There’s a lot happening in the Culture Mile quarter of the City. More is planned in 2023, including celebration of the 900th anniversary of the foundation of Barts Hospital and St Bartholomew the Great priory church, and restarting Bartholomew Fair both physically and virtually.
Currently there is no coordinated information about developments, events, activities or support for community initiatives. Most communication is targeted at businesses and visitors, although this is the main residential area in the City.
Councillors, residents and community groups are keen to collaborate on better information, communication and action, but as yet there is no coordination. The Echo could help catalyse action.
The idea of the Fair is gaining support, and it will be featured in the Echo in early June. The Echo could provide a comprehensive report in a future edition on what’s happening, and what’s needed. Development of the virtual Fair as an all-year online system to support exploration of the area could catalyse collaboration between residents, Culture Mile, City and organisation in the area.
This could provide the basis for an innovation and learning project
Context
Culture Mile is mainly aimed at making the City attractive for business and visitors. However, it is also the main residential district in the City. Residents lack coordinated information about:
Major developments in progress or planned which affect their neighbourhoods. Each scheme consults separately.
Events and activities in different venues. There is no one place to find out what’s happening.
Support for community projects and activities. There is no community information system.
The City is launching a major marketing initiative Destination City, and the Culture Mile team is developing a“hidden gems” project to support proposals for a Business Improvement District.
What’s needed is a complementary initiative to engage and support residents in ways that could also benefit businesses and visitors. This could be done by curating and sharing information accessible to all interests: news about developments; directories, maps and walks to support exploration of the area; a shared calendar of events and activities; profiles and stories about key organisations and people; events and communication systems to help make connections and build relationships. All these issues were highlight at drop-in sessions organised by the Culture Mile Creative Communities and Neighbourhoods initiative.
New initiatives
Several initiatives already under way can help catalyse development of better information and communication systems:
A higher proportion of councillors, elected in March 2022, are residents. They are making connections between their wards.
The Barbican Association is promoting the idea of collaboration with other groups of residents, particularly in Golden Lane Estate and Farringdon Within
A group or organisations, councillors and residents is promoting the the idea of restarting Bartholomew Fair in 2023, linked with celebration of the 900th anniversary of the foundation of Barts Hospital and priory church of St Bartholomew the Great. The physical Fair would be have associated virtual Fair that could extend beyond the few days of the event.
Culture Mile Creative Communities and Neighbourhoods initiative is planning to extend its Imagine Fund grants programme, and set up some information and communication systems.
Moving forward
What’s needed is:
A framework for the various information and communication requirements: news, maps, walks etc. Ideas for a community platform and hub(s) were developed following the Creative Communities and Neighbourhoods drop-in sessions.
A way to bring together the organisational and community interests that might collaborate in populating this framework with content. Here’s where the Echo and Bartholomew Fair group could help by demonstrating how 1. might operate as a guide to exploring Culture Mile(or whatever we might call the area).
An Echo and Bartholomew Fair guide to exploring Culture Mile
This could be:
A spread in the August/September edition of the Echo covering the major physical developments planned in the area, and sources of useful information. The print coverage could be extended on linked web pages.
An online map of key places, with links to walks and other information
Demonstrations online of how the virtual Bartholomew Fair may operate, with content from venues in the area, ways that people can view or create virtual tours.
Collaboration with Barbican Library and other information hubs to encourage sharing of local information
Exploration of how to create a shared calendar of events and activities
Maps key places
Main Culture Mile venues
Other places identified in Creative Communities research
Standard format for map records, designed to make it easy for places to update their information links
Summary
Context
New initiatives
Moving forward
An Echo and Bartholomew Fair guide to exploring Culture Mile
Maps key places
Profiles
Walks and tours