A concert hall, a slave trader... and a discordant row
IT bills itself as the home of music in Bristol where people can come together.
But as far as city campaigners are concerned, there is little that is welcoming about Colston Hall – particularly its name.
For the Countering Colston campaign group is demanding the city’s concert hall is renamed to remove its association with a notorious slave trader-turned- city benefactor who died almost 300 years ago.
The hall is named after Edward Colston, deputy governor of the Royal African Company which over 26 years, up to 1698, shipped around 100,000 African slaves to plantations in the West Indies and America.
But while the group said it was untenable for a venue designed to ‘bring people together’ to be named in honour of a slave trader, others argue that the name serves as a reminder of Bristol’s history as Britain’s main slave port, which provided the city’s wealth.
Samuel Waite, a Conservative councillor on Keynsham Town Council, in Somerset, said: ‘Let’s hope the powers that be don’t bow to political correctness and the Colston Hall retains its current name.’
But Ros Martin, a cultural activist involved in the Countering Colston group, said: ‘It is an art and cultural centre in what for a long time has been a multi-racial city.
‘But as a woman of African heritage I don’t feel I can engage with a venue named after a 17th century slave trader and people trafficker.’ Bristol has at least six streets named after Colston, who died in 1721, as well as three schools, pubs and student flats. A plaque under a grand bronze statue of the merchant and MP in the city centre describes him as ‘one of the most virtuous and wise sons’ of the city.
The hall is currently consulting the public over £ 45million plans to remodel part of the building and restore original features as part of its 150th anniversary celebrations.
The campaign group is lobbying for a name change to be part of the refurbishment, with Freedom Hall suggested as a possible alternative.
However, earlier this month a readers’ poll in the Bristol Post found 77 per cent wanted to keep the name. The row has echoes of the Rhodes Must Fall campaign, in which students in Oxford demanded the removal of a statue of the British colonialist Cecil Rhodes erected at Oriel College.
However, the statue remains after donors threatened to withdraw £100million worth of bequests.
Bristol Music Trust, which runs the hall, said: ‘We are developing plans that will transform the Colston Hall into a venue fit for the 21st century and to serve Bristol for the next 150 years. Discussions over a new name will be part of that process.’
The venue had previously stressed that while it had been named after Edward Colston, the hall had not been built with his money.