Grenfell residents gathered inLondonto “say goodbye to their homes” on what is likely to be the last anniversary of the tragedy before the tower is dismantled.
The 72 people who died in the tower block fire in west London in June 2017 were commemorated with a silent walk through the streets of north Kensington on Saturday evening – just months before the two-year process of dismantling what remains of the building is expected to begin.
“There is the fear that once that tower comes down, they’ll be forgotten,” said Nina Mendy, whose aunt, Mary Mendy, and cousin, Khadija Saye, died in their flat on the 20th floor. “It’s the uncertainty of what next year a memorial will look like. It’s like we’ve been told what’s going to happen, rather than been consulted – it’s almost like being a child.”
The government announced earlier this year that they would dismantle the tower, which is being held up by steel props, to ground level owing to safety fears. At the time of the decision, the Grenfell United group said that the voices of the bereaved had been ignored by the deputy prime minister and housing secretary, Angela Rayner.
Survivor David Benjamin, who was in his girlfriend’s flat on the fourth floor at the time of the fire, said that eight years on from the tragedy, he hoped that “people would remember that it wasn’t just a building – it was our home”.
He said: “I knew it was going to come down eventually, but I would have preferred that it stayed up until we at least got some justice. I still live nearby and it’s hard to have to see it – I always take time to reflect. We see ourselves as family here. It’s important that we keep that up moving forward.”
Five architecture practices have been shortlisted by the Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission to lead the memorial’s design. Survivor Antonio Roncolato, who lived on the 10th floor, said he worried that there would be a lag between the tower’s demolition and the new structure, which will bear the names of the 72 people, aged between six months and 82, who were killed.
“I feel that the time has come for the tower to be taken down,” he said. “But for me it’s important there is a plan in place – that the tower is not dismantled and then the ground remains sealed off for a year. For me, it’s very important that events like this take place and that we keep breathing down the necks of our politicians to make sure that the recommendations from the public inquiry are implemented.”
Throughout the day, residents dressed in green arrived to pay their respects at the foot of the tower, laying white roses and praying alongside multi-faith leaders. Joe Powell, the Labour MP for Kensington and Bayswater, acknowledged that the loss of the tower would mean not “having that reminder every day that we still don’t have justice”.
Calling for a national oversight mechanism, which would ensure greater enforcement of public inquiry recommendations, he said: “We shouldn’t have any government marking their own homework, regardless of what political party they are. Inquiries are very traumatising to victims and if we don’t actually learn the lessons from them then you know that feels, to me, like a governance problem.”
The Grenfell inquiry, which concluded last year, found that “Each and every one of the deaths that occurred in Grenfell Tower, on the 14 June 2017 was avoidable.”