From 1996 to 2009 the City Fringe Partnership delivered major initiatives to improve the prospects of residents and support London's small businesses.

  1. About the CFP
  2. Achievements
  3. Project case studies
  4. In pictures

Download CFP research on the area and key employment sectors, as well as sector investment plans and evaluation reports of its programmes.

  1. Research

CFP projects, project delivery partners and links to organisations at the heart of CFP activities.

  1. Projects and links

Achievements:

The legacy

  • 1,000 participants from across London involved in Coutts London Jewellery Week in 2008 and 2009.
  • Significant promotion of small creative jewellery businesses and the capital in international press.
  • Over 140 jobs created or safeguarded through the JSIP.
  • JSIP encouraged £4 million of investment into workspaces by Camden Council.
  • £17.5 million investment by The Goldsmiths' Company into a new training and workspace centre in the City Fringe.
Visitors to Treasure exhibition at Coutts London Jewellery Week 2009 Visitors to the Hatton Garden Festival, part of Coutts London Jewellery Week 2009 Unique jewellery design

Jewellery and the first ever city-wide celebration of London's talent: Coutts London Jewellery Week

The City Fringe is home to the highest concentration of jewellery designers, craftspeople and retailers in the country. Hatton Garden and the surrounding area is one of the largest clusters of jewellery activity in the UK with around 700 businesses in the area related to the jewellery trade.

Following industry research the CFP discovered significant challenges for the industry in London: namely the need for better collaboration, driving demand for products, improving design, innovation and technical training as well as encouraging new entrants.

The CFP's Jewellery Sector Investment Plan (JSIP) sought to address these issues. JSIP projects included equipment grants for small jewellery businesses to help them with the costs of new tools and to allow their businesses to flourish.

Developing new markets for jewellers was key to the long-term survival of the trade in the capital and the London Jewellery Exports project prepared designers for exhibiting at international trade fairs. Mentoring Matters gave one-to-one advice to 20 up-and-coming designers. Read more about one of these designers here

The Maria Fidelis project in Camden was launched as a pilot scheme to engage the next generation of jewellers with the involvement of BTEC and GCSE students and the City Lit project provided high-quality beginners' courses in jewellery craft skills to socially and economically excluded adults in Camden.

Within the profession itself, an Industry-led Training and Technology voucher scheme gave jewellery businesses a comprehensive diagnostic of their training needs and enabled them to select the appropriate courses that would help them expand. Following its involvement with this Holts Academy of Jewellery will offer the first ever NVQ level 2 and level 3 programmes in Jewellery Manufacturing from 2009.

Support for established jewellers came through the Future in the Making project which led jewellers through a process of skills audit, business review, business planning, product development, manufacturing, showcasing and selling with lessons being applied across a wider group of businesses in the future.

ChangeActShare was set up as the main communications vehicle for these projects and worked with Camden Council to secure investment into major workspace developments. The CFP played a central role in establishing the first ever independent voice for the industry, London Jewellery First, and both organisations played a prominent role in supporting the development of the CFP's major jewellery showcase London Jewellery Week.

London Jewellery Week

In an extremely competitive global marketplace London Jewellery Week gave London's small creative businesses invaluable profile and encouraged demand for London-made products.

An initial feasibility study identified how the Week should be organised to represent the diversity of jewellery design, production and retail in London. Coutts was secured as the headline sponsor for both 2008 and 2009.

In the first two years, Coutts London Jewellery Week involved hundreds of independent designers and craftspeople and was promoted both nationally and internationally in over 300 publications. Total opportunities to see and hear about the week exceeded 250 million and included coverage in emerging tourist and consumer markets such as China, Russia and India. The event galvanised the support of the industry, represented by its ambassador group, as well as high profile patrons like Sir Terence Conran and Amanda Wakeley. It also played a key role in Visit London and Visit Britain's tourism campaigns.

With cornerstone events promoting groups of up-and-coming designers as well as leading visitors around the city on educational trails, Coutts London Jewellery Week became a vital lifeline to support this the creative industry in London by stimulating interest in jewellery, encouraging people to visit the city and increasing demand for London-made jewellery.

In July 2008 Coutts London Jewellery Week was recognised by market research group Mintel as one of "two truly exciting and major innovations in the jewellery sector. First is the wholly new degree of large-scale promotion with the London Jewellery Week, which involved over 600 participants across the city."

Watch the video from Coutts London Jewellery Week 08 here.