RIGHT TO THE CITY
Year
2025
Service
Funder
The City of London Corporation’s Community Infrastructure Levy Neighbourhood Fund
Collaborators
See full list.
Right to the City is a Publica CIC initiative seeking to understand how women, girls and non-binary people experience safety after dark, and create inclusive, accessible and joyful public spaces where they feel like they belong.
Through four Artist-Led Night Walks and a Youth Design Challenge, Publica connected with 327 people across the City of London, witnessing the inspiring vision, hopes and energy of the next generation of changemakers.
The project will shape an evidence-based capacity framework for City of London stakeholders to feel more knowledgeable about the women, girls and gender diverse people they serve, and foster a collective commitment to informed and meaningful action towards safer cities.
ARTIST-LED NIGHT WALKS
Out After Dark
Soundscapes for Creative Reflection
Let's Go the Long Way Round
The Nightwatch Carnival
Out After Dark
Observing the City and Defining Hopes
At the first workshop, a group of women and non-binary people walked Smithfield and Farringdon at night, observing, witnessing and recording their thoughts and experiences. Led by artist Louisa Tan, they transformed what they saw and felt into striking collage posters, mapping their personal experiences of safety, unease, and hope.
Soundscapes for Creative Reflection
In a night walk through the Barbican, led by poet and artist Belinda Zhawi, participants transformed quiet corners, and unfamiliar streets into spaces for collective reflection with sound and poetry. Together, they recorded, wrote and listened, creating a powerful sonic map of their experiences.
Let’s Go The Long Way Round
Reimagining the Alley as a Space for Empowerment
What if the alleyway wasn’t a place to hurry through – but somewhere to take up space? Using light, dance and movement, women and non-binary people transformed the alleyway into a joyful space of empowerment, belonging and visibility with artists Clara Fran and Beth Allen.
The Nightwatch Carnival
A Performative Reclamation of Space
Led by artist María Venegas Raba, participants in the final Right to the City workshop designed fictional characters that embodied how they want to experience public space after dark. They brought those characters to life in a powerful night time parade, moving though the City with joy, laughter and courage.
FINAL CELEBRATION
At the final celebration for Right to the City, we celebrated the bold voices behind the Artist-Led Night Walks and Youth Design Challenge, led by Senior Urban Designer, Gaia Crocella.
Surrounded by collages, soundscapes, maps and masks created during the workshops, we reflected on what this project has achieved – joyful reclamation, belonging, creativity, community, and a call for change.
We heard directly from several Youth Design Challenge participants and their moving visions for the City. Their poster designs and speeches, each recognised for their detail, emotion and imagination, brought a sense of hope to the celebration.
Right to the City showed what is possible when communities come together to reimagine safer and more inclusive cities that truly reflect the people who live in them – especially women, girls and non-binary people.
Right to the City is supported by:
Primera
Eastern City BID
Fleet Street Quarter BID
Culture Mile BID
Aldgate Connect BID Cheapside Business Alliance
With thanks to all project collaborators, artists and participants:
Cornhill Ward Councillor
City of London Police
Harshita Patel
Louisa Tan
Belinda Zhawi
Clara Fran
Beth Allen
María Venegas Rabá
Barbican and Golden Lane Neighbourhood Forum
Music in Offices
Holland House
New London Architecture
Museum of London
Barbican
London Metropolitan University
Barbican and Community Libraries
Portsoken Community Centre
Golden Lane Community Centre
Sir Ralph Perring Centre
St Barts Hospital Vital Arts
Safer Business Network
Our Safer City
City of London Crime Prevention Association
City Group Security
The City Belonging Project: Latinos in the City
DSQ
Mulberry School
Haggerston School
Police Cadettes
Society Links
Beaubeaus
RIGHT TO THE CITY
Year
2025
Service
Funder
The City of London Corporation’s Community Infrastructure Levy Neighbourhood Fund
Collaborators
See full list.
Right to the City is a Publica CIC initiative seeking to understand how women, girls and non-binary people experience safety after dark, and create inclusive, accessible and joyful public spaces where they feel like they belong.
Through four Artist-Led Night Walks and a Youth Design Challenge, Publica connected with 327 people across the City of London, witnessing the inspiring vision, hopes and energy of the next generation of changemakers.
The project will shape an evidence-based capacity framework for City of London stakeholders to feel more knowledgeable about the women, girls and gender diverse people they serve, and foster a collective commitment to informed and meaningful action towards safer cities.
ARTIST-LED NIGHT WALKS
Out After Dark
Soundscapes for Creative Reflection
Let's Go the Long Way Round
The Nightwatch Carnival
Out After Dark
Observing the City and Defining Hopes
At the first workshop, a group of women and non-binary people walked Smithfield and Farringdon at night, observing, witnessing and recording their thoughts and experiences. Led by artist Louisa Tan, they transformed what they saw and felt into striking collage posters, mapping their personal experiences of safety, unease, and hope.
Soundscapes for Creative Reflection
In a night walk through the Barbican, led by poet and artist Belinda Zhawi, participants transformed quiet corners, and unfamiliar streets into spaces for collective reflection with sound and poetry. Together, they recorded, wrote and listened, creating a powerful sonic map of their experiences.
Let’s Go The Long Way Round
Reimagining the Alley as a Space for Empowerment
What if the alleyway wasn’t a place to hurry through – but somewhere to take up space? Using light, dance and movement, women and non-binary people transformed the alleyway into a joyful space of empowerment, belonging and visibility with artists Clara Fran and Beth Allen.
The Nightwatch Carnival
A Performative Reclamation of Space
Led by artist María Venegas Raba, participants in the final Right to the City workshop designed fictional characters that embodied how they want to experience public space after dark. They brought those characters to life in a powerful night time parade, moving though the City with joy, laughter and courage.
FINAL CELEBRATION
At the final celebration for Right to the City, we celebrated the bold voices behind the Artist-Led Night Walks and Youth Design Challenge, led by Senior Urban Designer, Gaia Crocella.
Surrounded by collages, soundscapes, maps and masks created during the workshops, we reflected on what this project has achieved – joyful reclamation, belonging, creativity, community, and a call for change.
We heard directly from several Youth Design Challenge participants and their moving visions for the City. Their poster designs and speeches, each recognised for their detail, emotion and imagination, brought a sense of hope to the celebration.
Right to the City showed what is possible when communities come together to reimagine safer and more inclusive cities that truly reflect the people who live in them – especially women, girls and non-binary people.
Right to the City is supported by:
Primera
Eastern City BID
Fleet Street Quarter BID
Culture Mile BID
Aldgate Connect BID Cheapside Business Alliance
With thanks to all project collaborators, artists and participants:
Cornhill Ward Councillor
City of London Police
Harshita Patel
Louisa Tan
Belinda Zhawi
Clara Fran
Beth Allen
María Venegas Rabá
Barbican and Golden Lane Neighbourhood Forum
Music in Offices
Holland House
New London Architecture
Museum of London
Barbican
London Metropolitan University
Barbican and Community Libraries
Portsoken Community Centre
Golden Lane Community Centre
Sir Ralph Perring Centre
St Barts Hospital Vital Arts
Safer Business Network
Our Safer City
City of London Crime Prevention Association
City Group Security
The City Belonging Project: Latinos in the City
DSQ
Mulberry School
Haggerston School
Police Cadettes
Society Links
Beaubeaus