Across the road from the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, and at the east side of the Ismaili Centre lies the Yalta Memorial Garden, a small triangular plot, lined by hedges. Here stands the memorial “The Twelve Responses to Tragedy” (otherwise known as the Yalta Memorial, though there is no mention of Yalta there) by sculptor Angela Conner., FRBS who lives and works in London. The memorial commemorates the thousands of people displaced as a result of decisions at the 1945 Yalta Conference towards the conclusion of World War II. The memorial was dedicated in 1986 to replace a previous memorial of 1982 that had been repeatedly damaged by vandals opposed to what it represented.
The Yalta conference was attended by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Premier Joseph Stalin,. The conference was convened near Yalta in Crimea, Soviet Union, within the Livadia, Yusupov, and Vorontsov Palaces.
The conference was intended mainly to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe and how to give self-determination to the liberated peoples. However, within a few short years, and the coming of the Cold War, many people were forcibly repatriated and thousand of lives were lost. Hence Yalta became the subject of much controversy. The memorial is in effect a permanent criticism of the decisions reached.
Roosevelt and Churchill in Bond Street. See streetview here. A copy was in Hampstead – streetview here – now sold.
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Nice entry – interesting spot and great photos.
Thanks for sharing.