28 C O N T E X T 1 7 3 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 2 but in 1895, 174 years after its subject’s death. It has been suggested that it was a riposte to the erection in the previous year of a statue to the statesman, philosopher and Edmund Burke (1729–1797), MP for Bristol, who had been a noted opponent of the slave trade. The UK government has since introduced legislation to ensure that monuments and plaques are explained in situ rather than removed. Removal of any historic statue, whether listed or not, now needs full planning permission. If a council intends to grant permission for removing a particular statue and Historic England objects, the levelling-up secretary will be notified so that he or she can make the final decision. Some of the issues were highlighted by an appeal decision that blocked the erection of a new statue on the now-vacant Colston plinth. A statue of protester Jen Reid, titled ‘A Surge of Power’, had been placed on the plinth by Black Lives Matter activists, before being immediately removed by Bristol City Council. An independent planner, Gary Rice, subsequently applied for temporary planning and listed building consent for the statue of Reid to be placed on the plinth for two years. In order to avoid further trouble, the council refused to determine the applications, so Rice appealed against the nondetermination. The planning inspector found that the proposal would fail to preserve the plinth’s special architectural and historic interest, and that there was little to substantiate Rice’s contention that the new statue would make the public realm more inclusive and encourage community cohesion. The process seemed to show how little the government’s interventions have done to help facilitate the necessary mediation in ways that are fair, inclusive, participative and transparent. After years of campaigning by Oxford’s Rhodes Must Fall movement, an independent commission into Oriel College’s statue of the imperialist Cecil Rhodes voted earlier this year to remove it. The college has refused to do so, on the grounds that the legal and planning processes would be costly in the light of the government’s retainand-explain policy. What are statues for? To remind people of whoever is represented, presumably. But those who remember them fondly will not need reminding; those who resent them will not want to be reminded; and the rest may have no interest in who the statue represents. Three of the plinths in London’s Trafalgar Square are occupied by statues, and for many years one had been left vacant. A government advisory group, convened in 1999, decided that the fourth plinth should be occupied by a piece of new sculpture, on a rotating basis. The journalist GaryYounge, at one time chair of the committee that chose the artworks, was often asked to devote the fourth plinth permanently to a particular famous person. He always gave the same response: if you can name those who occupy the other three plinths, we will consider giving you the fourth. Almost always they could not name a single one. Younge’s somewhat eccentric conclusion is that statues are futile: they should all be taken down, and no new ones be erected. The reality is that many statues and other memorials have evidential, historical, aesthetic or communal value; and people will continue to create artefacts and name places in celebration of people and events whose memories they want to share. Many of those people and events will be to some degree controversial. Deciding how to create, conserve, record, describe, relocate or rename those memorials is a complex process in a democracy, and so it should be. It is the essence of dynamic history. Rob Cowan is editor of Context, and author of Essential Urban Design and The Dictionary of Urbanism. Illustrations by Rob Cowan The inscription on the plinth to the statue to Edward Colston, erected 174 years after his death. The static view sees history as being made up of facts, which are unchanging and reflect unchanging values. The statue of a pensive Edward Colston before it was pulled down from its plinth
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