City agrees to rename concert hall over ‘toxic’ slavery link

‘Historically illiterate

ONE of Britain’s best-known concert venues is to scrap its ‘toxic’ link with a slave trader following pressure from activists.

Officials yesterday agreed to rename Colston Hall in Bristol by 2020.

However, critics said they had surrendered to political correctness forced on them by ‘historically illiterate’ antiracism campaigners.

The 150-year-old hall is named after Edward Colston, deputy governor of the Royal African Company, which shipped some 100,000 African slaves to plantations in the West Indies and America.

Colston became one of Bristol’s most generous benefactors thanks to the fortune he made from the slave trade between 1672 and 1698.

But the Countering Colston campaign group has argued that the name is a shameful reminder of the city’s history as Britain’s main slave port.

Members of the Bristol Music Trust, which runs Colston Hall, have now unanimously voted to remove the ‘toxic’ link.

Trust chief executive Louise Mitchell said: ‘We really don’t feel that an association with Edward Colston, however tenuous, is something we want.’

But Richard Eddy, a Conservative councillor in the city, called the decision ‘historically illiterate’.

He added: ‘It is a flagrant kowtow to people who don’t know the history of the city, but are determined to change it.

‘Colston brought great wealth and prosperity to Bristol, and his legacy still means Bristolians benefit from cheaper housing, health care and schooling.’