Big ideas for a small town: the huddersfield creative town initiative

Abstract

Whilst much of the attention of those concerned with culture and regeneration has rightly been focused upon the core cities and regional capitals, it would be a mistake to assume that smaller towns and cities do not also have a role to play. Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, is one of a number of towns clustered around the Pennines that grew, and for a hundred years prospered, from the textile trade but which, by the 1980s, were in serious economic decline. This article examines how culture has contributed to the regeneration of the town and the wider local authority district.1 It reviews the developing role of the creative industries within the district and, in particular, the role of the local Council as a key catalyst for many of the institutional and policy shifts that have contributed to this development. The paper is very much intended as reflection on a particular case study. It is certainly not offered as a blueprint but as an opportunity to contribute to the developing knowledge base concerned with the role of the cultural and creative industries in urban development.

Figure 1. Media Centre Foyer.

Figure 3.  Huddersfield Creative Lofts internal.

 The authors have played various roles in the promotion of culture as a facet of regeneration policy in Kirklees. The views expressed in this article are their own. The economic data used in the article (Figures 1–3) are drawn from the Annual Business Inquiry and its predecessors. The geographic unit used is the local authority district.

Keywords:

• Creative industries
• economic development
• regeneration
• urban creativity
• creative city
• creative town
• innovative milieu
• cycle of creativity

Notes

 The authors have played various roles in the promotion of culture as a facet of regeneration policy in Kirklees. The views expressed in this article are their own. The economic data used in the article (Figures 1–3) are drawn from the Annual Business Inquiry and its predecessors. The geographic unit used is the local authority district.

 Defining the creative industries is a task fraught with methodological and semantic challenges. This article heroically side-steps these by adopting the definition currently being developed by the Department of Culture Media and Sport as part of the DCMS Evidence Toolkit (see www.culture.gov.uk). One of the most problematic sectors to deal with is that around creative software services. The definition currently excludes the Standard Industrial Classification 72.20 (Software Consultancy and Supply) due to the inherently difficult task of identifying what proportion of this code is attributable to the creative industries.