Wall collapses in Bristol with mural to civil rights hero
It fell down this evening.
Last updated 11th Aug 2021
A wall in St Paul's has collapsed this evening - which sadly bore a mural to civil rights hero Roy Hackett OBE.
The 93 year old was behind the famous Bristol Bus Boycott in the 1960s.
Roy was a leading organiser of the 1963 Bristol Bus Boycott, a successful black led campaign to overturn the bar to the employment of Black and Asian bus drivers and conductors by the Bristol Omnibus company.
With the support of then-local MP and cabinet minister Tony Benn, the campaign paved the way for the Race Relations Act of 1965.
He was also the oldest member of the Bristol Race Equality Council, which was the first of its kind in the country.
The mural collapsed this evening, and although the fire service confirmed there were no injuries, they sadly had to pull the rest of the mural down as the area was deemed 'unsafe'.
The mural had appeared as part of a series of paintings to 'The Seven Saints of St Paul's' - which were completed in 2019.
The murals of Carmen Beckford, Dolores Campbell, Barbara Dettering, Clifford Drummond, Audley Evans, Roy Hackett and Owen Henry pay tribute to their work in the community.