Wimbledon community pressure to change ‘notorious’ slave trader street names

A community group is applying pressure on its council to change street signs that are named after “notorious” slave traders.

Five streets around Wimbledon Common are named after men who played a significant role in Britain’s slave trading past.

Marryat Road, Marryat Place, Drax Avenue, Draxmont Road and Burghley Road have been identified as street names that campaigners would like to have additional information included on the signs to inform the public of the history attached to them.

Former Merton councillor Peter Walker wrote to the council recently for an update after around 60 people in the Wimbledon Community Forum (WCF) unanimously voted to call on Merton council to add the information to the signs in July last year.

Mr Walker said: “These were notorious slave traders and WCF wants an indication of that on the road names. There are around 11,000 people living in Merton who are from African countries and I think it’s really important that we change the signs.

“Life is very different now to how it used to be in the 1950s and 1960s.”

Burghley Road is named after William Cecil, who became Lord Burghley, and is believed to have started Britain’s involvement in the slave trade.

Lord Burghley, who died in 1598, sponsored Britain’s first slave ships in the 1560’s and lived in The Rectory at 82 Church Road, which still stands having been sold for £26million in 2012.

He was Secretary of State to Elizabeth I when he became aware of the fortune to be made from the slave trade.

Cecil reportedly organised the first trip of British slave ships which consisted of four ships led by Sir John Hawkins, in 1564. The voyage took 400 slaves from west Africa that were then sold in Venezuela.

Mr Walker added: “I wrote this week to the chief executive of Merton asking for the council to urgently consider making clear that Burghley Road is named after someone who started the British involvement in slavery.”

“To date I have no indication of any action by the council to recognise the name of this road represents to our multicultural borough.”

Marryat Road is named after Joseph Marryat MP who died in 1824 and was chairman of Lloyds bank as well as MP for Sandwich.

The Marryat family lived in Wimbledon House Parkside, built around 1700 and demolished in 1899.

MP Marryat received the equivalent of £8.5million for 1,466 slaves, according to a University College London (UCL) Legacies of British Slave-ownership research project.

The project claimed Mr Marryat owned a “large number of slaves” and was an “important figure” in the defence of slavery.

Drax Avenue and Draxmont Road are named after the Drax family who owned Cannizaro House in Wimbledon Common between 1710 and 1920.

UCL’s database reported that John Sawbridge Erle-Drax, was awarded the equivalent of £3million for 189 slaves.

They also owned a plantation in Barbados which his descendant Richard Drax MP for South Dorset still owns.

Sir Hilary Beckles, vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies estimates that 3,000 enslaved people died in Barbados and Jamaica because of the Drax family.

MP Richard Drax has been contacted for comment.

A spokeswoman for Merton council said: “Our shared history and how we remember it in the places that we live, work, and socialise matters – and that includes recognising the uncomfortable fact that some previously lauded local historical figures have links to the transatlantic slave trade.

“At Merton council, we want to make more people aware of this and what it means today, which is why we will be consulting all residents in the borough on how best to acknowledge the history of these individuals that streets are named after. We do not currently have plans for the renaming of any streets.”

Pictured top: Former Merton councillor Peter Walker is calling on the council to add information to street signs of streets named after slave traders (Picture: Peter Walker)