UK commits to ensuring ‘poignant’ COVID memorial wall in London will be preserved

LONDON (AP) – The British government said Thursday that a memorial wall in London created by those who lost loved ones during the coronavirus pandemic will be preserved.

In a statement, it said that the 8-foot-high (2½-meter-high) Portland stone wall on the south side of the River Thames, directly opposite the Houses of Parliament, will remain to commemorate the 240,000 or so virus-related deaths in the U.K., as well as honor the sacrifice of key workers, particularly in the health and care sectors.

The National COVID Memorial Wall was established without official authorization on a half-kilometer (more than a ¼-mile) stretch of the Albert Embankment in March 2021. It came a year after the first virus-related death in the U.K., meant as a visual representation of the scale of loss in the country during the pandemic. It can take 10 minutes to walk from one end of the heart-festooned memorial wall to the other.

Each life lost is represented by a carefully painted heart that volunteers freshen up on a weekly basis with long-lasting masonry paints. Created by the campaigning groups COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice and Led by Donkeys, it’s now maintained and cherished by a group of volunteers known as The Friends of the Wall.

Culture Minister Fiona Twycross said that the wall is “a poignant and powerful reminder of the scale of loss of life to the pandemic” and that it’s “right” that the pandemic’s toll is appropriately remembered.

“Many families did not have the opportunity to say goodbye to a loved one,” Twycross said. “Today, we commit to ensuring that those who died are not forgotten.”

The Labour Party government also said that a day of reflection will continue to take place annually in March, and that it will back new spaces for reflections around the country, including memorial walls.

The U.K. suffered one of the deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks in Europe. Ministers from the previous Conservative government, including then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have faced criticism for their actions, particularly the delay to put the country in lockdown on March 23, 2020. However, other aspects of the country’s response, notably in the rollout of the vaccines, has won praise.

A national inquiry into all aspects of the handling of the pandemic, including the country’s preparedness and the government’s actions, started two years ago and is expected to run until 2027. Its current focus concerns children.