News / St Pauls
Alfred Fagon’s bust among Black history memorials given listed status
The only statue of a Black man in Bristol has been given Grade II-listed status.
Alfred Fagon was a playwright as well as a poet and actor, whose bust was erected in St Paul’s in 1987 on the first anniversary of his death.
Fagon was born in Jamaica, emigrated to England as a young man and lived in Bristol for many years.
is needed now More than ever
The bronze statue by Zimbabwean artist David Matusa on the Grosvenor Road triangle was covered in a corrosive substance in June 2020 just days after the statue of Edward Colston was pulled down.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport gave listed statue to his bust on the advice of Historic England during Black History Month.
Fagon was recognised as one of the most notable black British playwrights of the 1970s and 1980s as well as being a poet and actor – photo: Martin Booth
When he died in mysterious circumstances in 1986, Fagon’s sister said that she hoped “no other Black man” would ever share his fate.
He was said by the Met Police to have had a heart attack while out jogging in London, but those who remember the always smartly dressed Fagon find it hard to believe how the police “mistook him for a vagrant” – their excuse for not contacting his family until three weeks after his death, during which time his body had been cremated.
Main photo: Martin Booth
Read next:
- Statue honours Black woman whose contribution changed the course of modern medicine
- Wall that featured mural of Roy Hackett undergoing repairs
- Colston statue should remain on display in museum, commission finds
- Gas Girls in special collaboration with St Paul’s Carnival
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