Location: West India Quay, London, UK
Client: Greater London Authority
Project Status: Competition - Shortlisted

Located on a small footprint adjacent to the Museum of London in West India Quay, the memorial proposal is conceived as a brutally scarred landscape and a manifestation of the lasting impact of forced migration and enslavement of Africans during the transatlantic slave trade.

The proposal embodies the displacement, pain and oppression of enslaved Africans and their descendants, and is articulated through a series of intersecting elements that combine to represent a permanent 'scarring' of the landscape or 'scarred vessel'.

The presence of rising vertical columns translates the gravity and global impact of the transatlantic slave trade through scale and composition.

The arrangement and spacing of columns permit views from the pedestrian footpath/walkway towards the quay - reinforcing the relationship between the victims of the slave trade, the quay warehouses and the slaving vessels of the trade.

The composition of vertical linear 'scarring' elements are arranged in an enveloping, protective form around the memorial's interior, partially concealing a space of commemoration and contemplation within.

The entrance to the memorial’s inner chamber is deliberately constricted and obscured through a series of narrow openings amongst slender vertical columns of the memorial's outer layer - compelling the visitor to explore the inner space and voids within.

The interior is comprised of a series of voids within the landscape and an open overhead canopy. The voids translate the duality of loss and hope as a consequence of the impact of the transatlantic slave trade on enslaved Africans and their descendants, creating a space of remembrance and reflection.

The latticed canopy that oversails the memorial's internal space is etched with key events and people - in commemoration to the resistance of slavery.

A series of three sunken voids within the memorials groundscape represent the geographic components of the triangular trade - Great Britain, Africa & the Caribbean/Americas.