One of Edinburgh's leading heritage groups has suggested that a new museum should be created exploring the history of the city's links to the slave trade, colonialism, the persecution of witches and child exploitation.
Heritage watchdog the Cockburn Association has earmarked Leith's historic Custom House as the location for the proposed attraction.
Custom House, a prominent Leith landmark, was built in 1812 for ship captains to declare their cargoes sourced from the far flung corners of the British Empire.
The neoclassical structure was among a host of other buildings in Edinburgh recently named in a city-wide review of historic sites linked to the transatlantic slave trade that operated in the years prior to abolition.
The Cockburn Association say the building could serve as the perfect hub for the "forgotten and hidden" histories of those who suffered oppression in colonial times and beyond.
In addition to slavery-focused exhibits and artefacts, the museum would also feature stories about the large number of women persecuted and tried for witchery between the 17th and 18th centuries.
There would also be exhibits devoted to exploring the history of child exploitation.
Welcoming the work of the City of Edinburgh Council's Legacy of Slavery and Colonialism review group, which was created in the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter Campaign following the shooting of George Floyd in the USA, the heritage charity issued a detailed response.
This included a recommendation to create a "museum/interpretation centre" that would "preferably reuse an existing building that had links with slavery and colonialism, such as the Custom House in Leith".
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In their wider response, first published in The Scotsman, the Cockburn Association stated : “The review should aim to set in place a process that fills in gaps in the received history of the city, and in doing so reconciles past and present by recognising the contributions to Edinburgh’s development and prosperity made by people who were enslaved or colonised.
“Equally, it is important to recover and celebrate the voices of those who contested the institutions and individuals that sustained the injustices.
“The review should be considered as a catalyst for a new wider and inclusive reflection of the history of the city.
“An evidential approach focusing on awareness, communication and education about the history and key issues is the best way forward.
"The need for recognition of the positive contribution to Edinburgh that many persecuted individuals and groups have made should be an objective.
"This is a forgotten and hidden history and the lived experience of the many, many individuals who through slavery and colonial oppression were forced to contribute to the development of Edinburgh, and wider Scottish society, remains, for the most part, deeply buried.”
As part of their consultation period, which ended on January 19, the City of Edinburgh Council's slavery and colonialism review group asked Edinburgh residents to air their views on what changes should be made in the city.
Measures discussed by the panel, which was led by Professor Sir Geoff Palmer, included the possibility of statues being removed or altered, informative plaques being installed and streets being renamed.
