Lives and Voices of Grenfell Tower

CPD Week 1

Art, everyday life and remembrance

In 2015–16, Constantine Gras was artist in residence at Grenfell Tower, commissioned by the Kensington and Chelsea TMO to make a mural for the refurbished ground-floor foyer. At a Fun Day in May 2015, held as respite for families living through the refurbishment, about 20 children drew whatever they liked: Grenfell Tower, animals, flowers, and symbols of Moroccan and British identity.

The drawing was so vivid that Gras used it as the finished work rather than a mural. The TMO never hung it in the tower; because it stayed in storage, it survived the fire [R009].

Source: Constantine Gras, “Live, laugh, love”, blog post, June 2015, and correspondence with the artist, October 2026 [R009].

Children’s drawing of Lancaster West estate, with Grenfell Tower, a large tree, hearts, British and Moroccan flags, people, animals and flowers.
Live, laugh, love, oil pastel, 2015. Large scale drawing made by children of Grenfell Tower and the Lancaster West Estate on the 20 May 2015 Fun Day organised as respite from the refurbishment of the tower. Coloured in by Constantine Gras, who wrote the poem inspired by words written by children on the artwork. Reproduced with the artist’s permission.

ReadThe 21st Floor

The BBC has created a powerful interactive resource that tells the stories of residents who lived on the upper floors of Grenfell Tower [R010].

ReadThe lives of Grenfell Tower

The Guardian has published portraits of all 72 people who died, drawing on memories shared by their families, friends and colleagues [R011].

Reflect

The BBC resource focuses on individual stories rather than statistics. What did you learn about residents’ lives that surprised you or challenged your assumptions about who lived in the tower?

Survivors describe life in the tower

“It was a tower block, but it was home.”

Natasha Elcock

“It was a community. A true layer-upon-layer of communities integrating and becoming just one community.”

Nick Burton

“Every floor had smells of different cuisines. And different music. Moroccan music on the top floor and then the middle layer someone listening to reggae music.”

Rabia Yahya

“The tower was one big family. Anything we asked for, people would bring it.”

Maher Khoudair

“Me and my next-door neighbour Natalie kept the doors open so children can go in and out.”

Hanan Wahabi

“It felt like my success was not only my success it was not only my family’s success but the success of the local neighbourhood”

Tiago Alves

“It’s just, it was my safest place.”

Turufat Yilma
As quoted in Gillian Slovo’s Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors (2023), a verbatim play drawn from interviews and testimony to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.

WatchGrenfell: In the Words of Survivors

Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors is a verbatim play produced by the National Theatre. The piece draws entirely on the testimony of those who lived through the fire.

We are currently arranging copyright permissions. Clips will be added in November 2026.

Reflect

Verbatim theatre uses people’s exact words as its script. How does hearing survivors’ testimony performed in this way differ from reading a news report or watching a documentary? What might this approach offer, or risk, as a teaching resource?