Hammersmith & Fulham Council Culture Bid Fails
Loses out to Wandsworth as 2025 London Borough of Culture
A montage of cultural events and venues in Hammersmith & Fulham
March 11, 2024
Hammersmith & Fulham Council has failed in its bid to become London Borough of Culture for 2025.
A late bid had been launched with the theme of Where Culture Connects and local arts and community organisations brought in as part of the submission.
The aim was to signify that if successful the council would bring on board those who feel excluded from the cultural life of the borough especially artists from diverse backgrounds, including artists with disabilities and artists from under-represented groups under the banner We See You.
In the event, the Mayor’s team announced Wandsworth as the winner this Monday (11 March) and it will now be given £1.35 million worth of funding to but on a series of events and activities during its tenure.
Haringey will also receive £1.35m to hold the title in 2027.
The Mayor said the award has become a “cornerstone in the capital’s calendar” adding, “We’ve seen the difference that it’s made in winning boroughs Waltham Forest, Brent, Lewisham and Croydon, and I’m excited to see Wandsworth and Haringey’s fantastic ideas come to life as we build a better London for all.”
Barnet, Merton and Greenwich were also named as Cultural Impact Award winners. They will receive up to £200,000 to deliver smaller-scale creative projects.
The programme was initiated in 2017 and Waltham Forest was the first winner and it claims to have attracted 500,000 visitors and left a legacy, with Fellowship Square becoming a cultural hub of festivals and programming. In Brent a worldwide audience of 13.3million tuned in for a podcast series created by young people in the borough and for every £1 spent by Brent Council, it says an additional £2 was raised from other funders. In Lewisham, the council says there was £1.1m in additional spend in the local area and more than 8,000 young people were supported with training and careers advice to access jobs in the creative sector.
Value Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |