Covid wall 'bridges accountability with grief'

The National Covid Memorial Wall is covered in hand-drawn red hearts

Bereaved families who helped create London's National Covid Memorial Wall have said they were relieved by the government's assurance it would be preserved.

The half-mile stretch of about 240,000 red hearts along the South Bank has been maintained by a small group of volunteers who call themselves Friends of the Wall for almost four years.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said it would work with the group to preserve the memorial, as well as fund detailed feasibility studies to be undertaken by heritage experts.

Culture minister Baroness Twycross said was important to honour the lives lost and "remember the sacrifice and courage of key workers".

Fran Hall (left) and Lorelei King are among volunteers from Friends of the Wall who have been looking after the memorial

Fran Hall, one of the volunteers from Friends of The Wall, has spent countless hours repainting fading hearts and adding new ones.

Her husband Steve Mead, a police officer, died of Covid just three weeks after they got married in 2020.

She said he "would probably have raised an eyebrow" at her painting the wall without permission - something the group did for years.

"It's absolutely huge that the government have now given their support for the wall to be made permanent.

"Up until then, every time we were painting on the wall we were actually committing criminal damage.

"We didn't have permission."

Another volunteer from the group, Lorelei King, said the government's announcement was deeply emotional.

"It's just incredible we fought for it for so long because we don't want these quarter of a million deaths to be forgotten.

"I lost my husband to Covid in March 2020 and his heart is here, and to see him remembered here is very important."

Steve Mead died of Covid in 2020

Lambeth Council leader Claire Holland said the council would work with Friends of the Wall, St Thomas' Hospital - which owns part of the structure - and other stakeholders to create a long-term plan.

"We'll be looking at how it can be preserved as a national monument," she said, adding that feasibility studies have been commissioned from heritage experts.

The protection also covers a section dedicated to children and young people, showing how Covid affected every generation.

Holland said this part of the wall carried special significance.

"Young people also lost their lives in Covid, it wasn't just old people.

"And not only must we remember them, we must remember that a whole generation - their future was impacted by Covid.

"Schooling being interrupted, not being able to go to university, having to change their career paths. It's really important we keep young people at the heart of this and remember that lives were lost and their future was changed forever."

'Bridging accountability with grief'

The wall's permanent status comes as the latest stage of the Covid Inquiry examines key decisions made in the early months of the pandemic.

Campaigners have said the inquiry and the memorial are deeply connected one seeks accountability and the other remembrance.

Lorelei King said: "The Covid Inquiry's Module 2 report laid bare the catastrophic consequences of decisions made then.

"I think the government announcing the wall will be preserved shows the true human cost across the water.

"Behind [the wall] is Westminster Bridge - literally bridging institutional accountability with public grief and remembrance."

Additional reporting by Winnie Agbonlahor