London Borough Competition


 

At the heart of the London's New Year's Day Parade there is a competition between the London Boroughs called 'The Let's Help London Challenge'.
Every year since 1997 each of London's 31 Boroughs along with the City of Westminster has been invited to enter the Parade with an act, float, or other form of entertainment or exhibit that demonstrates a facet of the Borough.  With so many wonderfully diverse and exciting parts of London the Borough entries in 'The Let's Help London Challenge' form one of the great highlights of the Parade.
The Boroughs are all competing for a share of the big charity prize pot which in recent years has reached £40,000. Let's Help London Challenge prizes have made huge differences to a multitude of local London charities since 1997. In fact the Parade's efforts for charity began long before the Borough Challenge was created. Every year since the parade's inception a big cheque has been presented by the Parade to a local or national charity. With the annual street collection taken into account well over a million pounds has already been raised or donated by London's New Year's Day Parade since 1987.
The 2013 'Let's Help London Challenge'  

The theme for London's New Year's Day Parade 2013 has been 'Hats Off to London - Celebration Capital of the World'. We really ejoyed having 17 Boroughs taking part this year.
The international panel of judges comprised of foreign Ambassadors and High Commissioners and chaired by Deputy Lieutenant Roger Bramble marked boroughs on the following criteria. The maximum amount of points available was 100.
How well the theme is incorporated into the entry - maximum 30 points   
How well the entry represents your Borough/Community - maximum 30 points     
How well the entry entertains the street audience and judges - maximum 30 points             
Effort in the creation of the entry - maximum 15 points               
Originality of the entry - maximum 15 points      
Finally don't forget the prizes are only a part of the charity fund raising picture. These boroughs are entertaining you to a fabulous feast of entertainment for a full three hours and for free. When you think something is good show it by digging into your pocket and contributing to the street collection that will be made throughout the Parade.
2013 Winners

The London borough of Merton won the overall prize earning £7,500 for their mayoral charity with an extraordinary entry which featured music, pyrotechnics and the release of hundreds of black and white balloons.

The City of Westminster was a close second, earning their charity £6,000, with a grandiose and dramatic celebration of Leicester Sq and its links to the cinematic industry.
Barking & Dagenham came third (£5,000) with a sensational song and dance act reflecting the parade theme of ‘Hats Off To London – Celebration Capital of the World.’
Hammersmith & Fulham came fourth (£4,000) with an entry which was ‘head and shoulders’ above some of their rivals – thanks to the stilt walkers of circus skills organisation Albert & Friends.
Waltham Forest came 5th (£3,000), Camden 6th (£1,500), Lambeth 7th (£1,500), Hounslow 8th (£1,500), Brent 9th (£1,500) and Havering 10th (£1,500).

Past Winners

The very first winner was Havering. They scooped £5,000 for their first place in 1997 with a float celebrating the 750th anniversary of the Romford market. In 1998 the Boroughs of Greenwich and Lewisham joined together to celebrate the launch of the Docklands Light Railway. 'The Light Fantastic', a DLR train powered through the parade route by liveried rollerbladers was a hugely entertaining and original first place winner. 1999 saw Redbridge at the top of the winner’s podium for the first time with their entry 'Hold The Front Page', a float that depicted all aspects of the Borough, including a wartime Winston Churchill.

In Millennium Year, 2000, it was hugely appropriate that the winners should be the London Borough of Southwark with their outstanding entry entitled 'Southwark World Village 2000', celebrating Southwark's multi-cultural society and featuring representations from 120 different nationalities! In 2001 it was finally the turn of Sutton, tremendous supporters of the Parade every year, to win first place with an imaginative entry centred around fashion and recycling. In 2002 Redbridge was back to win first place with an entry entitled 'Nursery Rhyme Memories' in which favourite characters came to life to brighten the start of Her Majesty's Golden Jubilee Year.

 'Southwark Summers' showed New Year's Day Parade spectators that summers in Southwark are the most vibrant and entertaining in the whole of London and won a second first prize, along with £6,000 for charity, for the Borough in 2003. In 2004 it was the turn of Hammersmith and Fulham to catch the eye with hugely colourful, thrilling and entertaining 'Albert and Friends Instant Circus'. Parade hosts, The City of Westminster finally achieved first place in 2005. No one will forget the spirit of wartime London evocatively brought to life with the recreation of a buzzing wartime dance hall replete with Jitterbuggers and a Vera Lynn sing along medley to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII. Merton who had long featured on the list of higher placing’s in the competition finally broke through as winners for the first time in 2006 with their creative float based on Merton Abbey Mills, a vibrant cultural, entertainment centre and weekend market in the borough.

Cllr Robert Davis' efforts to ensure that Westminster are always dazzlingly represented in the Parade paid off again in 2007 when the 'Magic of Covent Garden' entry won first prize for the City and £7,000 for The Lord Mayor's charity. Westminster had been run very close in 2007 by Ealing and their representative group 'South Connections', one of the finest Caribbean Carnival bands in the United Kingdom. It was no surprise then that on New Year's Day 2008 Ealing, once again represented by South Connections, this time performing 'De Journey Now Start', won first prize.

To show just how excellent the competition has become, South Connections performed just as brilliantly again for Ealing in 2009 as they had in 2008. But so good were the other entries this time round that Ealing managed just a creditable 6th place. Merton triumphed with 'Merton's Winter Wonderland', a glittering display of fairies, elves, trees, Snow Queens and seasonal delights, and in so doing won an enhanced first prize of £7,500 for the Mayor's chosen charity.

In 2010 twenty two London boroughs competed for a considerable charity prize pot in the Let’s Help London Challenge – having entered floats and staged spectacles on the theme of ‘Let Us Entertain You.’
The London Borough of Brent took top honours – winning £7,500. It was Alperton Community School’s inspirational use of recycled materials to create a cast of fantasy characters that pipped first place for their borough. 2nd place went to Merton, with Westminster coming in 3rd place, and Hounslow in 4th.

'Silver' was chosen as the Parade theme for 2011 in recognition of the Parade's 25th Anniversary. The City of Westminster took top spot with their 'Alice in Wonderland' entry, followed by Brent in 2nd place, Ealing in 3rd, and Redbridge in 4th place.

The 'Olympic and Diamond Jubilee' was, of course, the theme for the 2012 borough competition which saw Westminster and Merton jointly share the winning prize pot. Brent finished in third place and in fourth place were Hammersmith and Fulham represented by Albert and Friends Instant Circus.

 




 

'The Let's Help London Challenge' League Table.

When the London's New Year's Day Parade initiated the competition in 1997 we thought it would be fun to have a league table to reflect how Boroughs would fare over the years of competition and also to instil a little bit extra competitive edge into 'The Let's Help London Challenge'.  Points have been awarded on the basis of positions gained since the first 'Let's Help London Challenge' in 1997.  As you can see the majority of London's Boroughs now feature as point winners in the league table which means that the substantial majority of London Boroughs have won prizes of one kind or another over the years of the competition. All London Boroughs have taken part in at least one year of the competition since its inauguration.  

 

LEAGUE POSITION

BOROUGH

POINTS WON IN 2013

OVERALL NUMBER OF POINTS 1997 - 2013

1st

Westminster

9

76

2nd

Merton

10

60

3rd

Sutton

0

39

4th

Redbridge

0

38

5th

Southwark

0

32

6th

Brent

2

29

6th

Hammersmith & Fulham

7

29

7th

Ealing

0

28

8th

Barking & Dagenham

8

26

9th

Lambeth

4

23

10th

Enfield

0

17

10th

Havering

1

17

11th

Newham

0

16

12th

Tower Hamlets

15

13th

Hounslow

3

13

14th

Harrow

0

7

14th

Waltham Forest

6

7

15th

Lewisham

0

6

16th

Camden

5

5

16th

Richmond

0

5

17th

Bexley

0

4

17th

Hillingdon

0

4

18th

Barnet

0

3

18th

Bromley

0

3

18th

Islington

 

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