Tulse Hill on the verge of being cancelled amid slavery connections
Tulse Hill may be on the verge of being cancelled, with some calling for it to be renamed following revealed links to slavery.
It comes as Lambeth borough council conducted a questionnaire, including a “community listening exercise”, which asked residents what they thought of area names.
Tulse Hill is named after the Tulse family, who former lord mayor of London Sir Henry Tulse was a descendant of.
In the questionnaire, the council explained that Tulse had gained “much of his wealth” from the slave trade. It then gave residents various options of renaming, displaying information or ignoring.
A Lambeth Council spokesperson told City PM this afternoon: “In the wake of the Black Lives Matter campaign in 2020 we worked with our communities to see if there are local locations with possible links to the trans-Atlantic slave trade and colonialism.
“What followed is an educational piece of local history research work of the kind that our valued local library archives routinely undertake. There are no plans to rename Tulse Hill, or any other site in the borough, but as a community we have learnt more about our past by holding these conversations.
“This includes highlighting that Tulse Hill is named after the Tulse family, which possibly included Sir Henry Tulse, whose wealth came from profits from the slave trade.
“Lambeth is a richly diverse borough, and the council has been a pioneer since the ‘80s for naming new places and new buildings to reflect local people. This latest piece of work required no extra spending, and has taken Government legislation on the issue fully into account.”
The borough’s move comes alongside a general shift towards decolonising UK cities. For instance, last October London mayor Sadiq Khan offered £25,000 grants to Londoners to “decolonise” street names.
He said: “London’s diversity is its greatest strength but for far too long our capital’s statues, street names and buildings have only shown a limited perspective on our city’s complex history”.
“I’m determined to do everything I can to ensure our public realm presents a more complete picture of everyone who has made London the incredible city it is today.”