Cultural Heart of London Strategy
In 2019, Futurecity delivered an ambitious culture-led placemaking strategy for the Heart of London Business Alliance (HOLBA), which acts on behalf of over 600 leading businesses and property owners in the world-famous Piccadilly Circus, Charing Cross Road, Leicester Square, Piccadilly & St James’s. The purpose of the strategy was to provide asset of deliverable projects and initiatives that would position the BID as leading expert, enabler and advocate for culture and placemaking and to secure the long-term commercial and cultural well-being of the West End. The Cultural Heart of London Strategy provides a vision, framework and toolkit for HOLBA’s members to develop original arts and business cultural projects with one other, with major cultural organisations, and with London and international creatives.
The strategy aims to connect businesses and cultural players within and around the West End to create the conditions for dialogue, networking and collaboration, to nurture creative clusters such as Film, Theatre, Artisanship & Fashion, and Fine Arts. It demonstrates how individual networks and audiences can be leveraged to collate, map and identify area ecologies.
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Arts Prospectus
One of the many recommendations was to develop small cluster areas where there were concentrations of creative activity i.e., theatre, fashion, crafts & artisan, visual arts and film. From 2021 – 2022, Futurecity developed the concept of a new Arts Quarter that could contribute to the revival of a thriving West End. Our proposal identified opportunities for investors to harness London’s creative energy within a tight-knit district of often overlooked commercial and outdoor spaces at the very heart of London’s West End.
The area is home to some of the world’s most iconic cultural institutions, artists, creatives, hotels, cafes and restaurants and retail to create the West End’s newest destinations. A thorough consultation exercise with institutions, local-businesses, the community, and Westminster Council led to a series of recommended public realm proposals, cultural placemaking opportunities and an occupier curation strategy. We also undertook an audit of the areas ‘hard and soft’ assets and a comprehensive set of art typologies to develop a menu of options for public art interventions, from installation and projection to sculpture trails, events, and processions.