Your cultural life in London

A key reason that Londoners don't take advantage of the cultural activities in the city is that they can't afford it.  Ticket prices have risen hugely, as has the cost of eating out, or even getting a cup of coffee.   Essential costs of living swallow up earnings for too many of us.     Less well off people used to get properly subsidised tickets, which would be e.g. 25% or even less of the full price.   These days, a 'concession' ticket will be just a few pounds less than the very expensive full price ticket, so the 'concession' is meaningless.   Also, the poorer areas of London - e.g. Newham - have nothing going on in the local area.  

Although London does have plenty of things that are free to enjoy, it would be nice if for those that aren't, London residents at least got a discount if not free entry like many other cities around the world do. I'm unable to go as much as I used to with the rise in cost of living

I think it is so sad that Londonders do not take advantage of the wonderful opportunities in London often right on the doorstep or a stones throw away and are often free. It is very important and beneficial to health and well being. Spread the word and share the cost in a group setting. London offers so much and is steeped in culture.

I am lucky enough to have an active interest and career experience in the arts. I understand the benefit and value of it and pass that down to my child too. I do however have an extended family who do not engage much in the arts and this is for very typical reasons such as:

Cost of attending cultural events - theatre and music events are prohibitively expensive especially for families with more than one child. The discounts available such as group discounts for example are either time consuming to find or at inconvenient times such as only Mon-Thurs at 19.30 which is a school night. 

Lack of representation within the artistic activities - people don’t see other people like them on stage or engaging in these activities so don’t consider them as an option. 

The lack of available activities in Greater London and the lack of marketing to relevant communities. Much of the time my family don’t even know these things are going on. More could be done by marketing to schools, kids clubs etc  

Regular access to the arts should be compulsory in schools from the start in order to provoke curiosity and develop their experience in the arts. That way over the years you have people interested in working in the arts which in time creates better diversity and representation and thus builds wider audiences. 

We talk about London, but London is vast and  travel from outer boroughs like Bromley is long and exhausting. We do not have a tube, and the last Tory administration in Bromley provided very little. I find myself having to travel to other boroughs who are more fortunate with cultural provision and workshops. East London, etc. This isn't great or equitable. I don't like travelling late as a woman on my own.

Hi Mike, 

Hope you are really well. I strongly  think that unfortunately my beloved London atm doesn’t have much interesting and exiting culture events!

Especially in terms of Music Event and Music Culture London has seen a massive change that affected many venues and clubs. 

London used to be  the city with the most exiting and amazing music events. 

I wanted to launch a project to save music culture in London but unfortunately because issues to find the right venue with the right license (really hard atm as the council is not helping the venues/clubs) didn’t happen yet! 

Through my Music Culture Project I wanted also to help the community offering part of the revenue to support community kids to offer them free music classes.

Today especially because  the massive increase of cost of living the access to music classes for kids could be really hard as parents maybe can’t afford that. 

I wish to create not only a Music Culture event but also to crate a music culture community project free for kids to give them the possibility to learn.

If you would like to look at my project that could massively improve  music culture for Londoners and help kids to have access to music it will be much appreciated if you could get in touch.

That will be amazing for me and also for many kids.

Looking forward to hearing back from you. 

Thank you very much 

Davide 

I have found i so hard and frustrating to work out this web page and it has made me not interested in trying to participate it giving new  ideas it like the question are all  identified at the people who are contributing to the community and not facing the real problem free loaders  in the system ect job seekers ad universal credit are yet again being force to be unheard no changes people from jail who  have studying but will yet again will be shamed for something they have been punished for served there time and will be penalised while people you deemed responsible take advantage of there position if you actually want t make a difference how about feeding the silver spoon to keep ur place and do what right and help the people you claim you are otherwise ur be adventally be seen for what you really are !!!!

Funnily enough I wrote my Master’s dissertation on how the England’s cultural industry could bounce back after covid by utilising innovative technologies to make these activities more accessible and affordable (I finished it around Sept 2021 so fairly recent, happy to share if you think it may help?).

One thing I found is that there are/were far better initiatives in cities like Paris to encourage people (especially locals) to go out and experience cultural offerings in the city, and governments in countries like China and Japan really backed their cultural economies and merged digital & cultural policies to keep the industry ticking over throughout the pandemic. England not only lacks governmental support for these kind of initiatives both financially and in terms of passion, but it also lacks the technological skills and infrastructure to widen participation.

Even now in 2024, besides the National Arts Pass and the 2 for 1 offers on National Rail train tickets, I’m not really sure of any other incentives.

Sounds like this could develop into an interesting project, would love to keep track of this!

Discount schemes: Battersea Arts Centre and The British Library both have 'pay what you can afford' tickets for some of their events (or on certain days). I usually filter Eventbrite for free activities...but the quality isn't always great.