Westminster Abbey’s bell tolled 72 times for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire as survivors and bereaved relatives began a day of remembrance five years on from the disaster and demanded that the authorities finally deliver justice in the next year.
In warm June sunshine, reminiscent of the day that dawned on the burning tower on 14 June 2017, hundreds of bereaved family members gathered at the abbey to mark the passing of a period in which there has been powerful community solidarity but also increasing anger at the government’s response and the lack of criminal prosecutions.
The day’s events culminated in a multi-faith service at the base of the west London tower where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge laid a wreath, and children who survived the fire released 18 balloons – one for each of the children who perished. The service was followed by a silent march through the surrounding streets.
Michael Gove, the secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, Theresa May, prime minister at the time of the fire, Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, and Elizabeth Campbell, the leader of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which owned the block, were in the abbey as the names of the deceased were read out by faith leaders – a process that took almost eight and a half minutes. The surname Choucair echoed around the abbey’s historic vaults six times, the number of members of one family who perished.
Also in attendance was Sir Martin Moore-Bick, the chair of the public inquiry into the disaster, and the broadcaster Jon Snow, who said from the pulpit that “Grenfell speaks to the grotesque inequality with which our society is riven”. He said that if political rhetoric about reducing inequality was to mean anything, “those responsible must face justice”.
The congregation applauded after Imran Khan, a lawyer acting for some of the families at the inquiry, said assembled dignitaries were welcome at the memorial service this year, but the inquiry’s revelations about what caused the fire had left them with no excuses not to deliver justice.
“If you do nothing in the next 365 days before the next anniversary, you will, I am sorry to say, not be welcome then,” he said.
Members of the congregation included Anne Murphy, who lost her brother Denis Murphy. She said her family were “in limbo” awaiting criminal prosecutions, which are not likely until 2024 after the public inquiry reports its findings in 2023. “Getting justice is what is holding us together,” Murphy said.
There was also Sadik Jamal, who came to the UK after he lost his sister, brother-in-law and their three children in the fire. “There is no justice,” he said. “We came from Ethiopia because we lost our whole family. We don’t see things like this happening in other parts of the world. Some of the [government ministers] say sorry, but it doesn’t mean anything without justice.”
The service included music played on an oud by Rihab Azar, and the congregation singing Abide With Me by Henry Lyte. Members of the Grenfell community and faith leaders laid white roses on the abbey’s innocent victims memorial.
Grenfell United, the survivors and bereaved group, said the disaster was “still as painful now as it was then”, and warned: “Five years on, another Grenfell is still a very real possibility. This government should feel ashamed at its complete lack of action and continued carelessness for the 72 lives so needlessly lost.”
In a reference to the inquiry, which has heard how materials manufacturers exploited weaknesses in national safety testing and building regulations to sell combustible materials for high-rise tower blocks, it said: “It’s hard to carry on when day in and day out for the last five years we’ve had to hear just how corrupt and rotten the system is.”
It also referred to a statement to the inquiry in April by Eric Pickles, the former communities secretary who failed to tighten fire regulations despite having been told to do so by a coroner after six people died in a cladding fire in 2009. Pickles described the “96 nameless” who died, apparently mixing up the disaster with the tragedy at Hillsborough.
“Those in power called them ‘nameless’,” Grenfell United said. “They were not nameless. They were treasured, loved and ours.”
Gove said afterwards: “The Grenfell Tower tragedy must never be allowed to happen again and our thoughts are with the bereaved families, survivors and residents at this incredibly difficult time.”
