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John Hansard Gallery, Southampton

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City of Culture runners-up publish bid details

Southampton publishes full bid from its UK City of Culture campaign ahead of plans to deliver re-packaged elements across the city.

Chris Sharratt
2 min read

The details behind Southampton’s bid to become UK City of Culture 2025 have been released to the public.

The 30-page document, which saw the South Coast city shortlisted as a finalist in the competition alongside Durham, Wrexham and eventual winners Bradford, is titled ‘Make it SO’, also the name of the city’s three-year campaign to become the UK’s City of Culture.

Southampton Culture Trust has said it intends to “re-package elements of the bid to be rolled out over the next three years”. 

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The trust's CEO, Claire Whitaker CBE, commented: “Our feedback during the process was that the city’s bid was exceptional and now it gives us great pleasure and a sense of pride to release the bid to everyone.

“More than anything the process of going through the bid has energised not only the city of Southampton but the whole region, where we have the support of all our neighbours.”

Whitaker added the publication came following agreement from DCMS, after some “commercially sensitive information” had been redacted.

The document reveals the process the city went through to deliver the bid, including 149 hours of consultation with over 1,000 people in virtual workshops, 8,019 responses to city-wide surveys and online engagement, and 16 ‘cross-sector working groups’.

The majority (82%) of respondents to the city survey said they supported the bid.

A planned programme of live events would have included a performance by the Royal Shakespeare Company, a Minecraft building project for young people and inclusive city festival Queertonia.

A Creative Land Trust and Creative Enterprise Zone were planned to “give more graduates more reasons to stay in Southampton to build their lives and businesses here”.

As part of the re-packaged plans led by Southampton Culture Trust, a proposed Spitfire Monument could still be in place by 2025, alongside the restoration of several heritage assets.

“As much as the physical regeneration of our infrastructure, we need regeneration of the city’s spirit. Culture can do that,” the bid document states.