Futurecity developed a cultural strategy that set out a new narrative for the rejuvenation of a town centre facing challenges to its retail sector, investment and footfall.

Our cultural research identified local sector strengths in the creative digital economy which, combined with Basildon’s utopian heritage, unearthed an opportunity to transition a retail focused town centre into a ‘Creative Tech Town’ within the Thames Estuary. A provisional brand ‘BasildON’ was developed by Hat-Trick Design to signify how a new cultural energy would be ‘switching on’ the town centre.

The strategy set out an 8-year programme of projects and partnerships that provided a roadmap to deliver cultural activation, attract creative enterprise, and improve the public realm of the town centre. It promoted the idea of a ‘creative cluster’ between film, education and theatre by focussing on 3 cultural anchors: Towngate Theatre, the new cinema, and new further education college.

In 2019, Futurecity introduced BTCM to Things Made Public, a local arts organisation, to activate culture at the grassroots level with Basildon’s communities and helped form the BasildON Consortium; a partnership designed to create a cultural hub for digital industries in the town centre.

The governance group of council, asset owners and businesses including Things Made Public and Futurecity made a successful £1.29M application in 2020 to ACE People & Places Fund with £750,000 match support for Basildon Creative People & Places. This was followed in 2023 by a successful £4.4M Government Cultural Investment Fund Grant, to turn council-owned empty properties in the town centre into a creative facility for screen and immersive digital industries.