The arts and culture in business - From the Manor

That was the view of consultants brought in to take a tough, objective look at the Business District. The way the place looked, weak public realm, a poorly organised business community and a lack of facilities were among the criticisms.

Helpfully they also identified huge potential to reinforce Manor Royal’s position as the destination of choice for businesses in the South East, with few places able to offer the same scale and concentration of different business activities.

Since then much has changed, not least the ability for the Manor Royal businesses to influence and deliver meaningful change via the Manor Royal BID.

Among the many changes since the Manor Royal BID was created, the use of art and culture is one that may surprise people – a process referred to as “Cultural Placemaking”. It seems unlikely that the original consultants, so critical of Manor Royal, would have predicted it would feature in a good practice report commissioned by Arts Council England about the use of arts and culture to drive economic growth and support local communities.

“Over the past 10 years we have had the pleasure to NOT deliver arts projects with a host of artists, architects, designers and even comedians,” Explains Steve Sawyer, Executive Director of the Manor Royal BID. “I say “NOT” because we don’t do art for arts sake, although there’s nothing wrong in that. What we do is look to transform Manor Royal one initiative at a time to improve the trading and working environment. More often than you might think, arts and culture can help solve a problem and deliver the improvement we need.”

Manor Royal BID is not alone in thinking this way. With members drawn from property and urban development professionals from around the world, the Urban Land Institute (ULI) produced evidence for how arts and culture can rejuvenate buildings, boost business, improve public spaces, enhance wayfinding, make places feel safer, support the local community and deliver a healthy return on investment.

Closer to home, the Cross River Partnership supported by the Mayor of London produced a report that showed how for relatively low-cost creating small park areas (parklets) can help promote active travel, encourage community engagement, improve the environment, create healthy streets and stimulate economic growth. In two London Boroughs cafes located near to newly created parklets found sales were boosted by 20-30%.

Crawley Borough Council are not slow to recognise the benefits either. As well as supporting the work of the Manor Royal BID, the Council has been working with its partners on how the recently announced Crawley Town Deal can support arts and culture to deliver local economic benefits, as well as various other projects like improving broadband, skills and business development and improving sustainability.

In Manor Royal if you look closely you will see sculptures in different places, murals by local artists on subway walls, messages displayed under bridges, an Arts Council funded history project being used to design a heritage and wellbeing trail and an emerging network of microparks so that eventually nobody working anywhere will be more than a five minute walk away from decent outdoor space – with bespoke artwork at each park inspired by the unique story of Manor Royal and the people who work there.

If you haven’t visited Manor Royal recently, it might be worth another look. You might be surprised by some of the things you find.

Find out more about Manor Royal at www.manorroyal.org/mystory See also Crawley MP secures ‘historic’ victory for town’s Chagossian community | Road closures: five for Crawley drivers this week | Manor Royal business in Crawley goes on mercy mission to Ukraine after being inspired by family link