One of the oldest districts in the country is challenging artists and designers to create a series of Bankside flags inspired by centuries of its own creative history.

Bankside Design District is drawing on the area’s enduring spirit of independence for a string of new events and artistic activities, running from its eastern edge at Borough Market to its western edge at Oxo Tower Wharf.

The events are part of London Design Festival (LDF), which celebrates London as the design capital of the world. LDF runs from 15-23 September 2018.

Today, Bankside Design District is home to London’s oldest theatres and the world’s most popular art gallery. For centuries, it has given a welcome to those with a rebellious and independent spirit, outsider entertainers pursuing ‘indecent’ activities and artists shunned by the mainstream.

When known as ‘Banksyde’ in the 16th century, the area’s location outside the walls of the City made it a natural landing place for outsiders, dissenters and free thinkers. It became London’s lively pleasure quarter, home to theatres, brothels, gambling dens and taverns. The area’s richness in art, entertainment and culture 500 years on (Tate Modern, Shakespeare’s Globe and Borough Market being three obvious examples), is a reflection of Bankside’s anarchic, artistic roots; its network of mediaeval streets continues to encourage curiosity and it retains an ‘otherness’ that inspires creative thinking.

Bankside flags

An intensely colourful celebration of Bankside’s creativity, Better Bankside, in collaboration with NB Studio, has challenged over 40 leading artists and designers in Bankside and London to design flags that celebrate the area’s independent spirit. The full complement of flags will hang at Borough Market’s Jubilee Place throughout LDF, before being flown throughout the area. Following the festival, the flags will be auctioned to raise money for Better Bankside’s three local community partners. Bankside Design District will select a winning flag that will become an official flag of Bankside. Contributors include vibrant artist/designer Morag Myerscough, leading typographer and printmaker Alan Kitching, illustrator Alice Bowsher, as well as Bankside based Borough Market and a host of local design studios.

Discover more on the website, www.londondesignfestival.com/bankside-design-district

Dates: 15-23 September