Black Lives Matter-supporting website targets 1988-built Portsmouth office block 'stupidly' linked to slavery

A office block in Cosham that was built in 1988 was ‘stupidly’ included on an anti-racism website’s hit list of buildings and statues that ‘need to be removed’ due to links with slavery.
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Campaign group Topple the Racists yesterday published Admiral House in Cosham on a map, wrongly claiming a company director – himself born in the 1980s – was a slave owner.

Those behind the website, run by the Stop Trump Coalition, have put together the crowdsourced map after the statue of slaver Edward Colston was topped in Bristol.

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The entry for Admiral House said: ‘Now an office in the heart of Cosham, was built by a slave owner called...’

Compass House, Cosham, Portsmouth, on Tuesday, June 9 2020. Picture: Habibur RahmanCompass House, Cosham, Portsmouth, on Tuesday, June 9 2020. Picture: Habibur Rahman
Compass House, Cosham, Portsmouth, on Tuesday, June 9 2020. Picture: Habibur Rahman

The News is not publishing the company director’s name.

Under the map the website says: ‘We believe these statues and other memorials to slave-owners and colonialists need to be removed so that Britain can finally face the truth about its past – and how it shapes our present.’

But the High Street building is the headquarters of recruitment firm Compass Associates and was built in 1988.

The entry has since been deleted.

A screenshot showing Admiral House in Cosham on the Topple the Racists website with the caption: 'Admiral House... Now an office in the heart of Cosham, was built by a slave owner.' Picture: toppletheracists.orgA screenshot showing Admiral House in Cosham on the Topple the Racists website with the caption: 'Admiral House... Now an office in the heart of Cosham, was built by a slave owner.' Picture: toppletheracists.org
A screenshot showing Admiral House in Cosham on the Topple the Racists website with the caption: 'Admiral House... Now an office in the heart of Cosham, was built by a slave owner.' Picture: toppletheracists.org

Portsmouth City Council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson said: ​ ‘If people do things like that, that have no connection​,​ th​​e​y​ devalue the whole thing.

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‘It’s just stupid but the trouble is somebody might not realise it’s stupid and might take it seriously. We just have to be really careful.

People work in places like that and people do really have to be responsible, and clearly in that case they're not.’

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Admiral House in Cosham and the Topple the Racists map with the error. Picture: Habibur Rahman/Topple the RacistsAdmiral House in Cosham and the Topple the Racists map with the error. Picture: Habibur Rahman/Topple the Racists
Admiral House in Cosham and the Topple the Racists map with the error. Picture: Habibur Rahman/Topple the Racists

Dave Langford, from the firm, said it must have been a ‘prank’. He said: ‘That’s what we think. Obviously the building was built in 1988, it wasn’t built by slaves.

‘It’s a very intense time. It’s just a prank.’

Anyone can add an entry to the map on toppletheracists.org but they are moderated, the Stop Trump Coalition told The News.

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A statement said: ‘The map is crowdsourced and entries are moderated. This one only appeared very briefly in error.

‘In any case, when buildings are listed on the map it only means we are asking for their names to be changed.’

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