Creative Hubs: Understanding the New Economy

Abstract

This report concerns the creative hub, an idea that is commonly associated with other terms such as the creative city and the creative economy. Our aim in this report is to sift the hyperbole and slippery usage of the term ‘creative hub’ (and similar but different terms such as creative quarter, creative district, etc.) and refocus those tasked with making hubs successful operations. We review the history and usage of the idea of the hub, and the particularity of the UK experience, and consider which aspects of this could be translated into other settings; and crucially, which should not. However, we caution against a one-size-fits-all approach to creative hubs, especially one that may seek to generalise from what are particular, albeit enlightening, UK experiences.