Mayor removes slave trader’s portrait she can’t stand to look at
THE Lord Mayor of Bristol has removed a portrait of Edward Colston from her office because she could not bear to have him looking at her.
Cleo Lake, who describes herself as a mix of Scottish, Bristolian and Afrocaribbean, said she “simply couldn’t stand” the sight of the slave trader as she worked.
“I spend a lot of time here – I’m here nearly every day. I won’t be comfortable sharing it with the portrait of Colston,” she said.
“As part of my role in campaigning with the Countering Colston team, I also think it’s fitting that I don’t share this office with the portrait.
“Luckily, there’s been a lot of support and the council has agreed to take it down and today is the day it goes into storage.”
The portrait, which dates back to 1702, was hung in City Hall when it opened in 1953.
Cllr Lake, who was elected to the post in May, has now asked for it to be installed in a museum about the abolition of slavery.
Colston is believed to have played a part in the deaths of 20,000 people on board his slave ships in the late 17th century.
Cllr Lake said she wanted the portrait to be on public display in a museum about Bristol’s role in the slave trade, slavery and its abolition. She has replaced it with a painting of a lion by a Bristol-based artist.
Colston, a divisive figure among the people of Bristol, played a key role in the original Royal Africa Company in the mid to late 17th century.
There are at least 20 roads, schools, pubs, businesses and buildings named after Edward Colston, and the slave trader is still commemorated and celebrated in the city.
The city’s premier concert venue, Colston Hall, closed earlier this month for a major refit and will reopen in 2020 with a different name, while governors and parents at Colston Primary School in Cotham recently voted to
change its name.