More than 1000 people have backed calls to bring the Windrush memorial planned for Waterloo Station to Windrush Square in Brixton – also home to the Black Cultural Archives.

The Windrush generation were workers who came to the UK from the Caribbean between 1948 and 1971. Many arrived on the HMT Empire Windrush ship.

Former prime minister Theresa May announced the proposed site for the memorial on June 22 – the first government backed and funded Windrush Day.

But Windrush campaigners and senior Lambeth councillor, Sonia Winifred, have said Waterloo station is the wrong place for a memorial, with Arthur Torrington from the Windrush Foundation calling the decision an “insult.”

This follows outcry over the treatment of the Windrush generation who were threatened with deportation despite living and working in the UK for decades.

Cllr Winifred’s

petition

calling for the memorial to be moved to Windrush Square has hit more than 1000 signatures.

Cllr Winifred said: “Unfortunately, under current plans the memorial will be put in Waterloo Station.

“We believe it should be in Windrush Square, at the heart of Brixton where so many of the Windrush generation made their homes when they first arrived in Britain.

“The majority of the first passengers made their homes in Lambeth and Brixton is rightly proud to be home to such a large African Caribbean community that has shaped its culture and its success. Windrush Square was named to celebrate that heritage on the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the Windrush.

“Windrush Square is Home to the Black Cultural Archives, the only historical institution of its kind in this country dedicated to collecting and preserving the history of African Caribbean people in Britain. What better recognition of the contributions of the Windrush Generation than to have this monument in Windrush Square alongside the Black Cultural Archives providing both historical and educational experience of the Windrush Generation for generations to come,” she said.