Waltham Forest will receive £1.35million from City Hall, and the City Bridge Trust, to develop a groundbreaking cultural programme throughout 2019, celebrating the distinctive character of the borough.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan also revealed that Brent would be the London Borough of Culture for 2020.

HLF will be offering the winning boroughs the opportunity to apply for National Lottery funding to ensure heritage is a key part of the festivities.

Fierce competition

The hotly-contested competition, which was launched in June last year by Sadiq Khan, saw 22 boroughs submit applications for the prestigious title.

[quote=Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London]“Huge congratulations to Waltham Forest and Brent for their superb bids. I know that both will deliver a programme of work that will benefit residents and make the whole city proud."[/quote]

Since applications closed in December, their proposals have been carefully judged with the two winning boroughs announced by Sadiq Khan at a ceremony at City Hall this morning.

Six other boroughs also received funding of £850,000 to deliver outstanding cultural projects outlined in their bids: Barking and Dagenham, Camden, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham and Merton.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Huge congratulations to Waltham Forest and Brent for their superb bids. I know that both will deliver a programme of work that will benefit residents and make the whole city proud. I am particularly happy to see both bids have placed such importance on young people.”

Congratulations, Waltham Forest!

Waltham Forest’s application won support for its wide-ranging community support, pledging to get 85% of the community involved.

To date, HLF has awarded National Lottery funding of £19.7m to heritage projects in the borough, including Walthamstow Wetlands, the William Morris Gallery and Lloyd Park.

National Lottery funding in other boroughs

Even if your borough didn’t clinch one of the prizes today, HLF remains open to applications from across London.

In particular, we want to hear from heritage projects in Barking & Dagenham, Hillingdon, Kingston and Redbridge.

To apply for our funding or to find out more, take a look at our funding pages.