Lesson: Attracting major cultural institutions and improving everyday infrastructure can be pursued simultaneously.
Population: 360,000
Relevant characteristics: Outer London borough with acute economic and social disparity
Total cultural spaces: 106
Like Ealing, London Borough of Newham experiences severe economic disparity and has recently renewed a focus on ensuring inclusive growth. Newham's new Community Wealth Building Strategy is supporting the council to tackle injustice with a focus on poverty and addressing racialised and gendered disparities. A particular focus has been on supporting Newham businesses to improve productivity and ensuring wealth created locally is held democratically. This has directed a number of new culture-focused commissions, with an emphasis on local centres. For example, in Green Street Town Centre, a series of improvements to Queen's Market will upgrade the look, feel and function of the market, a new meanwhile-use affordable workspace will enable employment and business growth for residents and small businesses, vacant retail units are being converted into new creative and cultural space including a café and gallery, and an uplift in public space will create more opportunities for residents to host cultural events.
Key to this is a focus on the civic day-to-day, and opportunities for culture close to home for Newham's residents. Ealing should pay particular attention to the everyday cultural opportunities Newham has unlocked through its Community Wealth Building approach, including:
Key to this is a focus on the civic day-to-day, and opportunities for culture close to home for Newham's residents. Ealing should pay particular attention to the everyday cultural opportunities Newham has unlocked through its Community Wealth Building approach, including:
10 libraries, which have seen a 46% increase in footfall and 7,000 new library memberships since they introduced extended opening hours in 2022-2023
3 major cultural institutions based in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Lesson: Creating a welcoming home for London's creative production activities can raise cultural profile.
Population: 278,000
Relevant characteristics: Outer London borough with strong creative production ecosystem and transport links into Central London
Total cultural spaces: 101
London's first Borough of Culture in 2019, London
Borough of Waltham Forest has leveraged its position
as a major contributor of industrial land to raise its
cultural profile. Like Ealing, Waltham Forest hosts a
significant cultural production ecosystem, although
its specialism is in artist workspace, makerspaces