Written in Stone: Black writing and Goldsmiths College

Deptford Town Hall is a particularly appropriate place to reflect upon Black British writing. This might seem like a strange thing to suggest, given that the building was relatively recently integrated, or some might say appropriated, by Goldsmiths College to form part of the university campus. I want to think about writing in a perhaps a slightly eccentric way and approach the history of Black British writing in this part of London through both literary and non-literary forms of inscription. Part of what I want to argue is that the history of empire, and, as a consequence, the heritage of colonial and postcolonial citizens is literally written in stone and on the buildings where students study today.