Brixton Blog: Government investigates raising anchor of Empire Windrush
The Minister for Crime and Policing, Kit Malthouse, yesterday (1 July) told the House of Commons that the Department for Transport is investigating whether the anchor from the Empire Windrush can be recovered and restored to become a memorial to the Windrush Generation.
He was speaking in a debate on Windrush Day (22 June) moved by Brixton MP Helen Hayes (Labour, Dulwich & West Norwood).
As well as recounting how Windrush Day was celebrated in Brixton, she joined other MPs, including Streatham’s Bell Ribeiro-Addy, in strong criticism of the Windrush compensation scheme.
Windrush activist Patrick Vernon OBE began a fundraising drive to raise the anchor two years ago on Windrush day 2019.
It would become the centrepiece of a monument to the Windrush Generation and their descendants.
The campaign was launched at Brixton’s Black Cultural Archives.
It aims to find the wreck of the Empire Windrush where she sank in the Mediterranean and recover her stern anchor.