Britain’s cultural capital … Barnsley?
Bidders for the title of Britain’s first City of Culture had feared that the
honour, devised by the former culture secretary Andy Burnham, would be
canned under a new government because the winner is not set to be announced
until after the next general election. However, Jeremy Hunt, the shadow
Culture Secretary, has confirmed that he is a fan of the scheme.
The chosen city would become the venue for high-profile events such as the
Brit Awards, the Turner Prize and the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year.
The first winner will host a year of activities in 2013. The accolade, which
will be awarded every four years, was devised after Liverpool’s stint as
Europe’s Capital of Culture last year.
“A City of Culture competition can really galvanise a city, as Liverpool
demonstrated,” Mr Hunt told The Independent. “It can bring
together the local community, provides a cultural showcase and can offer a
fantastic platform to attract visitors. We await the results of this
competition with keen interest, especially given the number of high-quality
candidate cities that are on the list.”
A longlist of 29 competitors was released last month. Belfast has since pulled
out. It will be whittled down to a shortlist in January, with the winner
named around June. The competitors met at a seminar with officials last
month and were given pointers on how to help their cities ride the zeitgeist.
London has been banned from entering the competition because organisers
believe that too much of British culture is focused on the capital.
The Berkshire commuter-belt metropolis of Reading is in the running. Listed
number 36 in The Idler magazine’s inaugural list of “crap towns”,
it stages an eponymous annual music festival and has an expanding
information technology industry.
Hostilities broke out yesterday between the auld East Anglian enemies of
Norwich and Ipswich, whose previous cultural clashes have been voiced
through the unsavoury chanting of their respective football fans at derby
clashes.
The leader of Norwich City Council, Steve Morphew, claimed yesterday: “It
is fair to say that, when it comes to culture, the discerning people in
Ipswich get on a train and come to Norwich.”
Ipswich borough’s director, Jonathan Owen, hit back: “Norwich is a small
city of 130,000 people. We’re not sure that could sustain a year of events.”
He added: “The area included in our bid covers around 600,000 people.”
The Suffolk town hopes to win the award by marketing itself as the
birthplace of Britain: promoting sites of Anglo-Saxon remains, and links to
the Reformation.
Bath has emerged as an early front-runner, but many bidders prefer to keep
their plans close to their chests. Mystery surrounds one of the shortlisted
cities, which has asked not to be identified ? a potential stumbling block
in attracting visitors. Sources said the secret location is a “northern
English city”. Aberdeen had also remained anonymous, but unmasked
itself last month.
The chances of one outsider, simply calling itself “the Countryside”,
were scuppered when Whitehall mandarins suggested that bid organisers may
need to come up with a more precise location. Its withdrawal could provide a
boost for a rival. “We will probably not launch a formal bid now,”
said a spokesman for the Countryside. “But we will be lending our
support to Cornwall or the Pennines.”
City of Culture: The bidders
*Wakefield
Home of Britain’s largest high-security prison. The Yorkshire city will boost
its cultural credentials when it opens the Hepworth Wakefield sculpture
gallery in 2011.
*Hull
Home to the poet Philip Larkin. Topped The Idler’s “crap Towns”
list in 2003, but hopes that its maritime heritage and nine free museums
will convince judges.
*Chorley
Famous for the Chorley cake ? flattened, fruit-laden pastries similar to
Eccles cake. The Lancashire market town’s wealth derives from its cotton
industry past.
*Reading
Jane Austen went to school in Reading, later the hometown of Kate Winslet and
Kenneth Branagh, both right. Also the enforced base of the imprisoned Oscar
Wilde from 1895 to 1897.
*Derby
England’s first ever factory was built here in 1702. Has a high concentration
of real ale pubs. One of few places to have a cathedral but remain a town.
Its Odeon cinema holds the record for the largest container of popcorn.
The other 23 places on the longlist are: Aberdeen, Barnsley, Birmingham,
Bradford, Brighton and Hove, Carlisle, Chester, Chichester, City of Bath,
Cornwall, Co Durham, Derry City, Gloucester and Cheltenham, Ipswich and
Haven Gateway, Leicester, Manchester, Norwich, Oxford, Pennine Lancashire,
Sheffield, The Countryside, Urban South Hampshire, and an anonymous town,
apparently in the north of England.
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