Beyond the Postcode: How Culture is Tackling Deprivation in Central London

When you think of central London boroughs like Camden, City of London, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster, you might picture affluence and opportunity. However, a recent report, authored by Art School Plus, for Arts Council England reveals that these areas hide significant pockets of deprivation, disparities often overlooked by general statistics. This research, conducted by Art School Plus, explores how culture can play a vital role in addressing these challenges and how arts organisations and local councils can work together more effectively. 

The report, commissioned by Arts Council England, specifically looked at how National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs) – arts organisations receiving multi-year investment from Arts Council England to run programmes supporting the Let's Create strategy – and Local Authorities (LAs) – local councils and administrations – are working or could work together to address deprivation in these five central London boroughs: Camden, City of London, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster.

The report and the findings from twelve interviews and two roundtables suggest several approaches to maximise the impact of this work: adopting the broader definition of deprivation, using more nuanced mapping (combining demographic and geographic), building stronger cross-sector partnerships, enhancing trust and awareness between NPOs and LAs, focusing on education/employment pathways, furthering leverage cultural activities to improve health and wellbeing, streamlining data practices and evidence impact, promoting integrated place-based strategies, providing NPO support, and embedding cultural equity at all levels of governance.