‘Canterbury Cathedral’s graffiti: Why Labour must fight for British heritage’

In recent weeks, you may have heard about Canterbury Cathedral’s ‘Hear Us’ exhibition. 

The ancient walls and pillars of this World Heritage Site have been temporarily decorated with rhetorical questions in the style of graffiti.

Some are existential, some are poignant, and all of them are the product of engagement with local marginalised communities. 

Sometimes art seeks to shock. In that respect, this exhibition has succeeded.  

Self-styled defenders of British culture – Tommy Robinson and J.D. Vance to name a few – have commenced a pile-on against the ‘ugly’ exhibition. 

They recall to me the riots that met the premiere of Stravinsky’s Rites of Spring, though I hope this won’t go so far. 

Some objections will be more innocent, but the abiding concern of these men is almost always the imagined effacement of white identity. Their ethnonationalism should be rejected.

‘The far-right has made inclusion and tolerance its targets – but those are quintessentially British’

I spoke to the Dean of Canterbury about this reaction. He told me the cathedral team feel ‘battered’. 

The curator has 15 years of experience placing artwork in cathedrals and similar buildings without issue. This must be an unbelievably strange and challenging time.

Contrast that with the contemplative, sometimes painful, questions which occasioned this hostility. For instance, ‘do you ever regret your creations?’

The international far-right has made inclusion and tolerance its targets. But those values are quintessentially British. 

We must not take them for granted. We must defend and promote them. 

And at the heart of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNECSO) which designates World Heritage Sites, is the mission to spread peace by building understanding between people. 

‘Bringing our heritage back to life must form part of our national renewal’

Efforts to build inclusion through World Heritage is not about prioritising minorities or rewriting our national story. It’s about building a greater understanding and fostering a conversation about what is special about this history and country that we all share.

As the Dean told me, it’s not about preserving sites in aspic, but about making them live and breathe. This is particularly true for religious sites, whose function has remained continuous since their beginnings. 

This also relates to pride in place, which must be about what places mean, as well as how they feel and what they look like.

The Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, which runs through my constituency, stands for our national contribution to the world’s industrial revolution, and – more importantly – the people behind it. Not only the people who pioneered new technologies, but also those who tended the looms and those who picked the cotton on plantations.

In Derbyshire, that history remains a complex and important part of our identity. 

But in recent decades, some of the great mills of my constituency have fallen into disrepair, becoming painful and unsightly reminders that we have been left behind by successive governments. 

Bringing our heritage back to life in areas like mine must form part of our national renewal. 

My constituents deserve the chance to engage with our history.

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That is what is happening in Canterbury. 

The local community must certainly feel, in these times, a tangible connection to the heritage of their cathedral. After all, it has a long history of controversy. 

The violent and bloody murder of Saint Thomas Becket in 1170 made it a destination for pilgrims, as comically documented by Chaucer. 

In the Reformation, it was stripped of its Catholic relics, for reasons that all British children now learn at school.  

At the heart of the gospels is the most controversial figure of all; one who defied empire, dined with outcasts, and saw dignity where others saw disgrace. 

How appropriate that the World Heritage Site of Canterbury Cathedral is the place where that struggle for tolerance and respect continues today.

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‘Alienation from our history leaves communities vulnerable to political extremes’

Alienation from our history leaves communities vulnerable to the appeals of the political extremes. Our response must be a brave, progressive approach to our heritage. 

So even those who initially flinch at the Canterbury Cathedral exhibition should defend and support its ambition to provide a meaningful connection with our shared history to ever wider audiences. 

That’s why I reconstituted the All-Party Parliamentary Group for UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Those sites, wherever they are, represent the most significant parts of our common human story. 

World heritage professionals dedicate their careers to bringing these stories to life for as many people as they can, and I want to support and amplify their amazing work. 

We now have the opportunity of a government, a Prime Minister, and a Culture Secretary who are once again giving culture the priority and the funding it deserves. 

Results will come gradually, but the impact could be transformational.

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