to stop seeing it as a threat or as something that is massively negative, but try to put the spin on it that this is something positive. It’s about how people feel included in it. Some people may not feel that they need to know or why is it our story?”

“It still is relevant today. The statue toppling and the fallout from that ricocheted across the world.

“Does it need to be relevant though or could it just be interesting? We’re just trying to keep it in the spotlight as much as we can. You’ve got to start somewhere.”

Main photo: Green Party

Read next:

• Inside the hidden church in the city centre
• Derelict church finally for sale
• Deconstructing Bristol’s colonial history
• Bristol holds first exhibition dedicated solely to artists of Afrikan descent

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