London's Covid wall of hearts

Outpouring of love - 26th April 2021

A wall in central London is being lovingly daubed with masses of red hearts as a tribute to those who have lost their lives in the coronavirus pandemic. Grieving relatives and volunteers have taken the initiative to repurpose the wall in order to create a national memorial comprising a multitude of unique red hearts each representing a single life taken by the virus.

One of the initiators of the group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, Matt Fowler, lamenting the untimely death of Ian his father, who was only in his fifties, commented: "This is an outpouring of love. Each heart is individually hand-painted - utterly unique, just like the loved ones we have lost, and like the scale of our collective loss, this memorial is going to be enormous. We know not everyone can come down here to see it, but we really hope this can become a focal point for remembering this national tragedy."

The 2 metre high memorial wall flanking the Thames and with one side facing the Houses of Parliament and the other the famed St Thomas' Hospital, where intensive care specialists treated Prime Minister Johnson for Covid-19 last year, stretches over a kilometre and a half from Westminster Bridge to Lambeth Palace.

Instigators of the initiative are adamant that the wall should by no means be interpreted as a "political or antagonistic" gesture, but rather be seen as a "visual representation" of the death toll of the pandemic, insisting that its aim is to place human stories at the core of the national narrative.

Labour party leader Sir Keir Starmer's response to the project was heartfelt: "It's very moving and emotional to hear first-hand from those who have lost someone and what it means to them. The hardest bit of our job is ... talking to the families about the experience they have been through."