Investment is pouring into Gloucester - but can its culture become the icing on the cake?
Building projects abound, but there’s another element vital to Gloucester’s reinvention. With three years left of its strategic cultural plan we ask the man responsible for delivering it where we are?
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Dear readers,
We hope you had a great weekend. In case you missed Friday’s edition, which marked the beginning of paywalling on our second and third editions each week, the main feature was energy company Ecotricity, which saw profits after tax jump from £5.6 million to £38.5 million – a rise of 587.5 per cent.
We also revealed something we have not seen reported before, that the firm is part of a group of Gloucestershire businesses with a collective turnover of more than half a billion pounds whose declared aim is to make Britain a greener place. That’s a turnover that puts the group into the top 10 of Raikes rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire – the series that tracks the financial fortunes of the biggest firms in the county.
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Why today’s main story?
With all the investment taking place, pending or threatening in Gloucester even the most cynical would struggle to deny it is a city reinventing and repurposing itself. But as we say in the article, those who are experts in such things will tell you a city is not truly whole unless its culture is thriving.
So Raikes went in search of the chief executive of Gloucester Culture Trust, who was appointed last year to deliver on the 10-year strategic cultural plan for the city – and who has less than three years left to do it! We asked Phil Hindson if that was really enough time, and how he thought things were going so far?
The conversation makes for an interesting looking glass through which to view Gloucester, the work already done and the work pending – and it gives the impression of a city winning the battle to foster joined-up thinking, and one with an awful lot to shout about.
For a community interest company like Raikes, dedicated to trying to help foster community and connections this was a fascinating chat.
If you are wondering where the business interest is in this story, the Hindson himself works in the offices of Jolt, helping more than 20 businesses hatch their plans. More than 50 have already done just that and been able to fly the nest.
But before that... the inside track on the future of GFirst LEP
March will mark a key date for the business-led organisation that has proved such a catalyst for Gloucestershire when it holds its final annual review. For a decade-plus GFirst LEP has been developing business plan after business plan to win millions of pounds from central Government for all manner of projects county-wide. Watchers of the local enterprise partnership will know it is currently finalising its move under the wing of the county coucil, but everyone wants to know what is next? What will the future look like? Darren Stevens, of Prestbury Marketing, will be trying to determine just that when he interviews the LEP’s deputy chief executive, Dev Chakraborty, and its former vice chairman, Ian Mean MBE, at the Gloucestershire Business Show on Thursday, February 29, at 2.15pm. The venue will be the University of Gloucestershire's Business School, Oxstalls. You can find our more here.
Expert Insight: Fire and rehire - the Government responds to consultation on code of practice
A public outcry over firms using ‘fire and rehire’ practices to change employee terms and conditions forced a consultation - and now the Government has responded. Hayley Ainsworth, of Willans LLP solicitors, explains what this will mean for businesses, and why they must take heard or risk a tribunal, in our latest Expert Insight feature. Read it all here.
Our featured charity: Heart Heroes
Heart Heroes has none of the major resources of some of our biggest charities to help publicise its efforts, but it soldiers on providing subsidised social events for families of children living with heart conditions through donations and fundraising. The Gloucester-headquartered charity currently supports more than 1,000 families across the UK and Wales where a child has life-limiting or life-threatening heart condition. An estimated 238 of those living in and close to Gloucestershire. Just a day remain for you to help boost the coffers of its Big Heart Prize Draw - 29 prizes up for grabs across 28 days in an effort to raise £2,000. It's £900 short!!! Prizes include 2 tickets to Barbarians RFC vs Fiji at Twickenham Stadium, two tickets to a Cheltenham Race meet, a chocolate and prosecco hamper, four-ball voucher for Lilley Brook Golf club, signed sports merchandise, cinema tickets and more. Get your tickets here.
Investment in pouring into Gloucester - but can its culture outshine everything?
By Andrew Merrell
Gloucester seems to have a good share of the county’s investment currently, a number of key building projects are nearing completion, in progress, pending or threatening to happen, but can it deliver the magic ingredient to make the city truly great - culture?
Ever since the mighty Manchester business Peel invested heavily in Gloucester Quays, kickstarting the renaissance of its waterfront in 2009, those who needed proof change was afoot with a bold statement in the form of investment and buildings, had to admit a new era was dawning. It took £245 million to deliver the Quays.
Student halls in Blackfriars have followed, the nearby Food Dock on the waterfront has just opened and there is talk of a major project to redevelop The Fleece Hotel and its environs called The Pheonix Project, and Levelling-up cash has been forthcoming. The former prison continues to stump developers, but King’s Quarter at the other end of the city is currently subject to an ambitious £100 million-plus rebuild and rebranding to become The Forum.
But the professional placemakers who travel the globe advising leaders, will tell you a city will only truly feel proud, complete, exciting, attract visitors, be a destination, a meeting place, if it gets it can develop an even more elusive grail - its culture.
So, with all this investment afoot can Gloucester really elevate itself to become a city of culture – where its lifeforce, character and identity are as attractive and evident as the shiny new buildings?
Phil Hindson looks at me as if he's wondering whether the question is rhetorical.
Hindson was appointed the new chief executive officer of Gloucester Culture Trust at the end of last summer to steer the city through the remaining three years of a critical, bold 10-year plan to solve the culture connundrum.
The Trust’s pledge is ‘to make Gloucester a better place to live, work and play’.
Hindson might be ‘new-ish’ to the role, but he was already familiar with both bricks and mortar building projects at the hearts of communities, winning grant funding and delivering results and the power of culture in bringing places to life.
"I have come direct from the Arts Council and have spent 15 years working in the South West and for the last five years responsible for its work across the West, that has included Bristol, North Somerset, Bath and Gloucester," said Hindson, who is originally a native of North Yorkshire.
As for the Trust, that was born of Gloucester City Council’s 10-year Cultural Vision and Strategy, a document published in 2016 and refreshed midway when it became apparent culture was key to helping the city recover from the trauma of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It wasn’t like the plan to date has been failing. Hindson has plenty to build on, just more people watching and more expectation.
Significant successes already were wide-ranging and included Jolt (more of which in a moment), a diverse City Voices programme within Gloucester History Festival, increasing creative opportunities for young people through the likes of The Music Works, Strike A Light, Gloucester Guildhall, Your Next Move and London’s Roundhouse, the work done by Create Gloucestershire to connect residents, artists and community partners through Culture Matson and investing in Gloucester’s signature and growth events, such as the Tall Ships Festival, its carnival and Kings Jam.
Partnership working has been key, with a point of focus on children and young people. The council consultation in 2015 that informed the strategic plan and led to the Trust’s formation “identified that young people had not always been well-served by the city’s cultural offer”.
If you leaf through the documents of the local enterprise partnership GFirst LEP you will also find plenty of talk about the keeping young people in the county being crucial to its economic future.
The halfway revisit of the Cultural Vision and Strategy, published by the city council in 2020, described the Trust Hindson now steers as “the city’s cultural lodestar helping to pool resource, energy, expertise and experience”.
“Whilst this devolved model is not unique, it is noticeably rare and is being watched, commended and supported by key funders and potential partners.
“Gloucester is known for its distinctive heritage. Our aims are to build on that reputation and to provide conditions that will allow innovation and excellence to flourish and Gloucester's quirky and edgy nature to shine across the many communities in the city,” said the report.
When you consider how far the city has come in a short space of time, how much work has been done to identify how to inspire the younger generations, the direction of travel is there to see. Delivering over the next three years - putting the ball in the back of the net, so to speak - remains a huge challenge.
The Trust’s team is small, with just six staff, and for someone with Hindson’s CV you have to ask why come to Gloucester when he could get a cushy job where the heavy lifting feels like it is already done - in a city like Bath?
Again, I get a look as if I really am missing the point. The answer is simple - he was lured here by what he saw.
“I already knew Gloucestershire pretty well and the organisations that work within the city and what is already here is exciting.
“It has been really easy to come here and knock on those doors. Gloucester has a local authority that is really invested in culture and is up for what it can do.
“The city has an edge to it. There is an energy about what can happen here. People are really passionate about the city.
“For me, this was a really exciting opportunity to support the city’s goals, to help it be big and bold and remind it of all the things it already is. We are not starting from scratch,” he said, name-dropping numerous city organisations as he talks, full of enthusiasm.
For example: “I don’t know whether you know about 100 Heroines – focused solely on female photography? Its work is incredible. It has a display at the moment in the top of Eastgate Shopping Centre.
“It’s not just looking at Gloucester, it’s thinking globally in terms of its projects.”
We are sat in Jolt, a creative hub across a whole floor sandwiched between one of the city’s aforementioned development opportunities (the former Chambers pub) with The Forum with the charity The Music Works’ headquarters and studios on the third floor. Hindson urges me to visit the space before I leave.
The lower floor remains boarded up – not a great look, but a sign of things to come as part of the ongoing Forum development being led by development firm Reef on behalf of the city council
If Hindson had to pick one building as an example of what can be achieved and evidence culture is alive and well and winning in the city, at the centre of its renaissance – rich in creativity, multi-cultural, vibrant, dynamic - he would struggle to pick a better one than this.
And that’s because of what is taking place inside its walls - that magical thing called culture; hard to define, difficult to deliver, energising, inspiring, infectious and as quick as mercury to disappear.
As for Jolt, imagine an arty/creative, space for young businesses – somewhere between an artist's studio and a funky downtown office, a kind of creative person’s Growth Hub, a Silicon Valley den in a stripped-down shell of a building.
It’s Friday afternoon when Raikes arrives, but the space crackles with energy and sporadically, during our interview in a side room, there are eruptions of conversation and laughter.
“Jolt is a real Gloucestershire success story. Since it has opened there have been over 70 businesses come through here. It is a business incubator and co-working space. There are 20 studios here, all subsidised in terms of the rent people pay,” said Hindson.
“If people want to take their creative business out of their bedroom and start the journey towards becoming really great businesspeople can just come in and come and work in the space.
“They can become a member and become part of the community.
“We currently have 35 members pay to use the space.”
There are too many to mention here, but they include a film director (Joshy Lee), inclusive teaching company (Kindred Spirit Art), Krush FM, producers and djs (like Virtue), tattoo studio Tricera-Tats, clothing designers (like Luna Lotus and Studio Sew.N), fine art services (Mad About Art), product designers like Phoenix Consultants – which designed the Jolt space itself, music producers (room 11 records), artists like Rose Feller, dance companies including Your Next Move, comics, games and podcaster producer, Big Punch Studios, guitar maker Functional Art And Design, creator of musical production workshops, Neutral Sound, and graphic designers like Amy Branch. We could go on - and on!
“Someone said to me recently, ‘when you come into Jolt you are never more than 10 feet away from a really interesting conversation’. There is a really supportive, collaborative band of people here,” said Hindson.
So much going on when you know where to look. So much promise. We hesitate to use the word 'potential’!
“When I first came here, I felt like banning the word 'potential'. It kept getting used. I think it represents something you might achieve and have not yet. It can be patronising.”
For Hindson, who started his working life in theatres, the city should be the stage for its culture, it should have places that allow it to cluster, thrive and multiply, breath and grow and be celebrated and celebrate the history and heritage here .
“Its about Gloucester being allowed to develop and identify that is its own.”
Raikes mentions the talk that the city needs a big theatre to compete with Cheltenham.
“There was a study into this recently and the finding should suggest it does not need a big theatre. Theatres are great, but you have to fill them. They are expensive to run.
“And there is a really good theatre in Cheltenham already, The Everyman. And in Tewkesbury, The Roses. Why do we need another here?
“It's about realising what we have already, using that, developing our strengths and working together. Not operating in a silo and fostering a sense of 'them and us'.
“And people don’t need a passport to get here from Cheltenham either. It's about having the confidence in what the city does to pitch it not just to a Gloucester audience, but to an audience from Gloucestershire.”
Nevertheless, we talk about the project to redevelop the former Mecca Bingo hall at the top of Northgate Street into a theatre, a community project he is nevertheless hugely positive about.
“To put it simply, I don't see the city as a challenge. The city has won Levelling-up money and this is giving us the opportunity to build a cultural space
“The Arts council was heavily involved in capital projects. I understand those projects and cultural spaces,” he says, revealing another reason he was appointed. If the city wins money, it needs to know how to use it to get the very best outcome.
By Levelling up cash Hindson is not referring to the money won by the university to repurpose the former Debenhams building visible across King’s Square from his office in Jolt, but for the redevelopment of the site of the former Greyfriars friary off Brunswick Road, a site that also includes the city’s indoors market.
If he is excited by bricks and mortar, you can see it is this project that makes his eyes light up – if only for the potential it gives to cultivate culture even further.
Plenty on the agenda then – and money in place to allow the city to truly plan for the next three years. But there is more. Something we almost missed, and Hindson has left it till last.
And it’s not The Forum, the Debenham building or Greyfriars or The Phoenix Project proposed for The Fleece Hotel and buildings beyond?
“There is something that could be really big. We should hear any day now about a grant for a three-year project to work in communities across the city. It's going to be really exciting. I just can't tell you about it yet!”
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