This strategy brings a new focus to the use of culture in supporting growth across the borough. This currently happens through four distinct activities. In this section we describe each one in turn and highlight how the Council will use its powers to support these activities over the next four years.

Theme 1: Growing Places

Bexley resident’s lives are centred on high streets and town centres. These places are all profoundly challenged by London’s growing and changing population, shifting shopping habits, the needs of an ageing society and historic patterns of urban development. No two towns are the same and each one faces these challenges in different ways. Culture has much to bring including these examples:

• Greater Erith: A 10 year programme led by the London Borough of Bexley aiming to help Erith become a thriving riverside town. Greater Erith promotes and organises events like the Erith Made Festival and has commissioned art works and community engagement workshops as part of Riverside Gardens’ refurbishment
• The Sidcup Storyteller: A RIBA Award-winning building comprising a cinema, library and flats in Sidcup Town Centre. The Storyteller is an important piece of cultural infrastructure attracting new businesses and visitors to Sidcup, enriching the town’s spectrum of cultural experiences
• Blackfen Community Library. Since 2016 Blackfen Library, an independently managed library, has become a thriving space and community meeting point on the high street with a coffee shop and daily programme of educational activities for children and young people
• Hello Earth: In 2026 Three Rivers will launch a new programme called Hello Earth, which will support the founding of new Friends Groups for places in need of care and attention around the borough. Each group will be supported to commission an artist to make work that brings an underused or forgotten public space back to life
• NightVisions. Some of the Night Visions programme has supported artists to work in ways that respond to the needs of local places. In Danson House, Comfort Adenye from screened digital work in conjunction with A Christmas Market. In Crossway Park, the artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey led an artistic tree planting project ‘Beuys Acorns’ which has previously shown at Tate Modern and in Bexley Tom James is leading a project in Slade Green which references historic traditions of Bonfire building and fire watching

2026 to 29 Actions Brokering

Brokering

The Council will support the Bexley Culture Network to raise funding for projects which support activities that gather people in town centres around the borough. This will build on and add to relationships between organisations of the Bexley Culture Network and other town centre stakeholders. This could help the borough build towards a bid for London Borough of Culture in 2029 and help support the growth of The Night Time Economy. 

Promotion: Building on the success of #celebratingbexley the Council will support a continuous borough-wide digital platform promoting culture and arts across the borough. This will focus on an annual ‘Bexley Culture Week/Month’ encouraging arts organisations of all kinds, big and small, to programme work in the same week/month. 

Planning

The Council will assess the need for better infrastructure for social gathering and cultural activity in town centres. It will review planning guidance for town centres as they become less transactional places in which shoppers want to make a purchase and leave, to more social spaces where they seek experience, community and spectacle.

Venues

The libraries will be supported to better orientate visitors in the culture and heritage of their surroundings. For example, by more clearly displaying the local town centre’s calendar of and activities, or by publicising and making available local walks (many have already been written by local history societies).

Theme 2: Growing Talent Bexley is a place of youthful aspiration

The jobs of the future will rest on the kind of creative thinking skills which are at the centre of cultural production so a thriving place for creativity and culture needs to support young people to develop these skills. Bexley has numerous independent youth theatres, talent shows, dance schools, primary schools providing an arts-rich curriculum as well as leading providers of higher and further education in the performing arts. The borough also has arts and music organisations providing learning opportunities inside and outside of school settings. But this work is often poorly connected, under-publicised meaning too many young people in the borough miss out and the borough loses the reputational capital of this work. Many youth groups struggle to find suitable spaces for rehearsal and performance.

• Bexley’s Got Talent - An annual talent show run by the Bexleyheath Business Improvement district and Jigsaw Performing Arts Academy, drawing talent from across the borough. The programme is a celebration of young talent and the organisations who support it. • Bexley Music - The provider is available to all Schools in Bexley
• Bexley Music provides individual music tuition, whole school music class as well 6-day a week centre for orchestras, bands and trying out musical instruments
• Work in education settings - 12 of the 17 members of the Bexley Culture Network are working with schools. Rose Bruford has a Centre for Young Audiences and devises bespoke theatre productions with local Bexley schools; The Exchange , Three Rivers and The Ruined Theatre regularly engage with schools in the north of the Borough. Centrepieces have provided bespoke arts-centred mental health workshops with local schools. This work enriches the curriculum and is considered by Ofsted when schools are inspected. It also helps build relationships between families and schools.
  
  Learning beyond the classroom - Among others TACO, Artstrain and Littlefish are just four organisations working with young people outside of schools. TACO have a series of after-school clubs supporting young people to think and work like artists, Artstrain, with useful introductions from London Borough of Bexley, are running music programmes that enable young people to make their own music community groups and schools around Erith. The Exchange runs a family art club on Saturdays. Crossness is frequently visited by schools from across the borough. Three Rivers has established a youth zone at the annual Thamesmead Festival

2026 to 29 Actions

Brokering

The Council will deepen its coordination of the Bexley Culture Network to better understand the extent of arts and music opportunities in Bexley schools. A member of the school improvement team could join the Culture Network to improve understanding of school need in the borough. This mapping work will show which parts of the borough benefit more from arts organisations and where young people are poorly served. It will also make it easier to publicise opportunities to young people.

Promotion

We will create a brand promoting opportunities in the performing arts to school-age children across Bexley. This will include a development map showing a range of opportunities that connect a six-year old in a half-term dance club to a part in a West End production. The event submission forms for #celebratingbexley and generic events listings could be expanded to make it easier for LB Bexley to promote significant performing arts events across social channels.

Planning

Engage and persuade performing arts colleges to open up performances, events, recitals and productions to more local young residents and expand the use of their facilities for community events and performances by local groups and schools.

Venue Management

Find an in-borough home for the annual Bexley Music Service concert (currently held in Croydon) and explore ways to use existing venues and properties for concerts and performances across the borough. Explore whether there is a way of addressing the shortage of suitable practice spaces for dance groups. 

Theme 3: Growing Jobs

Bexley is situated in the heart of the Thames Estuary Production Corridor - a multi-stakeholder initiative to encourage the growth of the Creative Industries from East London to industrial-fringe of Kent and Essex - an area often identified as the UK economy’s most significant growth opportunity. Research for the initiative has identified micro-clusters for the screen industries and fashion sector in Bexley. Bexley’s involvement has largely happened bi-laterally through organisations located in the Borough. Across the borough there are signs of growth in the creative industries including:

• Higher Education economic impact: Rose Bruford College, after the NHS and the Council itself, is the third biggest employer in Bexley. It has approximately 1,000 students, many of whom live in Sidcup and work jobs in local cafes, bars and restaurants. Bird College has a further 600 who are less likely to live locally but whose presence also has a significant positive impact on local businesses. Both have plans to add to their facilities in the coming years
• Transport Infrastructure: With the Council campaigning for an extension to the DLR from Gallions Reach to Belvedere consideration could be given to identify other transport networks which would improve the connectivity and attractiveness of parts of the borough for creative businesses
• Bexley on film: Bexley has provided multiple filming locations – most notably scenes from A Clockwork Orange (1971) and No Time to Die (2021) were filmed in Thamesmead. In recent years, the Borough’s film office has facilitated locations for The Favourite (2018) at Dandon House and The Crown (2022) at Hall Place. Rose Bruford College was recently featured in the globally viewed 2026 FIFA World Cup draw
• Space for Creative Production: The Europa Estate is identified in the Bexley Local Plan and by the Thames Estuary Production Corridor as one of several sites in the north of Bexley where large creative production facilities could be located. The Engine House is a mixed use-office space with co-working facilities and a 3D printer located in Belvedere. It is one of the only examples of the kind of flexible workspace required by small creative businesses in the borough. To the west in Thamesmead, Bow Arts, are providing studio space to over 40 artists in The Lakeside Centre, and managing approximately 100 artists currently living in meanwhile spaces, that would otherwise be empty, both of which bring community and economic benefits to the area

2026 to 29 Actions

Brokering

Make greater representation for Bexley in the bodies promoting investment in the Thames Estuary. Establish visibility for local businesses in the directories of creative enterprises assembled by the GLA. Support better connections between artists working in Thamesmead and opportunities to show and make work elsewhere in Bexley.

Promotion

Promote Sidcup as a place to incubate and locate theatre businesses. Work with Rose Bruford and Bird Colleges to identify local vacant buildings which could be used to incubate new businesses and promote performing arts businesses emerging from their campuses. Show full support to attempts in town centres to open studios, create exhibitions and events in a single evening, supporting the night time economy.

Planning

Work towards a Creative Enterprise Zone in the borough encouraging the co-location of a critical mass of creative businesses. In Erith, for example, the zone could emphasise support for makers, artists and small scale creative production and retail. A statement arts organisation or studio-provider resident could be sought for a Council-owned building and affordable live-work space for artists and cultural workers should be supported to retain creative talent in the borough. 

Venue Management

Produce an upgraded film prospectus for parks and open spaces, historic houses and venues around the borough - promoting the Borough’s locations and the viability of the borough as a place for investing in the screen industries.

Theme 4: Growing health and wellbeing

Creative and cultural organisations contribute to multiple social-outcomes for Bexley residents that ultimately reduce the cost of the Council’s statutory services. With levels of inactivity due to sickness reaching record levels across the United Kingdom there is a need for new experimentation in this field to improve the health and wellbeing of local people. Cultural organisations make a difference both when they are commissioned by local delivery partners to address the needs of particular groups of local residents and through their own projects as arts organisations committed to inclusion and working where social need is greatest.

• Community programming in libraries: There is a clear value to the health and social care system of regular community events run in public libraries. In Bexley, these programmes are plentiful and highly valued by those attending. They offer free of charge access not only to books and computers, but also to a comprehensive and inclusive programme of local clubs that facilitate community based access to arts, crafts and social connection that has the potential to enrich and positively change lives. Bexley Creative Health Network is seeking to bring together NHS, Social Care, Voluntary Sector and culture partners to explore the potential for ‘creative health’ programming to become embedded in the local health system and community to maximise the benefits of prevention to improve the quality of life for residents across Bexley. It is helping to drive the significant ‘Ageing Well hub’ project that is starting up at Sidcup Storyteller where the library and cinema will play host to creative activities that are designed to improve health among the older population.
• Little Fish Theatre: Company run a ‘transition’ after school club in Slade Green supporting young people to make the move between primary and secondary schools. The project gives young people an outlet to express and explore their feelings and a valued source of continuity as they move between year 6 and year 7. Young people are referred by Bexley Voluntary Service Council (BVSC), who administer social-prescribing for children and adults across the borough. They make referrals to projects run by The Exchange, ArtsTrain and Theatre Box. BVSC also runs ‘Bexley Buddies’ which aims to reduce the pressure on appointments by providing patients with access to meaningful, community-based activities that enhance health and wellbeing. Many of these are concerned with the arts and have involved knitting, craft and painting groups.
• South Asian Heritage Trust: volunteers are working to create a better platform in Bexley for cultural forms and events that draw on south Asian histories, traditions and cultures, particularly in July which is South Asian Heritage Month. These events can create a valuable bridge to people in the borough who are less likely to access Council services. Last year the Red House organised an event with the South Asian Heritage Trusts for Diwali. 2026-29 Actions Brokering: As a part of more regular coordination of the Bexley Culture Network The Council could help to maintain shared resources and make connections to different areas of service provision across the council. Promotion: Using the Bexley Magazine to promote creative health opportunities for residents around the borough, particularly in winter. Planning: With libraries at the heart of creative health delivery in communities, opportunities for new and updated library facilities, as well as other cultural infrastructure, should form part of the consideration for planners evaluating new schemes; creating the places where people can most effectively experience creative activity, along with access to other services. Venue management: Continue to use Council-run venues to support the spatial needs of voluntary, cultural groups active in supporting health, wellbeing and inclusion across the borough, including South Asian Heritage Month and Centrepieces (which currently operates from two Council-owned buildings across the borough).

2026 to 29 Actions

Brokering

As a part of more regular coordination of the Bexley Culture Network The Council could help to maintain shared resources and make connections to different areas of service provision across the council.

Promotion

Using the Bexley Magazine to promote creative health opportunities for residents around the borough, particularly in winter.

Planning

With libraries at the heart of creative health delivery in communities, opportunities for new and updated library facilities, as well as other cultural infrastructure, should form part of the consideration for planners evaluating new schemes; creating the places where people can most effectively experience creative activity, along with access to other services.

Venue management

Continue to use Council-run venues to support the spatial needs of voluntary, cultural groups active in supporting health, wellbeing and inclusion across the borough, including South Asian Heritage Month and Centrepieces (which currently operates from two Council-owned buildings across the borough).