#PublicSpace #London
*this shameless landgrab shd be seen as part of the much wider picture of public #GreenSpaces being appropriated by those who see #parks as empty plots for construction or commercial activity*
RSVP @miattafahnbulleh.bsky.social 😡
@pickardje.bsky.social @katie0martin.ft.com
Below, an update on our campaign. The Holocaust Memorial Bill has now received Royal Assent.
Once the diggers move in there will be no going back, so we will now be campaigning for a fresh planning inquiry.
www.crowdjustice.com/case/stop-go...
Survivors including Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Martin Stern and, below, Joanna Milan BEM disagree with the minister. They want it done right.
If the Tory Govt had followed due process and properly considered alternative locations, it could have been operational long before now.
The current proposal fails against almost all of 2015 Holocaust Commission report’s recommendations.
Many survivors and Holocaust educators oppose it.
‘If you think London’s parks are protected, think again.’ - Alice Robert, CPRE
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
House of Lords: ‘The sole purpose of any Learning Centre must be the provision of education about the Holocaust and antisemitism.’
Government: ‘Nope.’
#HowDidWeGetHere #MakeItMakeSense #HolocaustMemorial #Westminster #VictoriaTowerGardens
If the Holocaust Memorial Bill is passed, the project will again require planning permission.
We have repeatedly asked for a new planning inquiry given the many changes since the original decision but the Govt will not commit to this.
Our campaign continues.…!
Holocaust Memorial Bill returns to the Commons on Tues 20 Jan.
MPs will discuss one Lords amendment: "The sole purpose of any Learning Centre must be the provision of education about the Holocaust and antisemitism.”
The Government intends to deny this request and has restricted debate to 1 hour!
Yes. A handy summary of where we’re at. Slight inaccuracy regarding Richard Buxton!
I think his involvement was a bit earlier in the process than that. But he was certainly one of the Secs of State who wheeled and dealed to make it happen.
I wrote about London's new Holocaust memorial, due to get the green light this year.
Supporters believe the project has already been delayed for too long.
But critics fear it will oversimplify Britain’s relationship with its past and with present-day antisemitism.
www.politico.eu/article/brit...
Hi Esther, some interesting new insights in your article. Thanks!
One small correction: Richard Buxton is an environmental solicitor who has campaigned against this location for the memorial. He is also a descendant of Thomas Fowell Buxton, to whom the Buxton Memorial is actually dedicated.
For the children's playground you can see a small shelter on the right, a stone ram and leaf-shorn plane trees on the left, and in the middle a Christmas tree with a star on the top, and beyond, the Palace of Westminster and, if you look carefully, a half glimpse of Big Ben.
The Christmas tree in Victoria Tower Gardens, Westminster.
Victoria Tower Gardens
👍🏼
Commemorating those who fought against slavery: ‘Wilberforce, Clarkson, Macaulay, Brougham, Dr Lushington, and others’. Their ultimate success was the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, and the emancipation of slaves which followed in 1834 is commemorated on the plaque." http://www.speel.me.uk/sculptlondon/buxtonmemfountain.htm
The Buxton Memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens, by the RiverThames in London, revealed after a complex restoration.
Almost certainly! The UK government used similar tactics in 2019, when they employed ‘social impact agency’ Big Ideas, at a cost of £118k to the taxpayer, to subvert the planning consultation system in the case of the UK Holocaust Memorial & Learning Centre.
Images of peers speaking in the House of Lords.
Praise and thanks to the peers who were in the @houseoflords.parliament.uk chamber until 01.20 last night, voting in support of amendments to the Holocaust Memorial Bill.
Phil Rosenberg of @boardofdeputies.bsky.social writing on his own account because the Board has never given Deputies a vote on the UK Holocaust Memorial proposal for Victoria Tower Gardens.
Charles Moore writes in today’s @telegraphnews.bsky.social about the UK Holocaust Memorial & Learning Centre proposed for Victoria Tower Gardens, which returns to @houseoflords.parliament.uk tomorrow.
Note how Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington avoids answering the concerns about public access to Victoria Tower Gardens.
If the UKHM exists in Victoria Tower Gardens it will mean and cancellation of the park on security grounds.
And what does Mr Gardner mean by ‘Westminster’? The UK Holocaust Memorial promoters have never suggested anywhere in Westminster other than VTG.
@houseoflords.parliament.uk
We’ll never know. Because nobody else has proposed building anything in this Grade II listed park.
UK Holocaust Memorial
Save Victoria Tower Gardens
Few places better to watch the Thames roll by than lovely Victoria Tower Gardens.
#SaveVictoriaTowerGardens
The UK Holocaust Memorial & Learning Centre, as currently proposed, is ‘a terribly bad idea’ and ‘massive misallocation of resources’.
Exactly right, Tristram Hunt.
@dcmsgovuk.bsky.social @rachelblakemp.bsky.social @matthewpennycookmp.bsky.social
And finally saying what many museum and cultural sector leaders must be thinking: That excavating a park to build a tiny, poorly-defined learning centre, when public funding is in such short supply, is ‘a terribly bad idea’.
Today in @thetimes.com, #TristramHunt of #V&A and the new #EastStorehouse, says what many museum and cultural sector leaders are thinking about the proposed #UKHolocaustMemorial and #LearningCentre.
Athena in @countrylifemag.bsky.social hits the nail on the head:
‘The uncompromising attitude of those responsible for driving it forward….to admit no reasonable objection….Indeed, why should they when the whole system is being managed to their advantage?’
#VictoriaTowerGardens
#UKHolocaustMemorial
Good morning friends. See my latest article here: thetidalthames.com/2025/05/18/t...
