Does Newham Council even understand what culture is?

£62,369 was wasted on a failed Borough of Culture bid, with Queen’s Market used as a backdrop.

A few months ago Newham Council was blaring on about how it is applying to be the Borough of Culture 2025 and 2027 but sadly their sudden rushed application was not successful, not because Newham doesn’t have any culture or heritage, but most probably because Newham Council has done its best to ruin places of local culture and heritage like Queen’s Market which is still under threat. A number of Councillors showed their faces at events associated with this Culture bid, but do they even understand what local culture is?

In the middle of winter Queen’s Market was used as a backdrop for ‘fancy schmancy’ stalls, with private security and a sea of plastic banners for an event that lasted a few hours – so much for reducing plastic waste! Not many visitors compared to a normal market day. We ask, where is the annual marketing and publicity budget for Queen’s Market?

_{Slide show: A sea of plastic “pop up” banners at a rather lacklustre launch, as Newham tried to become a Borough of Culture which was unsuccessful. Private security made sure that anything that didn’t fit the bill was swiftly removed.}

During the launch event a number of members of the Queen’s Market traders association spoke out against what they described as mistreatment by Newham Council, and the hand-handed policies that made their working lives increasingly unbearable eg. the parking rules, unfair rent increases and fines (Read article: ‘The Council that raked in 10.6million from parking fines‘). The traders speaking out was instead spun by the Council as being disruptive to a child playing a flute – from our experience Newham residents rarely ever get a platform to speak nor heard. Local voices had been stifled by another corporate/ developer-friendly tactic of “culture washing” or “art washing“.

Some traders at Queen’s Market have said that they no longer wish to be photographed and used for Newham Council’s own publicity because they do not trust the motives of the Council to safeguard the market for the foreseeable future. Many say that they were not given consent forms to sign when photographs were used. They’re not getting paid for participation either, but rest assured the private consultants will be paid handsomely!