Why Soho is So Perfect for Creativity
Wonder why Soho is such a creative hub? Soho Create's CEO Tom Harvey looks into it on the festival's final day.
As London-based Soho Create draws to a close today, the festival's founder and CEO Tom Harvey looks back and reflects on why Soho is the ideal place to host such an eclectically creative event.
Bringing together a melting pot of personalities from the fashion, art, music, TV and design worlds, all of whom collectively make up the Soho spirit, Soho Create is a culmination of workshops, parties and pop-ups to soothe and inspire London's culture. Find out more about the event here.
Soho's creative credentials began 350 years ago when the first Huguenot refugees and crafts people were welcomed to this neighbourhood in the heart of London. Its creative life has been well documented, from the early performances of Jagger, Hendrix and Daltry to the birth of Spandau Ballet. It’s the place Dickens wrote Tale of Two Cities and the place where television was invented.
Soho's creative companies now win an average of two Oscars every year and are responsible for 20% of London's new creative jobs: their collective turnover is £7.5billion. West End Theatre now sells about £15million in tickets every year, with the wider Westminster creative economy worth £14billion, which is 17% of the entire UK creative industry turnover.
Soho is home to the people who don’t feel at home anywhere else
With 46,000 creative workers in Soho, I think it's one of the most creative square mile in the world. It’s jam-packed full of innovators and early adopters, and many of its companies have offices in New York and LA, with an increasing number expanding into Canada. Soho is not just a major player in the UK’s creative economy; it’s a significant part of the global creative economy too.
It's always combined the high life with the low life; artists, craftspeople and entrepreneurs mingle easily with the drunks and sex workers. Many of its more famous characters would be happy to take on any of these roles as they only contribute to the area's much-loved edginess.
With so many large and small companies squeezed into just a few square miles, I've compiled a list as to why it's such an appealing place:
Transportation – the best is just a walk away.
Interconnectivity – many companies and people know each other.
Proximity – of knowledge, skillful people, technology.
Close competition – driving and motivating. Peer pressure and pride spur creatives to outdo one another.
Close cooperation – a mutual dependency means success for one is success for all.
Talent pool – constantly growing and refreshing.
Integration and consolidation – small companies grow big and are bought by bigger companies and new small companies are always starting up.
Porosity – knowledge and innovation flows freely between companies who know and trust each other.
Quality – the best companies with the best people have the best ideas.
At a time when there is much debate about better representation of society within the creative industries, it is important to point out that Soho has a long-standing tradition of diversity and prides itself on accepting outsiders. “Soho is home to the people who don’t feel at home anywhere else,” says Soho Estates' head of investment/development, Phil Thompson.
It's a place where new things are made, be it film, television, scripts, fashion, adverts, plays and musicals. A place of innovation that has carried the country through the recession and out the other side of austerity.
Creativity is about new ideas, new people, new approaches and new companies. The Soho state of mind is important not just as an economic engine, but as a way of thinking that creates growth. The new is vital to our economy and the diversity, innovation and experience that can be found in Soho provide us with ideas, products and content that we've never seen before. Creativity is growth, which is something SohoCreate attempts to tap into and showcase during this year's event.
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