Capital Projects
From 1996 to 2009 the City Fringe Partnership delivered major initiatives to improve the prospects of residents and support London's small businesses.
Download CFP research on the area and key employment sectors, as well as sector investment plans and evaluation reports of its programmes.
CFP projects, project delivery partners and links to organisations at the heart of CFP activities.
Achievements:
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- City-wide celebration of jewellery talent
- Increased tourism for the City Fringe
- Better supply chain relationships
- New business models for a traditional industry
- Public sector partnership for innovation
- Helping residents into work
- Workspaces for creative enterprises
- Leveraging investment from the private sector
The legacy
- CFP contributions to over 100,000 sq ft of workspace across the City Fringe.
- £7.8 million investment in City Fringe workspaces for creative and cultural businesses.
- Facilities for the long-term use of the communities within the City Fringe.
New workspaces for small and micro enterprises: Capital projects
More than four out of five creative businesses in the City Fringe in 2005 employed fewer than ten people. Demand for appropriate workspace often out-stripped supply with the result that small and micro-businesses struggled to find the right kind of premises. Encouraging the growth of these enterprises would lead to the employers of the future and it was important that the City Fringe could compete as a location for new businesses.
The CFP targeted its support for workspace developments at small start-up businesses from disadvantaged communities, helping them to gain access to related creative businesses and markets, including the City. By attracting funds from public sources and private investment, the CFP was able to support the creation of tens of thousands of square feet of new workspace dedicated to jewellery-makers, audio-visual and IT labs as well as furniture and product designers and manufacturers.
As Daisy Drury, Head of Fundraising at The Circus Space said, "The CFP supported the development of new offices and affordable workspaces specifically for small enterprises. It's a hugely welcome boost to local cultural and creative talent and to the Circus Space as a hub of creativity."
Creative industries workspaces for the City Fringe
The CFP invested in cultural projects like The Circus Space, a transformed power station in Hoxton now operating as a performance space for the UK's largest circus school, where 11 units were created for small creative businesses. At Rivington Place, the CFP helped the Institute of International Visual Arts develop two workspaces for cultural businesses aimed at women and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups who traditionally have less access to work in the creative industries.
The CFP secured funding for Artsadmin to help redevelop their space at Toynbee Hall in Whitechapel to include eight workshops for new digital media start-ups. At Four Corners, a grass-roots film-making centre in Mile End, CFP funding helped create darkrooms and editing suites aimed at ethnic minority women and refugees, groups that are especially under-represented in the audio-visual industries. At The Premises, Europe's first solar-powered recording studio in Hackney, CFP investment meant that the local community would benefit from reduced rates and music education for children and young people.
CFP funding also contributed to the £6.5 million Metropolitan Works digital manufacturing centre in Whitechapel and secured the site of the new Goldsmiths Centre, a £17.5 million investment in jewellery workspaces and technology by The Goldsmiths' Company.
Other workspaces to benefit from City Fringe investment included Hoxton Hall Cultural Workspaces, Sarah Lane Workshops Shoreditch Stables - the home of Hidden Art - and 16 Hoxton Square, a training and enterprise centre run by the Shoreditch Trust.
