Address: Dexter Square / 50 Railton Road, Brixton, London.

Size: 75′ long.

Medium: Acrylic paints.

Commissioned by: Parminder Vir, Head of GLC Race Equality Unit & Paul Boateng, GLC Police Committee..

Funded by: Greater London Council Arts & Recreation Committee. The first of four murals to be completed.

The Mural tells a story. It starts with pictures of people migrating, followed by pictures caught in a terrible fire. It ends with the poet reading his works under a spotlight. The migration is easy to understand. The children and the fire less so. It is based on an incident which became known as the New Cross Massacre. In January ’81, thirteen young Afro-Britons died in a fire in New Cross, an area not far from Brixton. The cause of the fire remains a mystery.’ Ferdinand Dennis, Behind the Frontlines: Journey into Afro-Britain (London: Gollancz, 1988), p.199;
see also McLeod, John, Postcolonial London: Rewriting the Metropolis (Routledge, 2004)