A year ago today, Fran Hall drew a small red heart on the wall of the Albert Embankment alongside St Thomas’ hospital and opposite the the Houses of Parliament.
Within the heart, she wrote the name Steve Mead, the husband she lost to coronavirus in October 2020 just three weeks after they married.
Her tribute heart was among the first of more than 180,000 that have since been painted on what is now known as the national Covid memorial wall, in a 500-metre-long dedication to those who have died as a result of the disease.
Recalling the days before she and a small team of volunteers with the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign group started to paint hearts on the wall, Hall said that despite being warned her actions could lead to a criminal damage charge and a £10k fine, she signed up.
“If we could get some hearts on the wall, quickly, it would be difficult to stop,” she told the Guardian.
On 29 March 2021, the day on which the government began to relax the restrictions of the third lockdown, allowing gatherings of up to six people, Hall and the team arrived at the Lambeth Bridge end of the Embankment at about 8am.
Passersby would have seen a unit that was professional in appearance, wearing tabards and carrying signs saying “National Covid Memorial Wall”. Hall attributes this strategy to the organisers behind the organisers: Led By Donkeys, the political campaign group famed for its guerrilla stunts, who were discreetly advising Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice.
“We were each given a tub of Posca pens, a template of a heart and a section of wall to work on,” she said. “There we were at the wall, painting hearts.”
Within a couple of hours, the group had drawn 1,000, and within 10 days, there were more than 150,000, equal to the number of people by that point who had died with Covid-19 on the death certificate.
“I was very conscious of the security cameras,” Hall said. “But after the first hours I’d done 25 to 30 hearts. I gradually went faster and faster and so became more confident.”
Asked what her husband would have thought, Hall said: “Well, he was a retired police officer from the Met, so he probably wouldn’t have been impressed at me committing criminal damage … but he would have supported this 100% to make sure people aren’t forgotten and the decision makers were held to account.”
The memorial, as iconic and powerful as it has now become, nevertheless remains at risk of erasure.
Despite the dedication of a team of volunteers who continue to touch up the red hearts and the messages in black pen, the wall is yet to be granted a permanent status and could still be removed.
On Tuesday, bereaved families and supporters, including Hall, will be handing a petition with more than 106,000 signatures and counting to 10 Downing Street, calling for the memorial wall to be made permanent. The day will include a silent procession along the length of the wall, as well as a candlelit vigil in the evening.
Boris Johnson promised a “commission” on Covid commemoration in May last year, but nothing further has been done, and the prime minister has refused to commit to making the wall permanent.
Hall said: “The government must do the right thing and support us in our efforts to have the wall made a permanent memorial, a place of reflection and contemplation and remembrance that will stand as a reminder of the horror and grief so many have endured.”
So much has happened since the memorial was created: more than 37,000 people have died within 28 days of a positive test, an average of about 102 a day, according to official figures, with the total for the entire pandemic standing at 164,671.
Between the day when the first heart was drawn and July last year, the lockdown restrictions were gradually lifted, permitting larger gatherings, indoor gatherings and the reopening of much-missed sectors of the economy, including pubs and restaurants.
Just as the country was starting to feel more confident again, the Omicron wave hit, prompting the government to trigger plan B measures in December, with mask-wearing mandatory once more in many settings and working-from-home guidance reinstated.
Those restrictions were later removed, and the government switched to its “living with Covid strategy” last month. However, with the death toll still rising and daily case numbers climbing close to record highs, hearts continue to be added to the wall.
