St George's Quay

#manchestertrip St George's Quay on the River Lune in Lancaster, England was built in 1750, during Lancaster's Golden Age as a port. Lancaster imported sugar, cotton, rum and mahogany and exported furniture and general merchandise to the colonies in North America and West Indies. Walking downstream along the quay and you will arrive at the Custom House, designed by Richard Gillow and completed in 1764 for the Lancaster Port Commission. It now houses Lancaster's Maritime Museum. Back upstream is "Captured Africans", Lancaster’s official and permanent memorial to the victims of the transatlantic slave trade, and Lancaster’s role in it: the enslavement and transportation of an estimated 30,000 African people. This was the culmination of a five year project: the Slave Trade Arts Memorial Project. Partners in this were the museums service and various individuals including academics from UCLan. The memorial is located on the quay because this is where Lancaster’s trade happened; where cargoes for Africa (including beads, metals and textiles) were loaded and slave-produced commodities such as sugar and mahogany were unloaded. Artist Kevin Dalton-Johnson was awarded the commission to design the memorial following an open competition. The memorial represents a ship’s deck, masts and bow. On the top is wealth, on the bottom are the enslaved people cast in bronze. There is an inlaid diagram of the Brooks Slave Ship, an image that changed the public’s understanding of just how harrowing the conditions on these ships were. A mosaic shows the inter-continental triangular route the ships would have taken.