why peterborough, why now?

Peterborough is a city shaped by movement, making and everyday creativity.

Its identity has been formed through centuries of change, from ancient landscapes and waterways to industrial heritage, and through successive waves of migration that have helped shape one of the UK’s most diverse contemporary cities.

Culture in Peterborough is not confined to institutions or venues. It is lived daily in neighbourhoods, faith spaces, community halls, streets, parks and shared public places. This everyday cultural life is central to how people connect, express identity and feel a sense of belonging across the city.

What makes Peterborough distinctive is not a single cultural narrative, but its ability to hold many narratives at once while still creating a shared sense of place. Culture is shaped locally, often informally, and closely connected to the natural environment. The relationship between people, place and landscape continues to shape how culture is experienced and expressed in Peterborough today.

Though modest in size, Peterborough has a distinctly global character. The city is home to a rich mix of ethnicities, languages, faiths and traditions from across Europe, South Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, East Asia and the Middle East. Rather than being defined by one or two dominant communities, Peterborough’s cultural life is shaped by the close proximity of many global histories and lived experiences.

Across its modern history, Peterborough has repeatedly acted as a place of welcome. People arriving from elsewhere have rebuilt lives here, contributed to the city and put down roots. This legacy of welcome and contribution remains a defining part of Peterborough’s identity and cultural life.

Peterborough is also a notably young city.

A significant proportion of its population is under 25, bringing energy, diversity and a future-facing character to the city’s culture.

Recent education-led visioning with students and staff across Peterborough has reinforced this picture. Young people express strong pride in the city’s diversity and heritage, alongside a clear desire for more visible and regular cultural activity. Informal and shared spaces such as parks, green areas and community hubs play an important role in everyday cultural life and wellbeing.

This Expression of Interest for UK City of Culture 2029 reflects a city that is not seeking to invent a cultural identity for a bid, but to give coherence, visibility and momentum to work already underway. Peterborough has begun to align long-term cultural strategy with neighbourhood participation, partnership working and a clearer understanding of culture’s role in wellbeing, pride and belonging.

Initiatives such as This Is Peterborough demonstrate a shift away from one-off events towards year-round cultural activity. This approach enables communities to shape and share their own stories as part of a wider, shared narrative of the city.

Peterborough is also realistic about the challenges it faces. Cultural activity is widespread but often fragmented. Participation is strong in some neighbourhoods and weaker in others. The city’s external reputation has not always reflected the depth of creativity, civic life and cultural participation experienced by residents.

Learning from previous UK Cities of Culture has informed this bid, reinforcing the importance of inclusion, coherence and long-term legacy over short-term profile.

The timing of this bid is deliberate.

Peterborough is at a point of alignment, with a shared cultural strategy, established delivery partnerships, growing youth infrastructure, investment through the Levelling Up Fund and a civic ambition to become a more child-friendly city.

UK City of Culture 2029 is framed not as an endpoint, but as an accelerator. It is an opportunity to test, strengthen and scale an approach to culture that is already taking shape across the city.

Peterborough is submitting its Expression of Interest from a position of growing maturity. Not because the city’s cultural journey is complete, but because it understands how culture works locally and how it can deliver lasting benefit. In many respects, Peterborough is already behaving like a City of Culture. This bid reflects that confidence, intent and readiness.