The London Borough of Culture for 2025 will be announced by the Mayor of London on the 11th March.
Here are the nine boroughs bidding for the £1.35m investment into local cultural events: Barnet, Ealing, Greenwich, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Havering, Merton, Newham, and Wandsworth.
Previous winners include; Waltham Forest (2019), Brent (2020), and Lewisham (2022).
When asked about Wandsworth‘s bid, Mayor of Wandsworth Juliana Annan said: “Our borough is home to award-winning cultural organisations, vibrant neighbourhoods, and a thriving arts scene.
“We want to showcase our local talent to London and the world.
“The Wandsworth bid centres on the Power of Culture – to change lives, connect people and improve wellbeing, something I believe is more important now than any time I can remember.”
The award was initially launched by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan in 2017.
It highlights the importance of culture in London and how it brings communities together.
Lewisham hosted 696 events over the time they held the title, with over 400,000 people in attendence.
With almost 2000 people volunteering over 10,000 hours of their time, Lewisham’s community thrived.
A statement on the borough’s website said: “Together, we celebrated the borough’s diverse communities and our trailblazers past and present, highlighting the power of culture to create change.
“Thank you to everyone who took part in, attended, supported, volunteered, and worked with us to deliver the year.”
Submitting a bid is an extensive process that involves lots of ideas to show how your community would display its culture.
Jason Rosam, 44, from Riverside Radio was approached for ideas to submit in Wandsworth’s bid.
He said: “We want to create, produce, write, and perform a radio soap opera using local people so we have an Archers for Wandsworth”
He describes the soap opera as a 25-minute weekly show using talent from the Wandsworth community with the chance to record some episodes live.
Rosam said: “Hopefully, we win, which I think we will”
In a letter to the Mayor of London Labour MP’s, Dr Rosena Allin-Khan (Tooting), Fluer Anderson (Putney), and Marsha De Cordova (Battersea) showed their support for Wandsworth’s bid.
They wrote: “Together we are delighted to pledge our support for Wandsworth’s bid and do everything we can to enable the success of an inclusive and accessible cultural programme aimed and bringing far-reaching benefits for our communities.”
The results will be released on Monday.
