Campaigners rename Glasgow streets linked to slave owners

Cochrane Street, named after tobacco lord Andrew Cochrane, was renamed Sheku Bayoh Street

Anti-racism campaigners have renamed streets in Glasgow city centre that have links to the slave trade.

In several streets, signs with a black background and white font have appeared alongside the originals

Activists replaced the names of tobacco merchants and slave trade owners in favour of black campaigners, slaves and those who died in police custody.

More than 11,500 people have previously signed an online petition to rename streets linked with slave owners.

• Glasgow's slave trade past is all around us

• Glasgow University's 'bold' move to pay back slave trade profits

The petition, set up last September, has gained several thousand more supporters in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Cochrane Street - named after 18- Century tobacco lord Andrew Cochrane, was alternatively named "Sheku Bayoh Street".

Sheku Bayoh died in 2015 in police custody in Scotland, aged 32 after he was restrained by officers responding to a call in Kirkcaldy, Fife.

His sister - who is a nurse - said her family would have attended planned demonstrations in Scotland this weekend but the danger of spreading coronavirus was "still too great".

Buchanan Street was renamed George Floyd Street but the sign has since disappeared

Buchanan Street, named after another Tobacco Lord, Andrew Buchanan, was given the name George Floyd Street, however the sign has now been removed.

Wilson Street has been suggested as Rosa Parks Street instead - after the American civil rights activist.

George Floyd died after a white police officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis on 25 May. His death has sparked days of protest around the world.

Wilson Street became Rosa Parks Street after the US civil rights activist