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The European City of the Year Award

Bristol (winner)

This isn't easy. A poem is a machine of words and sounds And Bristol's more than that. So much more.
Try getting Cabot Circus into a line: light reflecting on the windows, On the face of someone entering a shop with a smile. See; Two lines! The Harbourside: I'll sit here for a moment and try To write a line about how Bristol meets the water meets the sky And then a line about how Clifton's streets somehow make you Walk more slowely, taking in the view and more than the view, The history, the sense of promise, the stroll down Whiteladies Road Where you just can decide where to eat except everywhere And this poem's getting fuller and it feels like it might explode With all the things i'm trying to squeeze into it. Okay then, admit it: This isn't a poem all by itself. Bristol: epic work, constantly redrafting.

Manchester

You hear this place before you see it; the noise and the buzz Of a city briming with self-belief,
A music that comes from laughter and football
And walking a certain way down piccadilly.
Like this: the arms, the confidence

You see this place before you hear it; as your place touches down Past the Manchester lights that glow with the knowledge That this is a city (that) believes in itself And a certain way of talking on the last tram home. Like this: quip first, gag second, punchline after.

You live in this place like you live in your own skin
It takes you over, you're a streetplan, a future entwined With a past so they both show their best face
To a world that just has to bow to the inevitable
Like this:we're here, just accept it, we're Manchester, Manchester!

NewcastleGateshead

That Northern Angel welcomes you with open arms and smiles: He's not wearing a shirt because this region's never cold. He's standing halfway to the sky, can see for miles and miles Just how this place renews itself by blending new and old;
From the Baltic to St. James's Park, the Metro to the Sage You can feel the regeneration's pulse and hear the renewal's heart. The gorgeous Angel's calling in a brand new golden age Driven by music, dance and story, fuelled by song and art.
A river splits these cities and yet gives them definition: Take me walking by the Tyne and let me hear the future sing In a strong North Eastern accent full of joy and erudition That's taken my heart from yesterday and knows tomorrow brings
A redefining of the centre, acknowledgement that today Newcastle, Gateshead and the North's revival's here to stay!

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The Great Town Award

Chichester

Look behind me, hear the Romans talking
And the Saxons laughing and as i'm walking
By the Cathedral You can hear Medieval voices singing this song!

Look around you, feel the glow of history
Get close to this city's eternal mystery;
Beauty's defined As you hear devine voices singing this song!

The city's walls keep nothing in except a sense of tradition The city's walls let ideas seep through: call it innovation! This mix of old and new is hard to pull off, it's really tricky! But this place has succeeded in a way that's really Chichestery! The Festival Theatre and the galleries and the shops are Places that define this city, the throbbing heart of Chichester!

Look around now, take in a heart that beats
Across several hundred years of West Sussex streets
Chichester's living Chichester's showing us the future so sing along!

Richmond (winner)

You need a river; preferably one that can hold the light
Of the setting sun in Autumn; you need a castle,
A nice big dominance one that holds half the sky,
That percolates your thinking if you live here,
You need a theatre, one where the performers on stage Are almost sitting in the audience, where the words you speak
Seem to hang in the air like lights. You need a history
That doesn't poke you in the eye, but rather walks beside you, A companion, a guide pointing and explaining. Cobbles are good, And a range of museums. And the language has to be local,
Has to sound like it's made of things like cobbles, and the river, And the shadow of the castle, and the impossibly beautiful Skies of North Yorkshire with just the odd cloud sailing...

Stirling

Newest city in an ancient land; place to sit and listen.
In the Castle’s shadow I drink espresso; Stirling sky is a colour Just the red side of blue, tonight.

How do you describe a city like this? Old Town in name only; stand and look And on Graduation Day students flock like birds Coming home to roost in the nest of learning.

How do you describe a city like this ? I’m trying. At the Top of the Town I look out over the city And somehow the city looks back at me; I’m reflected By a place and Albion have won three nil; I’m smiling.

How do you describe a city like this ? I’m trying my best. Describing the essence of Stirling is like trying
to hold the water of St. Ninian’s Well in your open hands; it’s a feeling somewhere between fresh air and birdsong...

Oh, how do you describe a city like this ? Come and live here! meet you later by the Old Town Jail Where we’ll sit and try to describe

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The Great Neighbourhood Award

Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham (winner)

This place shines. It really shines. Put that in your poem: it shines. I’m scribbling as fast as I can, but this place is many faceted, Like a jewel, you mean ? Very clever. Don’t forget: it flippin’ shines.
It’s a kind of multi-faceted and gleaming and, yes, shining, asset To a city that’s already full to bursting with ideas and places Put this in your poem: it’s been here for two hundred years And have you mentioned The Big Peg ? Not yet but I will, I will, It was a place where jewellers with their gleaming faces?
Yes, if you like, gathered in this city..am I making myself clear? It kind of moves, this places, it dances, it shimmies, it’s never still.
Shimmers. I like that. That’s really helpful, thankyou very much. No, shimmies, mate; it dances, this place really moves and shines A bit like a jewel does; Thanks, thanks...It sparkles to your touch
The Jewellery Quarter: craft and art and business meet.
Sublime!

Lace Market, Nottingham

Past, present and future in streets built on lace,
Built on lace and a capacity for invention,
A capacity for invention and a refusal to lie down,
A refusal to lie down when history comes knocking.

When history comes knocking you open the door
You open the door and let rethinking in
Let rethinking in and convert the old places
Convert the old places to hotels and homes

Hotels and homes and places to work in
Places to work in, places to eat, places to think
Places to think how the long lost lace makers
The long lost lace makers would stand and applaud

Stand and applaud the rebirth of a district
Rebirth as a district, intricate as lace
Intricate as lace in its delicate ecology
Delicate ecology of past present and future...

Stockbridge, Edinburgh

I like a place with bridge in its name; it suggests movement, Progression, a journey, no matter how small.

Well, take a journey to Stockbridge, walk the Colonies, Gaze into the Water of Leith and see yourself reflected,

And that’s what I call a journey, a journey into yourself,
And that’s what Stockbridge offers, a time to reflect

On what can be done in a city; walk by St Stephen’s Church And past the Academy, wander up Ann Street, a street

That a better poet than me called ‘the most attractive street In Britain.’ Sir John Betjeman, he knew a neighbourhood

When he saw one, these schoolkids, they know a neighbourhood When they see one, these eaters, these drinkers, these thinkers

These walkers, these talkers, they know a good neighbourhood When they see one: this one, with a bridge in its name...

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The Great Street Award

Skipton High Street, Skipton (winner)

Remember, this is Skipton: embrace the urge to skip
Down this High Street like no other High Street
Allow a Yorkshire-ish grin to play round your lip
And a dance of delight to grow from your two feet
And buy a pint, buy a pie, say hello to a feller
You’ve known since you were but a lad
Then buy something sweet from a market stall seller
Then nod to the feller from the previous line’s dad
And smile to the family who’ve come for the day
(they call ‘em comforts round here but they like ‘em really)
Because this High Street’s a place to work, rest and play (Shame that line’s been used already: it’s the sort of touchy-feely Line that fits this High Street to a T! Skipton High Street: I’m impressed;
As High Streets go, this one has to be the best!

Kensington High Street, London

If you stroll down High Street Kensington
From the underground station of the very same name
You’ll see that the prospect is a pleasing one;
Because while many high streets look the same
This isn’t the case with Kensington
This street looks like no other one!

If you stroll down High Street Kensington
You’ll be amazed by the architecture
And how the morning sunshine shines upon
The art deco walls whose fine trajector
-y is something subtle, not full-on
Down the valley of High Street, Kensington!

If you stroll down High Street Kensington
You understand shopping as theatre
It’s buy and sell with dazzling jewels on,
Somehow commerce getting fairly near ter
A fine cloak that your soul can don
A state of grace is High Street Kensington!

Portobello Road, London

You get row after row after row after row:
Shops putting on a show down Portobello
Go slow through the snow, get a wrap or a throw
Go hot in the sun, get a spending glow
Please don’t say No just go with the flow
Down row after row after row after row
Of cafes and shops and stalls and you know
You’re gonna get a bargain down Portobello!
So, for hats for above, for shoes for below
The odd stuffed crow, head of a buffalo
Photo of Lee Brilleaux, aromatic pillow
Hat in the shape of an armadillo
Row after row after row after row
After row after row after row after row
O it’s busrting with life down Portobello!

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The Great Place Award

Crosby Beach, Liverpool

Sand sifts, sand shifts, sand changes,
Sand slides and solidifies, sand alters in the light
Sand dances, sand crumbles, sand rearranges
Morning sand is different to how sand was in the night!

And now the crowds are walking in the stiff and bracing breeze Bending from the whirling wind like scarved and hatted trees
Gazing at the metal people staring out to sea
The ones who could be human, who could be you or me;

Sand shifts, sand sifts, sand rearranges,
Morning sand is different to how sand was in the night
Sand crumbles, sand dances, sand changes
Sand solidifies and slides, sand alters in the light;

Crosby Beach can say something on how we learn from place On how the sands’ impermanence can be a kind of grace, How art and life can come together, beneath a moving sky Watched by whirling seagulls and statue’s frozen eye.

Sand changes, sand crumbles, sand dances
Sand rearranges, sand sifts, sand shifts
Evening sand is different to how sand was in the day
Sand alters in the light, sand solidifies and slides...

North Laine, Brighton

Why country song? Why opera?
Well they can both hold huge emotions
And they don’t go through the motions
And I’ve got a growing notion
That North Laine’s just like that!

Its setting’s operatic; over the top, dramatic
You can eat and drink and stroll and shop,
Lounge with purpose or wander erratic.
Dress like a hipster! Go over the top!
Buy something that’s been chucked from an attic!
Browse and buy, squeeze each last drop
From a place that sends you quite ecstatic
Get clothes for a punk or a goth or a fop
Or a nylon shirt that throbs with static!
Get your boots into action, move those flip flops
Get a cappacino that tastes authentic
To anybody with a heart or a soul or a brain
The place to be seen is YEEHA! North Laine!

Oxford Castle, Oxford (winner)

I woke up inside the prison walls for a full English breakfast. I peered inside the cells and felt the weight of guilt. I shouldn’t have had that second sausage
But it was staring me in the face. So I did.

I wandered round the Castle and looked in an apartment. I had a vision of living within easy reach of pasta. I shouldn’t have had a vision of wandering down for spaghetti In my pyjamas and my slippers. But I did.

I thought about how these days anything is possible;
How history doesn’t just have to be there, crumbling,
It can be part of the present and part of the future
A simple idea, of course. With burgers.

I went back to my room and I ordered room service.
I looked at some art, I listened to jazz and I shifted
My definition of what a castle can be: it can be a model Of how to live your life. With ice cream.

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