Midtown BID is your local Business Improvement District for the area covering two of London’s most successful and historic postcodes – WC1 and EC1 – which collectively are 'Midtown'.
We currently represent over 400 businesses with the aim of making Midtown the best place to do business in London.
We are delighted to have appointed our new non-executive Chair, Alexander Jan, Chief Economist at Arup. Jan was a member of the Mayor of London‘s infrastructure delivery board, led work on the 2050 London Infrastructure Plan and more recently spearheaded a report into Good Growth across the West End. He has extensive knowledge of inner London city issues, which will be invaluable to us achieving our goals for the area and everyone who does business in Midtown.
Midtown is a vibrant commercial hub that is a vital contributor to London’s social, cultural and economic development, as our data analysis shows:
We ran a competition for Midtown creative companies for the redesign of the Midtown BID Information Kiosk – as well as housing one of Kings College’s Air Quality Monitoring Stations it’s going digital. We will have an exhibition at New London Architecture of short-listed entrants later in the year. We are working with software developers to create an area guide for tourists, visitors, and all of us whore here every day for work and leisure.
Our annual programme of Guided Walks is another way to discover Midtown. Farringdon Walks have been increased to meet demand and we estimate that 40,000 people will have been walking in Midtown by end of 2019/20. Visit https://bee-midtown.com/walks to view our current walks programme.
The Evening Standard approached Midtown BID to partner on their Future London campaign. We front up the ‘Plastic Free’strand aiming to reduce single use plastic in Midtown. We have identified sites to install water fountains across the area and continue to work with local businesses to assist with supply chain management, best practice support and innovative interventions to make Midtown plastic free, for more information on this initiative visit https://bit.ly/2JqQEtA
This year’s programme will be omnichannel to run to March 2020, including events, podcasts, video and editorial. Our official Media Partner is the Evening Standard. We are the first business group to create and agree an official Partnership with the UKSSD (the organisation that facilitates the delivery of the SDGs in the UK). The bespoke Midtown membership offer will launch at the first MBIE event, for more information on our 2019/20 events visit https://bee-midtown.com/mbie
Is an innovative inner-city pilot campaign with a difference. Street giving might seem like a quick fix, but it does not solve the underlying problems of street begging and homelessness. We established BEE The Change in 2018 working with local charities, including C4WS and Safer Streets, the Met Police, and Council Officers. To get involved, visit https://bee-midtown.com/btc
Our long running-rooftop garden project combining pollinator friendly planting with urban bee keeping goes from strength to strength. With on-street Plant Locks though WC1 and business volunteering in the replanting of Red Lion Square, Midtown is getting greener. BEE Wild is part of The B-Line project, supporting pollinators and bio-diversity in London. We have new sites identified across the area – get in touch if your business can host a bee hive or to find out more.
We have consolidated our working arrangements, taking into consideration industry maturity, wider external factors, and the Mayor’s London Plan. We recognised the benefit of ‘integrating’ the previously separate WC1 and EC1 areas and bringing them together for greater competitive advantage.
For the financial year 2018/19 Midtown BID operated:
Midtown BID has been representing the collective interests of business in the area since 2005. We work in five-year cycles and this is the final year of our current term (2015 – 2020). We will be starting a consultation process soon to hear your views, so you can influence and shape the strategy and delivery of our work for the next 5 years to 2025. We will be in contact to arrange a meeting – you can contact us on or 020 7078 7077.
| Holborn, Bloomsbury, St Giles | |
| 2018/19 |
£1.7m
|
| Anticipated 2019/20 |
£1.8m
|
| Breakdown of Spend 2018/19 | |
| Marketing & Communications 40% |
 |
| Project Delivery 40% |
|
| Services 20% |
 |
| Farringdon & Clerkenwell | |
| 2018/19 |
£280,000
|
| Anticipated 2019/20 |
£300,000
|
| Breakdown of Spend 2019/20 | |
| Marketing & Communications 40% |
 |
| Project Delivery 40% |
 |
| Services 20% |
 |