Handprints in the soot on the walls of Grenfell Tower have been saved from demolition following a campaign by the families of some of the victims of the fire.
The government said it had paused the demolition after campaigners, one of whom wrote in last week’s paper, threatened a judicial review of the agreements ministers had made previously with the bereaved.
“I think it is a victory because, as a result of the campaign and the piece in The Observer, they had to stop the destruction,” said Kimia Zabihyan, the advocate of Grenfell Next of Kin (GNK), which represents some of the families. In her article Zabihyan described the handprints “as symbolic as the concept of the Unknown Warrior”.
The tower, which burned down in June 2017, is in the process of being demolished after consultation with the local community.
Relatives of the 72 people who died filed a pre-action letter last month seeking a judicial review of the government decision not to keep any section of the building above the ninth floor. The decision cited the need for sensitivity to the dead.
Zabihyan said witnessing the finger and palm marks in the stairwell between floors 12 and 14, believed to be from victims of the fire, had become an important ritual of visits to the wrecked building. “It has literally become a touchstone because when we went up there... the families would put their hands on top of the handprint,” she said.
Zabihyan said a wall bearing Arabic script reading “Allahu Akbar” – or, “God is great” – found in the soot between the 17th and 18th floors had already been destroyed despite requests to preserve it.
She described the action as “meaningless and cruel”, and said the decision was “just ignorant”.
“The majority [of the bereaved] are Muslims and are from places in the Middle East and in Lebanon, so they’ve got enough to worry about at the moment,” she said.
Zabihyan and GNK argue that the former deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, had promised in 2025 that in line with the community’s wishes, parts of the tower could be preserved for a memorial. But they believe her resignation from the position last year has created a vacuum.
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A spokesperson for the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “Grenfell Tower has a deep personal significance to the community and we are committed to ensuring what happened at the tower is remembered, with the community’s voice at the heart of our work. We remain fully committed to handling elements of the tower with utmost care, sensitivity and respect.
“Due to ongoing legal action, we have paused deconstruction works in the relevant areas.”