‘Let’s remove Colston’s name from our publicly-owned concert hall’

The Colston Hall is about to undergo one of its most significant overhauls and upgrades since it opened in 1867. It will bring what is the largest concert hall in the West of England into the 21st century at long last, as well as creating new education spaces and opportunities for people across Bristol and the South West.

The venue is currently asking the public for their opinions on these ambitious plans via an online survey in what is a pre-planning consultation before a full planning application is submitted later in the year. Whilst the survey appears to cover all aspects of the proposed development of the Hall there appears to be a rather large elephant, in this case missing, from the room: the notion that now might be the perfect opportunity to change the venue’s name.

There’s no doubt that Edward Colston (1636-1721), although never really resident here in Bristol, was a major benefactor to the city. It’s well documented that part of his huge fortune was used for a number of philanthropic projects which included schools, almshouses and churches.

Any visitor to Bristol will soon learn that his name permeates the city to this day, with a statue of him taking pride of place smack bang in the middle of the city centre.

However, that philanthropy came at a price. His fortune was made directly as a result of his companies’ involvement in the slave trade. This was no so-called equivalent of a ‘victimless crime’, a robber distributing part of his new-found wealth amongst the poor in the style of Robin Hood.

Approximately 100,000 black Africans were trafficked across the Atlantic as slaves against their will in tortuous conditions with nearly a fifth of them dying prematurely, either on the journey or due to the conditions they faced on arrival. This horrific fact was conveniently overlooked until relatively recently and for a number of years now there have been calls to rename the Colston Hall as well as moving Colston’s statue or at the very least updating signage to reflect his connection to the slave trade.

So far, the Bristol Music Trust has appeared to have ignored calls for the change of name to the Colston Hall. Back in 2014 at the start of its first phase of its refurbishment a venue spokesperson told the BBC that a name change was “part of a long-term discussion” as part of a campaign to raise funds. That discussion seems to have been left out of their latest consultation.

But why change history?” I have seen and heard people ask. “Surely we need to make sure that this man and the things he did, good or bad, are not forgotten?” is another reason often cited against a name change.

First of all, we need to ask ourselves why do we name venues after people in the first place? Surely it’s about honouring the person concerned and memorialising them in a good way? Do we really want to honour Edward Colston now in 2017? Do we want to memorialise his deeds, particularly the bad ones, in this way?

We have a brand new arena (hopefully) in the process of being built in the city. Would anyone dare think of calling it the Colston Arena? I think it unlikely. In fact, I’d take bets on it.

We have benefited in a number of ways throughout history from the deeds of despotic regimes or dubious characters in the fields of science, technology and medicine to name but a few. We rarely see edifices named after them even though we continue to reap the rewards of their unsavoury acts. Why should we continue to do so with Colston? Visitors to our city must be very puzzled indeed when they learn more about him.

By changing a building’s name, we are not changing history. The history will still be there; it’s well documented. Nearly a fifth of our city’s population identify as BME, many of whom are direct descendants of Colston’s slaves.

As a white(ish) gay son of an Anglo-Indian immigrant I know what it feels like to be part of a minority. I can empathise with someone with black skin who has to walk into the Colston Hall with that signage looming over their heads but I cannot walk in their shoes so I’ll never really know what that feels like.

Artists like Massive Attack (who incidentally could fill the Colston Hall ten times over if their gig last summer on the Downs is anything to go by) have taken a stand for years by refusing to perform there. Colston will never be forgotten. There’s too much of him ingrained throughout Bristol.

“Can’t we just put up a plaque inside?” Of course we can, in fact we should do that in any case regardless of any new nomenclature.

But we have two huge opportunities here. Firstly to acknowledge the lasting damage that Colston did to African-Caribbean people. We still see huge inequalities and poverty in the West Indies, the United States and yes, in our own beautiful city of Bristol to this very day.

Secondly, we can not only remove his name from our fine publicly-owned concert hall but also begin to address some of these inequalities, by allowing say a corporation to sponsor the venue. Sums as large as £10 million have been bandied around as the going rate, it might even be more.

Our city is in the middle of a funding crisis, the arts as usual come bottom of the list when it comes to funding. Let’s use this opportunity to ring-fence that money and create a lasting legacy by investing it in young disenfranchised people in our city and give our underfunded educational establishments a boost while we’re at it. It’s not difficult. What’s not to like?

Ivan Jackson presents Showtime on BCfm and is also part of the news editing team on the One Love Breakfast and ShoutOut LGBT Radio.

Read more: New plans revealed for future of Colston Hall