Greenwich fails at its third attempt to be London borough of culture

Greenwich Council has lost out in its third attempt to be declared the London Borough of Culture.

Nine boroughs went for the honour, with Wandsworth winning the prize for 2025 and Haringey winning for 2027. Both will get £1.35 million from City Hall to hold their events.

Greenwich, the only borough to have applied for both years, got a £200,000 “cultural impact” award to “create a spectacle of dance, music and cutting-edge tech, celebrating local stories”.

Barnet and Merton also won cultural impact money, while Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Havering and Newham were the other contenders.

Greenwich had promised a year based on the stories of more than 1,000 residents of how they came to live in the borough.

The council also said it would “celebrate the industrial and working class heritage” of the area and promote the often-overlooked east of the borough. The bid cost £10,800, according to an answer given at a council meeting in December.

London mayor Sadiq Khan announced the winners at City Hall on Monday morning. After two failed attempts in 2017 and 2020, Greenwich had been thought to be a frontrunner, although more recently town hall sources had played down the likelihood of winning.

Greenwich’s bid ran into problems as soon as it launched, with historians mocking a call for residents to share stories of their family’s histories because the borough’s heritage centre closed five years ago to make way for Woolwich Works, where the culture bid was launched in October. That row did have some impact, though, with a reading room now being set up in the warehouse unit where the borough’s archive is now stored.

The bid was also criticised as “absurd” by Greenwich Dance, which closed last year after losing its council funding.

It also appears that lessons may not have been learned from the last bid, which was said to have suffered because of the borough’s “royal” branding. Publicity for this bid still referred to “Royal Greenwich”, while Haringey, the 2027 winner, branded itself the “rebel borough”. Wandsworth’s bid included a “Strictly Wandsworth” mass dance event.

Greenwich said that its £200,000 grant would “fund a unique, creative collaboration between the council, local young people and cultural organisations. It will bring them together to imagine positive futures by telling the stories of real, local people from all corners of the borough.”

A press release issued on Monday afternoon made no reference to Greenwich’s bid for borough of culture, nor did it congratulate the winning boroughs. Instead, council leader Anthony Okereke said: “We’re thrilled to receive a cultural impact Award.  

“Our residents, partners and community groups know better than anyone that Greenwich has a cultural identity like nowhere else in the capital and we’re thrilled that the mayor of London recognises this too. We’re so grateful for the engagement and support of local people and organisations in helping us create a truly unique bid.  

“Inspired by the stories of the diverse communities who call all corners of Royal Greenwich [sic] home, we’ll work with young people and local organisations to imagine positive futures through art and culture. This innovative collaboration will break down barriers and bring people together to celebrate everything creative the borough has to offer.”

Lewisham was borough of culture in 2022, holding nearly 700 separate events including outdoor festivals, commissioning new public artworks and a  local history project where residents were invited to submit their memories of the area’s culture. 

Croydon was borough of culture last year – including a much-mocked trail of fibreglass giraffes in Croydon’s run-down town centre – with Waltham Forest (2019) and Brent (2020) the first winners of the prize.

There have been no detailed studies into the effectiveness of the borough of culture programme, which was launched by Khan after he took office in 2016.

Lewisham’s year was seen as a success on many fronts, especially in its prime aim of community involvement, and said that four of the bigger events led to £1.1 million being spent in the borough. But a candid report issued last year admitted that “evidencing a shift in attitudes as a direct result of the events and activities is complex and hard to quantify”.