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An upmarket London bar changed its name after it was branded “deeply offensive” by black rights activists.

The specialist rum bar was due to open on Duke Street, Marylebone, next month under the name 'The Plantation’.

However, campaigners demanded management company The Breakfast Group call the Cuban-inspired business something different amid claims the original name was “grossly insensitive to millions of Africans” who died through slavery.

A spokesman for Black Activists Against Cuts said: “Plantations were places where people suffered and died, where Africans suffered unimaginable violence and terror at the hands of their slave masters.

“Imagine if you can how African people would feel having to work at this venue much less eat at it?”

They added that the company “would not name one of their venues 'Concentration Camp'”, in a reference to the plight of Holocaust victims.

The group’s bosses apologised and have now agreed to call the bar ‘Burlock’ after a type of twine used during rum importation.

A spokesman said they had been alerted to “sensitivities” surrounding the name and that staff had liaised closely with the area’s African community over the issue.

A petition launched by BARAC UK demanded the name was changed and has been signed by hundreds of people.

It read: “Africans were literally worked to death working sugar cane to make sugar and rum for their slave masters and colonial rulers.

“To therefore name a restaurant selling rum The Plantation is grossly insensitive and constitutes grave offence to the African descent communities in London and elsewhere.”

Burlock is due to open on September 2 and will stock 200 different types of rum.

Signature cocktails include Mary’s Pickled, Grasshopper Deluxe and Daiquiris made with sugar that has been hand-pressed on-site.

The bar also claimed that in order to be “mindful of the hardships surrounding global sugar cane farming”, it will donate £1 from the sale of each Grasshopper Deluxe to human rights organisations.

A spokesman said: “The management of Burlock will be renaming the venue previously titled The Plantation, following feedback that there are negative connotations associated with the original name.

“We are sorry for any offence caused which was entirely unintentional.

“Burlock will be a bar specialising in regional rums from Cuba and the Caribbean, championing independent producers with a multi ethnic and accessible approach.”