'Winning UK City of Culture 2029 would be a once-in-a-generation moment for Portsmouth'
The News is officially backing Portsmouth’s UK City of Culture bid - seeing it as a golden opportunity to build an exciting legacy, celebrate our amazing heritage and put us on the cultural map. As someone who is proudly ‘Pompey born and bred’, Malcolm Drew looks at why the city deserves to take the crown from a community viewpoint.
If Portsmouth were to win City of Culture 2029 it would be a great boost for our city, not just for tourism but also financially. It would also be a "once-in-a-generation" moment in our history.
If we make the longlist (which is the next stage of the competition), the Department for Culture Media and Sport will award us £60,000. This is to work up a full bid and has been recently put in place to ensure equity across all bidding cities.
If we make the shortlist, we are guaranteed an investment of £125,000 at the end of the competition process. If we win, we will receive £10m.
Previous successful bids have generated significant extra income:
- The economic impact for Liverpool on the back of being European Capital of Culture 2008 was £758m.
- For Derry-Londonderry, the impact of being UK City of Culture in 2013 was £500M
- Hull gained more than £300m in tourism in 2017
From historic monuments to hovercraft - we’ve got it all
We need the people and businesses in Portsmouth to get behind our bid, so please share and support this to help raise awareness. It would be great for the city as it will not only raise the profile and encourage tourism but bring investment, create jobs and build pride and opportunities for our young people and communities.
Some of the unique aspects of our city include many historic monuments, an international ferry port and a dockyard which is the home of Henry VIII’s Mary Rose - which was raised in 1982 after she sank in 1545 - the Warrior and HMS Victory, which is the oldest serving ship in the Royal Navy. We are the only island city in the UK, we have two piers, a university, two cathedrals, the iconic Spinnaker Tower, the Square Tower and Southsea Castle. And we are one of only a couple of places in the world where you can see a working hovercraft.
We have the Hot Walls studios where historic military arches were turned into working art studios, art galleries, several museums including the Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery and the D-Day Story, and we have staged major exhibitions, like Standing with Giants at one of the historic forts on Portsdown Hill. In the past Portsmouth has been labelled as the capital of street art in the UK and there are numerous parks and sports facilities and a vibrant seafront.
We also have theatres and music venues like The Guildhall and Wedgewood Rooms, which help make us a touring destination and music city. We have the Victorious Festival, which is a great advert and attracts lots of visitors to the city. But it is not just about big festivals, we have a vibrant music scene in smaller venues with open mic nights, DJs, bands, choirs and youth groups. We have studios for acts to perform and record in Hilsea Lines where nature and history sit side by side. Legendary rock band The Who filmed Tommy at South Parade Pier (which famously caught fire in 1975). David Bowie performed at the pier in 1972 and the Beatles played in Portsmouth a couple of times.
We also have a growing city-wide cultural engine called Portsmouth Creates developing and encouraging local talent. We have events like We Shine (a free festival of light projection and performances across the city), Ports Fest (an arts and cultural festival) and Portsmouth Book Fest (which celebrates books, films, and poetry). We also have an annual Kite Festival and food festivals, the annual Portsmouth Pride event and multicultural communities with a strong sense of pride, energy and ambition.
Portsmouth: the home of many greats
Countless famous and cultural icons are associated with Portsmouth. We were the birthplace of Charles Dickens and Peter Sellers, with Arthur Conan Doyle writing his first Sherlock Holmes novels in Portsmouth. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger lived and trained in Portsmouth as a bodybuilder.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born and raised in Portsmouth as was former prime minister James Callaghan who went to Mayfield School. There are local heroes like John Pounds, the Portsmouth shoemaker and teacher whose work with poor children helped inspire the Ragged Schools movement, and many D-Day heroes like John Jenkins. The legendary Portsmouth Sinfonia was founded by students at the Portsmouth School of Art in 1970.
Sports stars like footballer Mason Mount and boxer Tony Oakey came from Portsmouth, as did singers such as Brian Howe (Bad Company) and Joe Jackson and TV personality Amanda Holden. The opening scene of Les Mis, featuring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway, was filmed in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies used the forts in the Solent while other
TV programmes have been filmed on the Southsea seafront - even Mr Bean paid us a visit.
How could UK City of Culture 2029 possibly be anyone else?
Finally, Portsmouth Football Club has a very loyal following and a very strong Pompey in the Community organisation.
The city celebrates its 100th anniversary this year and the cathedral is 100 next year. Our motto is "Heaven’s Light Our Guide" which was registered in 1929 - which will be 100 years ago during the year of the city of culture.
In my opinion no other city deserves to be UK City of Culture more, so how could they possibly give it to any one else?!
I am Pompey born and bred and proud of my city and have said that we should do this many times as it will create a lot of interest, history, pride and investment that will last long after the final fireworks.
A little bit about me: I urge everyone to support the bid in any way they can
I was born and raised in Portsmouth and the surrounding area, as were my parents and grandparents. We all lived in North End, where I spent more than 40 years, before moving to Southsea.
As a teenager, I began my working life as an apprentice gardener under Brian Kidd, who ran the city’s Parks Department. I later became a DJ and spent more than 40 years working in virtually every pub and club in the city. Some of my happiest memories are from venues such as South Parade Pier, Neros and Bar Bluu, as well as working on aircraft carriers and HMS Victory. I also ran a nightclub on Hayling Island.
In more recent decades, I invested in property and became a full-time landlord. I have served on the committee of the Portsmouth Landlords Association for more than 25 years.
I was also privileged to run The Mad Hatter’s Party, a children’s cancer charity, for 17 years with my family and have helped organise charity events at Fratton Park, including Alan Knight’s prostate cancer charity match last May.
Portsmouth FC has been part of my life for more than 50 years - just as it was for my father and grandfather.
I passionately believe Portsmouth deserves to become a City of Culture and I urge everyone to support the bid in any way they can.