A shop in Surrey is facing racism allegations amid calls to remove an “incredibly triggering” image of a tobacco plantation, after a friend of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex spotted it while shopping for toys for his daughters.
Misan Harriman, the chairman of London’s Southbank Centre and a photographer who has taken portraits of the Sussexes including Princess Lilibet for her first birthday, said he was “speechless” when he spotted the image behind the counter in Farrants in Cobham while shopping for his daughters on Tuesday, adding he was “lucky” they were not in the shop with him.
The blown-up sepia image covering a wall behind a cash desk includes the words “we sell tobacco”, and appears to show black people working on a tobacco plantation overseen by white men.
I just went to Cobham to get my kids some toys and went into a shop called @Farrants_Cobham
There is a MASSIVE picture that is pride of place at the point of payment. It is an image of black men, broken black men at a tobacco plantation with their overseers next to them?!?! I… pic.twitter.com/QZnrzJlCde
— Misan Harriman (@misanharriman) August 8, 2023
Former Netherlands and Chelsea football player Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink had complained in 2020 about the same image in Farrants, which was founded in 1989 and has a specialist tobacco room selling cigars and accessories.
Posts about the image on social media by Mr Harriman, who is also an ambassador of Save the Children UK, have been shared thousands of times since Tuesday.
In a video on Twitter, Mr Harriman said: “I saw the most triggering thing, I’ve just come in to try and get toys for my girls, and I just saw the most incredibly triggering imagery; luckily my children are not with me.
“This is supposed to be a family store that has imagery of, if not enslaved, definitely indentured workers with their white masters or overseers.
“This shop in the middle of a Surrey high street thinks it’s normal to have that type of imagery next to where I could go and buy toys for my children.”
Hasselbaink said on Instagram that he had complained to Farrants’ owner David Worsfold three years ago and was told the store would “replace” the image.
On Wednesday, Hasselbaink wrote: “Stories come and go. This needs some attention (Farrants), I think it’s time you followed through on your word from 2020 and replaced this image.”
In another video on Instagram, Mr Harriman said: “What I would say about community and matters like this, is that I don’t judge people for having a different lived experience or just being busy.
“But, when the generational trauma and damage that is caused from imagery like this is shown, and you now know that it’s dangerous.
“That’s when the choice matters, whether you wilfully ignore it, or you refuse to look away, and I’m glad to say that many people have refused to look away.”
He added that it is irrelevant if the image actually displayed indentured servants or slaves.
“Indentured servitude happened for decades after any kind of emancipation or end of slavery.
“Many history books have covered it and the power dynamic of those two white men who dressed very cleanly, look very comfortable, next to the broken, soulless, black men that are actually working that plantation.
“The optics, that dynamic, that power dynamic, is there clear as day.
“In all, something needs to change, and that image needs to go, and I hope the people of Cobham will come together and make sure that image is taken down – it’s unacceptable.”
A representative of Farrants told the PA news agency they would not be commenting.
