Upper School pupils and Harris Westminster Sixth Form had the opportunity to hear Dr Tristram Hunt, School Governor and V&A Director give a fascinating talk on ‘Colonialism and collecting: the place of museums within the history and legacy of the British Empire’ in a packed out John Locke Lecture.

As a politician, historian and academic, his extraordinary ability to hold the audience offered pupils a remarkable insight to the heritage and collections that are housed but two stops away from Westminster, in the V&A. We were able to reflect on the complex layers embodied in collecting and in the current public discourse around decolonisation in the context of the arts, as well as how difficult it can even be to repatriate the goods acquired in the era of colonialism.