The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Fending off opposition from textile patterns, glass centres, oat cakes, potteries and the SAS
As Perth officially launches its bid to become UK City of Culture in 2021, Michael Alexander looks at other candidates
Perth is to build its UK City of Culture bid around a programme of arts and culture linked to the themes of a green city.
But who are the competitors? So far Paisley, Coventry, Sunderland and Stoke-on-Trent have announced their plans, with others such as Hereford, Milton Keynes and Cardiff also showing intent.
PAISLEY
Paisley is not actually a city but as a large urban area, it meets the criteria for the competition, organised by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
Once a thriving weaving and textile town of international significance, remnants of its once-mighty industrial mills now sit alongside a tired high street.
Like many post-industrial cities, it suffers an enduring problem of boarded-up properties alongside a handful of chain stores and charity shops.
However, after decades of decline, civic leaders see the City of Culture bid as a way to capitalise on its heritage and reinvigorate pride, while at the same time boost arts and cultural activity.
It plans to make the most of its famous Paisley shawls and textile patterns.
By encouraging tourism, city bosses also want to change the way outsiders and locals think of the town.
Residents got into the swing of this at the weekend when the Paisley Music Weekend was held.
Shopping centres, pubs and cafes were transformed into music and drama venues – and even Saturday’s Scottish Championship match between St Mirren and Hibernian featured a half-time show.
COVENTRY
Think Coventry and what comes to mind? Cathedrals? Terrible damage sustained during a German bombing raid in 1940? Car plants? Or maybe even a place you might be sent to if your friends stop speaking to you?
Much of Coventry’s concrete jungle of today is a consequence of that Second World War bombing.
Little remains of its medieval heart, with post-war town planners favouring pedestrian precincts over style and ring roads over cycleways. Today, tourists visit the burnt-out shell of the cathedral, which was left as a monument.
A modernist replacement was constructed next door. Its attractions include a collection of specially commissioned art, including a huge tapestry by Graham Sutherland and stained glass windows by John Piper.
However, amid a feeling from civic leaders that Coventry is underrated, misunderstood and perhaps even forgotten, what those behind the bid hope to do is to tell more people about its culture and heritage.
It is being aided in its bid by Andrew Dixon, the man who helped Hull win City of Culture status for 2017. He is highlighting the city’s pioneering record of theatre and film education.
SUNDERLAND
Reminders of Sunderland’s industrial past made national headlines a few months ago when the city became one of the first in England to declare its residents want to leave the European Union.
Almost a century ago it was regarded as the shipbuilding capital of the world. Noisy, dirty and prosperous, it also thrived thanks to the Monkwearmouth Colliery, where Sunderland FC’s Stadium of Light now stands. There was also a Pyrex glass factory.
However, while industry has survived through the giant Nissan car plant and the German crane manufacturer Liebherr, an all-too familiar story saw many old uneconomic industries shut down.
Undercurrents of unemployment, run-down shopping centres and housing estates now blight the landscape and the psyche of its people.
However, it has already been looking to reinvent itself through culture.
For example, one early attempt was the National Glass Centre, on the Sunderland waterfront at the site of one of the city’s vanished shipyards.
Opened in 1998 and funded by the lottery, the centre mounts exhibitions of decorative glass and runs courses in glass-making.
Another is a new Music, Arts and Culture Quarter – again funded by lottery cash.
Civic leaders have ambitions to establish the city as a national centre for arts, heritage and culture.
STOKE-ON-TRENT
Pottery, rock music, Victorian architecture and oat cakes will all form part of Stoke’s bid.
The city already has a strong heritage of musicians such as Lemmy and Robbie Williams and writers like Arnold Bennett. It also has its own particular cuisine, with lobby – a beef and potato stew – Wright’s pies and the aforementioned oat cakes.
Like many places, the effects of post-industrialisation are evident across the city but Stoke’s industrial past is already being used.
Like its rival Paisley, Stoke-on-Trent will make the most of its ceramic history with an artistic flavour.
Today there are still plenty of bespoke potteries and studios. And while most of the big factories have gone – finding it more cost-effective to manufacture in the Far East – tourists come from all over the world, attracted by the pottery heritage.
And the old Spode factory, “the birthplace of bone China”, which closed in 2008 is being revamped as the centrepiece of its regeneration.
HEREFORD
It is a rural and somewhat unlikely city, synonymous with the Special Air Service (SAS).
However, according to the team behind Hereford’s bid, it is also very much a case of “He Who Dares Wins” for the campaign.
Ian Archer, chief executive at the Courtyard Centre of the Arts, which includes a 400-seater auditorium, says the city has “every chance” of winning if the whole county gets behind the campaign – and it won’t be a “Disneyesque spectacular”.
Instead, it will focus on life and everyday cultural experiences, with 365 events running throughout Herefordshire over the year.
The city’s other big venue is its 12th Century cathedral.
While Hereford has not faced the same classic de-industrialisation problems of some of its competitors, it does know all about rural isolation, poor services and a low-wage economy.
English classical composer Edward Elgar lived there for eight years from 1904 and composed some of his greatest works there.