The Breakfast Group, owners of  the new Mayfair bar ‘The Plantation’, has issued an apology over the venue’s name and say they will rename it.

The change of heart came after comedian Ava Vidal and activist Lee Jasper set up an online petition calling for a name change, and included a brief history lesson.

Via Change.Org

We the undersigned call on The Breakfast Group to change the name of its new restaurant The Plantation at 31 Duke Street London W1 due to open on the 1st September 2016.

We find the name deeply offensive to the millions of Africans who died during the Magnamizzi (transatlantic slave trade) and the millions more who enslaved on plantation’s whose average life span was eight years, usually less.

Africans were literally worked to death working sugar cane to make sugar and rum for their slave masters and colonial rulers.

To therefore name a restaurant selling rum, The Plantation is grossly insensitive and  constitutes grave offence to the African descent communities in London and elsewhere. Plantation’s were places where people suffered and died, where Africans suffered unimaginable violence and terror at the hands of their slave masters. Continue Reading…

Jasper also wrote:

New London restaurant #ThePlantation‘ opens on the 1st Sept desecrating our ancestors suffering.

I am appalled and disgusted. Can our ancestors not rest in peace?

Which black person would work at such a venue?

*You would be surprised Lee 😦 *

It’s time to let London know our culture cannot be desecrated and commoditised without our opposition,

They can solve this by changing its name. If they do not we should organise a demonstration on this opening night. 

In response, The Breakfast Group issued the following statement:

Black voices and social media both make a lethal and powerful combination.

Well done Ava and Lee.