Pupils from two primary schools held a memorial service at the site of the New Cross fire to mark the tragedy’s 40th anniversary.
On January 18, 1981, a blaze ripped gutted a small, terraced house on New Cross Road, killing 13 young black people who gathered for a birthday party.
Frustration at the failure of authorities to properly investigate the incident and the perceived indifference of the government to the suffering of the black community culminated in protests, as 20,000 marched through London under the slogan “13 dead, nothing said.”
Children from Lucas Vale and Grinling Gibbons Primary schools held a short memorial service at the site of the New Cross Fire and at the nearby memorial in Fordham Park on Monday.
Dean Gordon, Headteacher of Grinling Primary Gibbons School, said: "It is not about pulling down statues.
“It is about making sure our history is recognised and acknowledged. I want our children to see themselves in the history of this country and this place.
“However hard, we survived, we endured, and we supported one another.
"We made our space in this country. It our job as school leaders to pass on our history – this event and the struggle for justice that followed, will never be forgotten.”
The children led a minute’s silence at the house, placing flowers for the victims and finishing with the Bob Marley anthem ‘No Woman No Cry’.
“I found the words of the song- “In this bright future, you can’t forget your past, so dry your tears I pray,” said Ruth Gomado- Cobblah, Hadteacher of Lucas Vale Primary.
“Very moving and apt for the occasion.“
At the memorial in Fordham Park, from which the protest march in 1981 started, the children read their own poems and placed candles for each victim at the memorial stone.
Two years after, the fire claimed a 14th victim, survivor Anthony Berbeck, aged 20, who committed suicide, traumatised by his experience and the loss of his friends.
Forty years and various inquests later, a conclusion over what sparked the fatal fire has never been reached.
In an initial inquest, held three months after the fire, it was suggested the fire had originated from a flame inside the party.
The far-right National Front was active in parts of London at the time, and rumours circulated that a petrol bomb may have caused the inferno.
The names of the victims are: Paul Ruddock, 22; Lloyd Richard Hall, 20; Humphrey Brown, 18; Peter Campbell, 18; Steve Collins, 17; Gerry Francis, 17; Patrick Cummings, 16; Rosalind Henry, 16; Yvonne Ruddock, 16; Owen Thompson, 16, Patricia Denise Johnston, 15; Glenton Powell, 15; Andrew Gooding, 14.
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