Councillor Alan Hall has revealed that he will make Lewisham a destination venue for the arts by drawing in and investing millions of pounds into the borough.“As a board member of Phoenix Community Housing I am extremely proud of the fact that we have drawn in over £4million of funding to revive, regenerate and turn the Fellowship Inn in Bellingham into a thriving community pub, theatre, cinema, micro-brewery and the home of Lewisham Music opening next year.
“I want to repeat that kind of success a thousand times over to bring to life the arts and culture of Lewisham. If Lewisham were a tube station I would like to call it Arts and Culture Central because this will be one stop where everyone will want to get off.”
The borough’s leading scrutiny councillor who commissioned a special investigation into the revival and reopening of Lewisham Theatre praised outgoing Lewisham Mayor Sir Steve Bullock for next week’s launch of the council’s Borough of Culture bid at the Horniman Museum on Thursday 7th September.
“I am delighted that Sir Steve Bullock has taken the initiative of launching the bid to become one of Sadiq Khan’s ‘boroughs of culture’. But we can so much more ambitious to link all the centres of Lewisham culture to make it a destination for Londoners and tourists alike. And even if we don’t win the competition we will still go ahead with our own massive programme.
“The potential benefits for all our residents is enormous and I will launch this hugely ambitious programme on day one of my mayoralty after taking office and by working together with residents, businesses and voluntary organizations, together we will make Lewisham Arts and Culture Central.”
The video clip below is the Greenwich & Lewisham Young People’s Theatre performing at The Fellowship Inn in Bellingham