It’s that time of year again, when the streets of London are transformed by a host of seasonal installations. Whether you’re walking past the spectacular shop fronts in the West End, the Diwali light installations at Trafalgar Square and Canary Wharf or heading to see a show at the O2 Arena or an exhibition at NOW Gallery in Greenwich Peninsula – all of this is a big part of why winter in London feels so special.
These annual events, and many others, are brought to life through the hard work of teams of creative teams, all carefully designed to drive footfall, brighten up our Instagram feeds and bring flocks of tourists to the city.
This year, the West End is expecting a 7% increase in spending over the Christmas period, while footfall in the area rose by 80% last December compared to 2019. However, while the lights might be shining bright from Regent St to Stratford, creatives are getting priced out of the capital.
The creative industries are a vital part of London’s economy. Creative businesses generated £60 billion for the city each year, and 1 in 5 jobs in the capital is creative. However, access to suitable workspace is having a detrimental impact on London’s small creative businesses.
Between 2018 and 2022, London lost 2% of its cultural spaces overall, with 31% of creatives facing tenure insecurity during that period. Meanwhile, the number of creative businesses in the capital also shrank during this period, dropping from 19.3% in 2020 to 17.4% in 2022, according to the Greater London Authority - that’s 8,975 creative businesses lost in the space of 2 years.
For creative SMEs already on thin margins, Labour’s first Budget in 14 years offered promising support in the form of business rates relief and an additional £50m for the Government’s Creative Industries Clusters programme. But with 66% of small business owners saying the last two years have been the most challenging, more needs to be done to build the infrastructure needed to help creative businesses not only scale but survive amidst rising costs.
What’s missing are both the physical and economic models needed to house creative businesses at different stages of development, from start-ups to SMEs and world-leading companies and across a range of different sectors.
Let’s take a lesson from another of London’s leading industries – the financial sector, now synonymous with the City. Picture London’s financial district in the early 1800s—a handful of traders in coffee houses laid the groundwork for a global financial powerhouse. That success didn’t happen by chance; it was supported by infrastructure, collaboration, and purpose-built work environments. What if we applied this model to the creative sector?
How different could the story be for a fledgling designer in London, balancing sky-high rent, solo work, and limited networking opportunities, if they were part of a creative cluster offering affordable, purpose-built studio space and an inspiring community of collaborators?
Located on Greenwich Peninsula, London’s Design District is already demonstrating the benefits of just such an approach. Since its launch in 2021, 90 per cent of Design District's 170 tenants have either maintained or expanded their team size, while a third have developed new products through collaboration with other tenants. Design District operates according to a blended rent model, allowing established businesses to support and collaborate with start-ups.
With just under 30% of UK creative businesses operating as freelancers, providing access to flexible space – where companies can grow in size and move from hot desks to studios, whole floors and buildings – can contribute to the creation of an ecosystem, especially designed to support the growth of a new generation of creative ideas and entrepreneurship.
This is not only a good thing for creatives, but it also helps to provide engaging cultural spaces for local communities, while driving growth in local economies. A recent study from urban environment researchers, We Made That, shows that the Thames Estuary Corridor is responsible for generating £1.7bn thanks to the concentration of screen and fashion production companies in the area. This is a huge boost for the region.
Meanwhile, the contribution of creative industries to the wider economy cannot be understated. With London’s creatives spending roughly £40bn within wider supply chains, about 50% of which falls outside the creative sectors, the loss of creative businesses would have a ripple effect with lights going out for a host of sectors across the capital.
Investing in London’s creative infrastructure is vital to not only securing long-term growth for one of the UK’s most strategic industry groups, but also protecting the identity of a city built on a worldwide reputation for its creative flair – be it screen, fashion, theatre or the twinkle of winter lights.
Laura Flanagan is Design District Director
