There had to be one somewhere: a slavery-related monument that is not a public embarrassment. “Gilt of Cain”, which commemorates the abolition of the transatlantic trade within the British empire, stands in a quiet courtyard near Leadenhall Market. It is the poignant last stop in a walking tour exploring the City of London’s dual role as a financier of slave industries and a hotbed of abolitionism.
Statues of Britons enriched by the enslavement of Africans have been toppled, concealed or apologetically re-labelled in the UK following this summer’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations. As tour guide Courtney Plank points out, the City of London has launched a consultation on what to do about its own awkward legacies. These include a large monument to William Beckford, a slave-owning lord mayor, and the figure of a kneeling African on the pediment of The Royal Exchange.
Ms Plank is one of a group of City of London guides who came up with the idea of “slavery in the City” walking tours to mark Black History Month. These trips round landmarks of enslavement and the fight to end it have sold so well they are running until Christmas, when pandemic restrictions permit.