Grenfell families' fury after government demolishes wall with handprints from night of deadly blaze
The wall lay between the 12th and 14th floors and was completely blackened with smoke and covered in handprints following the blaze.
Fury has grown after a wall showing the handprints of Grenfell Tower victims who were trapped in the building as the fire raged was destroyed - despite pleas from next of kin to preserve it.
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Relatives of the 72 people victims of the 2017 inferno in North Kensington, west London, found the wall during pre-demolition visits to the building in July last year.
The wall lay between the 12th and 14th floors and was completely blackened with smoke following the blaze.
Powerful images show the wall marked with prints of different sizes.
The victims’ families had urged the Government to save these parts of the building from being destroyed and have threatened to take Housing Secretary Steve Reed to court over its demolition.
It comes after his predecessor Angela Rayner vowed that the wall would not be destroyed.
Read more: Government pressed over why Grenfell cladding ‘crooks’ not behind bars
In July 2025, immediate families of the deceased entered Grenfell Tower for the first time.
— GRENFELLNEXTOFKIN (@Grenfellnextkin) March 15, 2026
They saw the inscriptions and handprints left in the stairwell — powerful traces of the struggle for life that night.
Families asked that these relics be preserved according to the… pic.twitter.com/ADXGwbBYN4
However, the government later said it would not keep any sections above the ninth floor due to concerns about sensitivity and the loss of life on the upper floors.
Grenfell Next of Kin, a group made up of the families of Grenfell disaster victims, took to X to hit out at the demolition.
It wrote in a lengthy post on Sunday: “On this Mother’s Day, Grenfell families remember mothers and children who they lost forever due to catastrophic State and Corporate negligence.“
But they’re also asking: why were the final traces of their loved ones struggles on the fateful night of 14th June 2017, destroyed?”
The group added that immediate families of the deceased entered Grenfell Tower for the first time for the first time in July 2025.
“They saw the inscriptions and handprints left in the stairwell — powerful traces of the struggle for life that night,” the group wrote.
It added: “Families asked that these relics be preserved according to the Ministerial undertakings previously given.
“Ministers promised anything families wanted preserved would be protected, removed and kept safe, during demolition.
“Yet the Department destroyed them. They weren’t ‘lost to rain.’ They were deliberately demolished.”
Grenfell Next of Kin claims families were given “shifting, contradictory explanations” that “made no sense over seven months.”
The families add: “It took legal action to finally halt the destruction. Emails confirm the Grenfell Memorial Commission was informed — but it claims it wasn’t. Both can’t be true. Families deserve answers.
“All families asked for was to preserve the handprints and inscriptions — relics of loved ones’ last moments.
“Instead, they got contradiction, callous betrayal, and now cover-up.
"This Mother’s Day, that injustice is painfully clear. They destroyed these important symbolic relics for no reason and with contemptuous disregard. This Memorial is not for us."
It comes as MPs prepare to debate the Grenfell Tower Memorial (Expenditure) Bill in Parliament today.
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesman said: "We are committed to ensuring what happened at the Tower is remembered, with the community’s voice at the heart of our work.”