Activists use 'Three Billboards' to make a powerful point about Grenfell Tower fire in London
Activists in London recreated an iconic scene from Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri to draw attention to what they say is a lack of progress made in the investigation since the Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 71 people in June 2017.
Three billboards—identical in colour, and design to those in the film—were spotted across London on Thursday morning.
The words "71 dead." "And, still no arrests?" "How come?" were emblazoned across the three red roving billboards which were spotted at locations throughout the UK capital, including Parliament Square, home of the UK government.
The language used in the London billboards echoes that employed in the three messages in the movie, which Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) puts up on three abandoned billboards months after the rape and murder of her daughter. Frustrated at the lack of movement on the police case, Hayes leaves the messages in an effort to shock her local community into paying attention. And, it works. In the movie, the billboards read: "Raped while dying." "And still no arrests?" "How come, Chief Willoughby?"
The billboards were parked outside the site of the Grenfell disaster for some time, and community members and survivors gathered there to mark the occasion.
“The film that we are using as inspiration, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, highlights the power of advertising to bring about justice," Justice4Grenfell spokesperson Yvette Williams said at the gathering outside Grenfell. "We wanted to harness this power to remind people how little has been done since the tragic event shook this community, and the country, just over 8 months ago."
"These billboards are here because there have still been no arrests, hundreds of survivors remain homeless, and 297 other towers in the UK are still covered in flammable cladding," Williams continued.
As the billboards made their way through the city, passersby captured photos of the powerful stunt.
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One person pondered the number of names that could accompany "how come?"
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Powerful.
Topics Activism Social Good
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
