Britons who have never owned slaves are once again being told to repent for sins they never committed, while activists who have never been enslaved demand more sacrifices on the altar of historical revisionism.
The latest casualty in this unrelenting campaign is a modest pier on the River Thames, whose perfectly innocuous name has been scrubbed clean to appease the ever-growing ranks of the professionally offended.
Plantation Wharf Pier, sitting between Wandsworth Riverside Quarter and Chelsea Harbour, has been renamed St Mary’s Wandsworth. Uber Boat by Thames Clippers, which acquired the pier in 2019, confirmed the change after what it euphemistically called a “consultation” with “stakeholders and residents” — a process triggered by a manufactured outrage in 2021.
The name, innocently inherited from a nearby residential and commercial complex, was seized upon by activists who decided, after decades of silence, that it was “offensive” and “evoked colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade.”
Labour MP Marsha de Cordova, who led the charge, hailed the renaming as “an important step forward,” declaring that the term “plantation” made “a mockery of the violent history of chattel enslavement.”
No matter that for most people passing by, the name meant little more than a nod to a leafy riverside development. No matter that Britain’s record — as the nation that abolished slavery and spent blood and treasure enforcing that abolition — is the finest of any in the world. The activists demanded change, and, predictably, corporate Britain bent the knee.
Yet the puritans are not done. De Cordova is now pressing for the entire Plantation Wharf development to be renamed, expressing her “disappointment” that the private estate has not yet followed the pier’s example.
Vanessa Brady, chair of Plantation Wharf Management Ltd, pointed out that as a private estate, any name change would need the consent — and the money — of residents. “We can only consult and act on the wishes of the leaseholders,” she said. In other words: if the activists want change, they should be willing to foot the bill themselves — though one can imagine the shrieks of protest should anyone suggest that.
The original complaint that set this entire farce in motion came from Rachelle Ferron, ITV’s head of entertainment, who in 2021 took offence after dining at a restaurant serving Plantation rum. On her way home, she spotted the name “Plantation Wharf” and was struck by what she described as a “shocking pattern of normalised references to slavery.”
Ferron’s lament appeared soon after in The Guardian, and the Ivy restaurant group swiftly purged Plantation rum from its menus. Maison Ferrand, the rum’s producers, duly rebranded their product. Now Uber Boat by Thames Clippers has dutifully fallen into line. Ferron welcomed the renaming as “a positive step forward” and urged Plantation Wharf’s residents to follow suit.
There is no sign, however, that any of these campaigners will pause to reflect on what has actually been lost. Or consider that Britain’s role in the history of slavery is overwhelmingly one of heroism, not shame.
It was Britain that abolished the trade — against fierce opposition and at immense national cost.
The West Africa Squadron of the Royal Navy spent more than half a century enforcing the ban on the high seas. For every nine slaves freed, one British sailor died — a staggering 17,000 men, sacrificed in the cause of human freedom. Yet this extraordinary sacrifice has been erased from the conversation, conveniently ignored by modern-day zealots whose understanding of history is as shallow as their moral self-regard is deep.
Slavery, of course, remains a reality today — from the Middle East to parts of Africa — but somehow, the activists are less concerned with those contemporary horrors than they are with a name on a pier in Wandsworth.
What we are witnessing is not progress but a form of cultural vandalism — an attempt to bleach the past of all complexity until nothing remains but an unrecognisable, sanitised version of history that flatters modern sensibilities. To erase the term “plantation” from public spaces is not to reckon with history; it is to pretend it never happened, and to judge our ancestors by the fragile standards of the present day.
Britain’s history is not something to be apologised for. It should be taught in all its complexity, not rewritten to appease the easily offended. Yet as the renaming of Plantation Wharf Pier shows, cowardice and conformity are winning the day.
Unless more people find the courage to resist this creeping puritanism, there will soon be little left of our national story — only the hollow echoes of what we allowed to be torn down.
Main Image: From geograph.org.uk by Alexander P Kapp via Wikipedia
