Where Walworth Eats: A map connecting the community

A project which started out as a mapping exercise quickly transformed into something that connected businesses, local people, and LCC.

Elephant & Castle’s Walworth Road offers a taste of the world when it comes to eating out, with everything from authentic Columbian cuisine through to traditional Korean restaurants.

To help highlight the neighbourhood’s amazing culinary diversity, London College of Communication teamed up with Southwark Council to create an interactive map highlighting the best restaurants and cafes on or near Walworth Road, with an emphasis on healthy eating.

Where Walworth Eats was part of a wider campaign to promote food businesses in the area, and also links in to Southwark Council’s annual High Street Challenge initiative in which it offers funding to organisations to devise and promote schemes that help keep the ‘high street’ alive.

The project not only helped restaurant and cafe owners to promote their businesses, but also staged workshops for them in social media and photography skills to assist them in growing their online presence. These workshops, run by LCC students, were initially predicted to be less popular but were quickly oversubscribed.

Luisa Charles, an LCC Interaction Design Arts graduate who acted as project co-ordinator, said: “Many business owners have premises across the street from each other, but have never interacted. The nicest thing about the workshops was that they got to learn a lot about social media, but even more than that, they all started networking together, swapping business cards… it brought a community of food together.”

The map also had a spin-off benefit for LCC as it has been able to distribute copies during open days and freshers events. “It’s something I would have loved to have had in first year,” Luisa explained. “When you’re at LCC, you’re only exposed to limited places such as Pret and Wetherspoon’s. This area is booming with culture, and yet it is still untapped by so many students and locals alike.”

Healthy eating eateries are emphasised on the map. In order to be eligible for inclusion, they have to meet two main criteria. Firstly, they had to be of a place where you could go for lunch. Secondly, healthy options had to be available, at least as part of balanced meals with plenty of fruit and vegetables.

One cafe which passed the test is Rude N Boomin. It serves an array of healthy options, from vegan acai bowls to freshly made smoothies, drawing inspiration from New Zealand, where owner Colin Webb lived for many years before returning to south London.

Colin also adds strong influences of London’s grime movement to the mix, having worked with artists such as Skepta. Despite this, he felt the cafe was struggling to connect with the local community, with some residents suspicious of gentrification without realising that Colin has strong connections with the area.

He explained: “My aim with this cafe is to bring all walks of life and build a stronger community. Since I came back, I felt there was a huge disconnect between people, and I really want to bring them together again.”

Rude N Boomin also struggled initially with trying to attract students living locally, but Colin added Where Walworth Eats has helped the cafe to connect with them, and forge good relations with LCC. “We are perfectly happy to collaborate with film students to come use our cafe as their location, host society meetings, and even hang their projects and art works on our walls,” he said.

LCC’s support for Where Walworth Eats involved both current students and alumni, and courses ranging from Photography to Graphic Media Design. They walked along Walworth Road, visiting as many eateries as possible, persuading around 30 of them to work with the project.

Luisa Charles admitted that some businesses, established in the community for many years and concerned about the impact of Elephant and Castle’s rapid redevelopment, were wary of the scheme.

“So many doors in closed your face, some places did not want to hear you speak. Some didn’t really trust you, especially when you’re offering much for free… they think there is some sort of catch,” she recalled.

However, other businesses saw the project as a great opportunity and were willing to get on board. “Many of them were extremely excited about it, and responses would be immediate after the initial contact,” Luisa added.

“Getting to know our team on a human level definitely produced a tangible effect, as well as seeing their online presence on social media improve through the directions we took.”

Camberwell BA Fine Art Photography student Indera Harrison, worked closely with many of the cafes and restaurants, helping to develop their brand identities and taking photographs for their online presence.

She said: “This project has benefitted me personally as it gave me experience of working on commissions. I was able to build up my food photography portfolio through it, and I fully enjoyed the experience.”

Indera added: “It was great working with LCC, especially the dynamic of knowing that we were supporting local businesses and improving their online presence. Since then, its been nice to see my work on different brands’ social media such as Tupi London and Hej Coffee.”

Where Walworth Eats started out as a mapping exercise but quickly transformed into something that connected businesses, local people, and LCC. The map is currently available in print and online.

Feature image credit: Veronica Otero.