Power & Politics

A political history of Britain in the places where it happened: parliament and palace, courts and counting houses, and the streets where people pushed back.

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National Covid Memorial Wall

More than 250,000 hand-drawn hearts along the river, one for each person who died.

Protest & dissentIdeas & memoryFree to enter

Photo by Kelly Foster, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It began in March 2021 with bereaved families, pots of red paint and no permission: a heart on the embankment wall for every person in the UK who died with Covid on their death certificate, running for more than a third of a mile directly opposite the Palace of Westminster. Many carry a name. Volunteers still come to repaint the hearts as the weather takes them, and to add new ones. Nothing about it was commissioned, designed or approved - it was made by the people it commemorates and then defended until the authorities accepted it, which is the reverse of how national memorials usually arrive. Where it stands, facing the building where the decisions were taken, is not an accident either.

Where
Albert Embankment, SE1 7GA
Nearest station
Westminster · 5 min walk

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

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