Gathered in grief: the Grenfell communities sharing solace and succour

“Seven long years on from Grenfell, progress has seemed agonisingly slow on any number of fronts, but I find the seeds of hope in many places,” said Mary White from the Latymer community church in the shadow of the burnt-out tower.

The church was one of several places of worship and community centres that opened their doors after the Grenfell Tower fire. More than seven years later, these local hubs have continued to support survivors, bereaved families and the communities living near the high-rise in north Kensington, west London.

“On the night of the fire, I was woken by the sirens in the early hours and looked out of my bedroom window to see the tower ablaze. Even on that day, I knew our lives had changed for ever. I rushed down to the church and opened up, and Latymer became one of the many places in the community where people gathered to grieve, to remember and to volunteer,” recalled White, a church and community development worker.

As the flames raged through the 24-storey block on 14 June 2017, residents and volunteers raced to the scene and nearby emergency centres to offer donations and support. Many forged friendships in their grief and during the long wait for the public inquiry into the disaster to produce its final report.

“There are people today I count as friends who I would never have known but for the collective trauma we endured together and our collective response. Post-traumatic stress is a crippling reality for many, but I also believe in post-traumatic growth,” said White.

“We will never forget, and our loss will never diminish, but I do believe that we can grow around it into stronger, more compassionate and resilient people who will continue to advocate for change and for a better future.”

A 20-minute walk away, at the Almanaar Muslim cultural heritage centre, there have been continued demands for the professional counselling services that were offered in the aftermath of the fire, which claimed 72 lives, including 18 children.

“We thought only the survivors and the bereaved would be the ones that would need the support, but we immediately realised the impact of the fire was wider than we anticipated,” said Abdurahman Sayed , who runs the mosque and community centre. “It has impacted all of us.”

His colleague, Hassan Awad, lost his wife, Rania Ibrahim, 31, and their young daughters, aged three and four, in the fire. “Rania was one of our volunteers. She met her husband, Hassan, here. They had their marriage contract signed here and their children were like our children,” said Sayed. The last seven years have been “difficult and painful” as the centre grappled with the loss of its worshippers and those who used its facilities, such as homework clubs.

Sayed said he had continued to search for “positives” that had emerged since the tragedy, pointing out the strengthened interfaith relations and charitable work in the community. As well as offering shelter and support to survivors in the hours after the fire, Almanaar opened its basement kitchen to women who were displaced. The Duchess of Sussex helped launch a charity cookbook with the women, some of whom have gone on to set up their own catering businesses.

The Rev Gareth Wardell at St Clement’s Church, at the foot of the now shrouded tower, said the community had shown itself to be “extraordinarily resilient” in the face of “enormous loss”.

He became the parish priest in 2020, but visited the church when it opened its doors after the fire, recalling the chaos as people sat “stunned, in shock and in tears”.

He said there was now an endeavour by the authorities to be more attentive to the needs of local people, adding: “I think one of the overwhelming feelings to emerge in the aftermath of Grenfell was that people hadn’t been listened to. That people hadn’t wanted the cladding but it was stuck on anyway, that people hadn’t wanted changes that were being done to them against their wishes. So I think for people to feel a sense of being heard and listened to is important.”

But as the community looked ahead to the inquiry, he said there was still anxiety about “wanting to see justice done”.

Yvette Williams, 59, a founding member of Justice4Grenfell, one of dozens of support and campaign groups to emerge in the aftermath of the tragedy, said she felt pessimistic about the inquiry, which has taken place alongside other high-profile public scandals.

“We just seem to be getting the dirty end of the stick,” she said. “Justice delayed is justice denied.”

She pointed out that recommendations from phase 1 of the inquiry still had not been implemented. “Little or nothing has been done,” she said.

“I would like to see the book thrown at the corporates. I would like to see the government take more responsibility for the hand that they played in it. And I would like any recommendations, especially those around safety and saving lives, taken on board and legislated.”

Williams said the government was “indifferent” to the lives of people living around Grenfell, many of whom have been left scarred for life.

“They simply don’t care,” she said. “The community will never be the same … My daughter was 10 at the time of the fire. She’s had therapy, but it stays with them. That’s all they’ve known for the last seven years. They see the tower every day, covered or not. It doesn’t ease their trauma in any kind of way, and they will pass that on to the next generation and the next generation.

“It’s really hard to describe the emptiness and pain. We have good times, like, we’ve had Carnival over the last week. Sometimes [the fire] can be out of your head for a little while. And then you just drive past the tower.”

Marcia Robinson, a retired social worker and lifelong north Kensington resident, has created a community green space known as Hope Gardens under the A40 Westway flyover, which has become a treasured space for survivors and victims’ families to reflect on the tragedy.

She said pre-planning permission has been approved to build a new community centre at the site near the Wall of Truth – a space for collecting first-hand accounts of the fire – but it has been beset by delays.

“I know the wheels of bureaucracy move slow, but five, six, seven years later? Come on,” said Robinson.

She hopes that the project will move on so that it can help the community in one of the most deprived areas in England recover from their trauma.

“It’s only 100 yards from Grenfell Tower, so it gives people the opportunity to not have to be by the tower, but be near it,” she said. “Not everyone wants to be right at the foot of the tower, to be that close and reminded [of what happened].

“Come the anniversaries, we will have an open stage and an open mic. We will have poets who’ve written poetry about Grenfell and give people a voice. [It will be] a space where they’re free to speak and say what they need to say, or just come and relax and try to meditate – to remember, and to forget.”