Fanny Cradock is to be celebrated in the borough of her birth in a way she probably never imagined – with an alfresco gender politics summer party of drag queens and kings.
Members of the cabaret group Duckie are planning what they say will be a very queer mashup of postwar pop culture, style, food and gender politics in honour of the fearsome TV cook in her home area of Leytonstone, east London.
Duckie Loves Fanny, to be staged outdoors at a secret location, will be part of the year-long programme announced on Tuesday for Waltham Forest, the first London borough of culture.
The north-east London borough said it would aim to engage with 85% of its residents and attract 500,000 new visitors. “Culture is not an optional add-on,” said the council leader, Clare Coghill. “It’s not an afterthought or something nice to have. Investment in culture is essential to ensure that everybody enjoys a great quality of life.”
Coghill said that when considering culture in London it was all too easy to think about “the world-class galleries, opera houses, concert halls, museums and theatres all packed into zone 1 – and stop there”. There was, and would be, lots going on in zone 3 too, she said.
She added: “Waltham Forest is a place of makers, of a rapidly growing creative sector, and the energy and buzz of a raft of new startups. We are a bold ambitious borough and will be radical in our approach.”
The London borough of culture programme was introduced by Sadiq Khan and is modelled on the successful experience of Glasgow and Liverpool which have each held the title of European capital of cultur. Another initiativethe UK city of culture, has transformed Derry, Hull and Coventry.
The Waltham Forest programme will involve artists who grew up in the area. For example Sir Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures will be dancers in residence for the year in the choreographer’s old school, Roger Ascham primary.
Damon Albarn, who grew up in Leytonstone, will bring in Africa Express for a residency that will culminate in a five-hour show of new music on 29 March, the day the UK is scheduled to leave the EU. “Whether it’s a happy day or a sad day, let’s spend it together here in Waltham Forest,” said Khan.
On May Day there will be a fete in Chingford preceded by a mass bike ride, a homage to John Kemp Starley, born and raised in Walthamstow in the Victorian era and regarded as the inventor of the modern bicycle.
In Epping Forest there will be performances of Oscar Wilde’s fairy tale The Selfish Giant, and poetry by Epping-born John Clare.
The programme launches on 11 January with a three-night celebration in various locations including the town hall, Lloyd Park and Forest Road, inspired by the year’s themes of radicals, makers and fellowship.