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 a set 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 and with major cultural organisations.

The strategy connected businesses and cultural players within and around the West End to nurture networking, collaboration and creative clusters such as Film, Theatre, Artisanship & Fashion, and Fine Arts. It demonstrated how individual networks and audiences can be leveraged to collate, map and identify area ecologies.

One of the many recommendations was to develop small creative activity cluster areas. From 2021 – 2022, Futurecity developed the concept of a new Arts Quarter in collaboration with Publica around the West End. 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.