Public advocacy group Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission said the government had not involved them in the decision to remove the script
Haunting handprints from inside Grenfell Tower are set to be saved but it’s been revealed that the government has “not preserved” a piece of Arabic text from the wall of one of its stairwells.
In a letter seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Director for Grenfell Community and Memorial, Camilla Sheldon, informs families that Arabic text from floor 18, reading Allahu Akbar – which means God is the greatest – had been taken to the second site and was “not available to preserve”.
She tells residents that the Allahu Akbar text was taken down from the tower in December 2025. It has not been preserved and will not be used in any memorial, she adds.
Public advocacy group Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission said the government had not informed them of any previous request to have elements preserved from the tower and that it was not involved in this decision. It has slammed the choice not preserve the Arabic text as “yet another betrayal of the Grenfell community’s trust”.
A spokesperson for the Commission said: “We are dismayed that commitments made by the previous Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, and her predecessors, both during and prior to 2025, and which we referred to in our reports, were disregarded like this. That happened without any discussion, with the affected community, about the approach being taken to the deconstruction of the upper floors of the Tower.
“We see this as yet another betrayal of the Grenfell community’s trust and of the open ways of working that we, the Memorial Commission, have sought to create with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), and since establishing the Commission in 2019; and despite the part played by the government in the deaths of our loved ones.”
The MHCLG told the LDRS that it could not comment on claims that a request was made to preserve the Arabic script before this was deconstructed. It said that in July 2025, it told families they would be focusing on retaining elements from floors nine and below, due to the “sensitivity of the upper floors where loved ones were lost”.
However, the government has now decided to remove and preserve handprints which are on the stairwells of the 12th and 13th floors. Work in the stairwell between the 13th and 14th floors has been paused.
No decision has yet been made about whether the handprints will be incorporated into a memorial. This will be undertaken following a further consultation at a later date.
A spokesperson for the MHCLG said: “We recognise that Grenfell Tower has a deep personal significance to those most affected by the tragedy, and that the land is sacred to families. We would like to thank the Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission and the community for their ongoing dedication and hard work towards a fitting and lasting memorial to honour those lives lost and forever changed as a result of the tragedy.
“Families may be aware of recent press reports that a request was made to the department to retain certain elements of the Tower, from above floor 9, for possible incorporation into the memorial. We are aware that this may have been a difficult time.
“We recognise that we did not make the Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission aware of that request. We can confirm that we have instructed our principal contractor, DeconstructUK, to take steps to carefully remove and preserve the requested elements, where possible.
“No decisions have been taken as to what will happen to the requested elements, including whether they will be incorporated into the memorial. We understand that families hold a range of views on that issue, and further consultation and engagement will be required. We remain committed to working with the Commission, and the community, to support the consideration of this throughout the memorial design process being led by Freehaus.”
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