Heaviness 'hangs over' London’s Grenfell community ahead of jubilee celebrations

Bereaved relatives of the 72 victims of the Grenfell Tower fire will mark Queen Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee with “heaviness hanging over” the community ahead of the fifth anniversary of the tragic fire which shocked the nation.

Thousands of people in Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea are expected to attend street parties over the four-day bank holiday weekend to mark the monarch’s 70 years on the throne.

But the gatherings around the charred remains of the once-bustling tower block in West London will take on a broader meaning. The celebratory mood will be tinged with sadness and grief, a local campaigner said, as the pain of people’s loss remains evident half a decade on from the fateful night.

Yvette Williams, co-ordinator of the Justice4Grenfell community group, told The National that the jubilee is likely to reignite the strong feelings shared by those who lost loved ones in the June 14 2017 inferno.

“How many people get the opportunity to celebrate the platinum jubilee in their lifetime?”, she said. “So we just wanted to be clear that although we will be out there on our roads or on our housing estates or wherever we will be celebrating, we actually have someone who would have loved to be there, who needlessly lost their life under the most horrendous circumstances.

“Especially for the bereaved families it heightens the loss for them. In particular they are remembering the good times and the get-togethers that they had with their families before they lost their loved ones.

“So there is a heaviness hanging over them and they know they need to celebrate the jubilee but it’s actually really sad. [They think] I wish so-and-so was here with me or the children would have loved this.”

Eighteen children, including an unborn baby boy, died in the tower block fire. The oldest victim was aged 84 and the youngest, after the unborn child, was just six months.

In the aftermath of the fire, the queen visited the area and met local people affected by the incident.

The 72 people who lost their lives as a result of the blaze were remembered at a special jubilee event earlier this week. A long table in the shadow of the tower was decked out with party ware as a sombre reminder of the fact that they victims will not be able to celebrate the momentous occasion. Name cards bearing the names of each victim were placed on the table with plates which read “72 dead and still no arrests. How come?”

Ms Williams said the Conservative-led government should be legally obliged to follow the recommendations of the Grenfell inquiry and prosecute those responsible. The inquiry found that the tower’s cladding was a key factor in the fire’s rapid spread.

“When you actually saw that table laid out and the amount of chairs and amount of plates that were there, visually that’s a lot of people to lose from a community,” Ms Williams said. “So we just wanted the power of the image to punch that home.”

While the table was set up for a party that no one will attend — as a stark reminder of the fact the dead cannot celebrate the jubilee — other gatherings will be held in the area for locals and visitors.

The platinum jubilee will also take place against the backdrop of the cost-of-living crisis which is acutely felt in pockets of North Kensington.

Samia Badani, chief executive and co-founder of The Space, a community support and empowerment network established after the Grenfell fire, said demand for food and baby items has shot up by 40 per cent since January.

Volunteers routinely hear harrowing stories from people forced to skip meals due to the rising cost of rent and household bills.

“What we hear more and more from parents is that they are not eating,” Ms Badani told The National. “Some parents will not eat just to make sure that the kids eat.

“We also had an elderly, vulnerable lady living on her own who rang us a few weeks ago who was drinking water to curb her appetite. She had no food. We went to the shop and bought food for her and went to her.

“On Saturday we went to someone who had had three strokes. There was no food. It’s shocking.”

But despite the immense hardships faced by the multicultural community four miles west of Buckingham Palace, The Space is determined to give them an opportunity to get in on the nationwide celebrations. A street party will be held in Freston Road from 1.30pm to 5pm on Thursday while thousands line The Mall to watch Trooping the Colour.

“Even though there’s hardship we’re all going to celebrate together,” Ms Badani said. “We don’t have much [but] it’s about Londoners’ resilience and about embracing that spirit.

“I think that’s what it has historically been about here in London, in the toughest of times we still come together and we still do the best we can.

“I think it’s crucial because we’ve had two years of Covid, we’ve had crisis after crisis, people can’t buy essentials, it’s affected their mental health dramatically and people are feeling more and more isolated due to the stigma attached to food poverty. People feel embarrassed. People have withdrawn. I think it’s really important for people to feel like they’re not alone and they’re part of a network. It’s absolutely for everyone.”