NEW CROSS FIRE VICTIMS
HONOURED WITH MEMORIAL BLUE PLAQUE
Three decades after 14 young people tragically lost their lives after attending a house party in New Cross, the Nubian Jak Community Trust in partnership with Lewisham Council is to install a Blue Plaque at the address where the tragedy took place.
The ceremony will take place at 439 New Cross Road , Lewisham, London , SE14 6TA , on Tuesday 18th January, 2011 at 2:00pm.
The plaque unveiling will be the climax of a series of events happening over 4 days beginning with a Remembrance Evening of entertainment at the Albany Theatre, Deptford, on 14th January hosted by the playwright Kwame Kwei Armah. This will be followed on Sunday 16th January, by a 3pm Memorial Service at St Andrews Church , Brockley SE4. Then two days later, on Tuesday 18th, exactly 30 years to the day the catastrophic fire took place, a blue commemorative plaque will be unveiled by family members of those that perished in the fire. Also attending will be the Lewisham councillors, dignitaries, TV personalities, the media and members of the public.
The New Cross Fire was a devastating house fire which killed 13 young black people during a birthday party in New Cross, South East London, on Sunday January 18, 1981. It would later claim a 14th victim. The black community were shocked by the indifference of the wider population, and accused the London Metropolitan Police of a cover up, which they suspected was an arson attack motivated by racism. The protests arising out of the fire led to a mobilisation of black political activity and the largest ever street march by a BME community in Britain . To date no-one has ever been charged, but the case represents a land mark in British African Caribbean history and race relations.
However, in 2006 a new student bursary scheme was created, in memory of the New Cross Fire Victims. The scheme awards annual grants to two current or former students of schools and colleges in Lewisham, wishing to study at Goldsmiths University of London. The scheme, which was initiated by Sir Steve Bullock, Mayor of Lewisham, has the backing of all the families who lost loved ones in the New Cross Fire. It is a positive lasting legacy which will continue to help future Lewisham students. After the plaque unveiling on Tuesday, there will be a ceremony at Goldsmith College to celebrate the recipients of the 2011 Bursary awards.
Jak Beula, Chair of the Nubian Jak Community Trust said: ‘The New Cross Fire Plaque, coming on the 30th anniversary of the tragedy, is a timely reminder of the resilience shown by the families, and a community who lost so many young lives who did not get the chance to fulfill their potential. It is hoped that the plaque will serve as a permanent reminder to the world that they will never be forgotten.'
New Cross Fire of 1981, 13 Dead and still no one has been charged!
Follow this link and re-member/feel the vibes! : New Cross Fire: 1981
Police accept New Cross fire may have been arson. (Yaah What-ever! After so long?)
Tuesday, 15 May 2001
At about 5.50am on 18 January 1981, as an all-night party was drawing to a close, a flame, probably from a match or a lighter, was held against the back of an armchair. The blaze in the foam-filled chair, next to a window on the ground floor of a two-storey house in New Cross Road, Deptford, south-east London, quickly engulfed the building. Fourteen black teenagers died, trapped in the fire. Others scrambled out or jumped from upper floors.
Internal links
It is right to re-open the New Cross fire inquest
SUBMITTED BY:
RA's PAUL
https://theblacklist.net/
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