Design by artist Anya Gallaccio selected for Aids memorial at South Crescent

Artist Anya Gallaccio has won the competition to design a memorial to remember those who died from an Aids-defining illness and to those who have survived. It is proposed to be sited at South Crescent, off Store Street and near Tottenham Court Road in Fitzrovia.

Gallaccio’s proposal features a sculpture of pieces of the rings of a trunk from a felled tree which will be positioned on an open space at South Crescent.

“The proposal as it stands is holding space with the intention of providing a meeting place, a heart for community generated events and oral histories… The tree is a symbol of life,” says Gallaccio.

“The planes that line the street side of the crescent are everywhere in the city, for good reason, they withstand pollution. They are survivors, living, despite their environment, a clunky but perhaps fitting metaphor for those living with HIV and Aids. Hidden in plain sight.”

A design was originally intended to be in place and unveiled in December 2021 to commemorate the 40 years since the first patients were diagnosed. But finding a suitable design and location had proved difficult for the charity leading the campaign for the memorial.

The memorial has received the backing of the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan who has pledged £130,000 of funding and said: “I’m delighted that Anya Gallaccio has been commissioned to create The Aids Memorial in London, and I’m proud that funding from City Hall is helping to bring this project to fruition.”

Ash Kotak, founder of the charity AIDS Memory UK, who has led the project said: “The announcement is a major milestone for the already seven-and-a-half-year-long campaign to deliver The AIDS Memorial in London.”

The AIDS Memorial in London will be developed by the artist with the aim for unveiling at the end of 2027.

A planning application will need to be submitted to Camden Council for the proposed sculptures. The Fitzrovia News understands that the council has been liaising with AIDS Memory UK for some time on the project.