As a first-time Festival Neighbourhood for LFA, we were pleasantly surprised by how the right partners, platforms and channels can give community engagement and local stories a much wider reach.
At Chrisp Street, community engagement and celebrating our heritage have always been central to what we do. With a regeneration project of this scale, in an area shaped by generations of East London history and transformation, meaningful engagement with the community must remain at the heart of everything we do.
For several years, we have invested in free community events, creating opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to come together. From consultation events that give local residents a voice in Chrisp Street’s future, to celebrations of Diwali, Ramadan and Christmas, our programme is rooted in the people who make Chrisp Street what it is. Our diverse and authentic community is something we are incredibly proud of.
A perfect theme at a significant moment
When the opportunity came to become an LFA Festival Neighbourhood, this year’s theme of ‘Belonging’ felt particularly fitting.
2026 marks the 75th anniversary of the Festival of Britain, an event in which Chrisp Street Market played a significant role. Rebuilt following wartime destruction in preparation for the Festival, it became the UK’s first purpose-built pedestrian shopping centre. Today, the market remains home to two Grade II-listed landmarks: the iconic Clock Tower and Festival Inn pub.
With such strong connections to the Festival of Britain, architecture and the evolution of East London, the LFA offered a unique opportunity to celebrate Chrisp Street, its history and, most importantly, its people on a city-wide stage.
Taking Chrisp Street beyond the neighbourhood
We began our LFA programme at The London Centre with a talk exploring Chrisp Street’s past, present and future. This was followed by our Chrisp Street Festival in July which included a full day of talks, tours, workshops and performances bringing the neighbourhood’s story to life.
A key objective was to reach beyond our existing community and introduce Chrisp Street to people who may never have visited before. Through our partnership with the LFA, we were able to do exactly that, attracting visitors from across London and showcasing what makes Chrisp Street special.
From traditional pie and mash to award-winning street art, distinctive post-war architecture and a wonderfully diverse community, Chrisp Street is a melting pot of culture, art, history and architecture. It is a place where the past and present sit side by side, and where the story of the neighbourhood is ultimately the story of its people.
What we’ve taken away
Perhaps the biggest lesson from our experience as a Festival Neighbourhood has been the value of creating new platforms for existing community stories.
We already knew how important community engagement was. What the LFA showed us was how powerful those local conversations can be when connected to a much wider city-wide programme. Being part of the Festival gave Chrisp Street a new audience, while giving our existing community a new platform to celebrate its history, architecture, creativity and diversity, and to open conversations about what belonging means and what the future could look like.
For us, ‘Belonging’ is not simply a theme. It is at the heart of Chrisp Street.
It is about knowing your neighbours, celebrating different cultures, sharing stories, creating memories and feeling that you have a place within the community.
Our first LFA experience has shown us that there is a real appetite to discover places like Chrisp Street and understand the stories behind them. We hope this is just the beginning of bringing even more people into the conversation and continuing to put Chrisp Street, its history and its community firmly on London’s map.
