Mayor to help fund London's 'string of pearls'

KEN LIVINGSTONE is to help fund the opening up of some of London's most famous buildings to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee next year.

In a follow-up to the String of Pearls Millennium Festival, historic buildings along the Thames from Greenwich to Kew including Westminster Abbey, the Foreign Office, the Royal Courts of Justice and Eton College will be open to the public.

Declaring Transport for London's 60,000 support for the yearlong event, the Mayor said: "I am delighted with the whole concept. It opens up our river, it opens the wonderful history of the buildings on our river and it opens the potential for so much extra pleasure and recreation in our city."

Transport for London will also fund a leaflet and poster campaign publicising the String of Pearls Golden Jubilee Festival on the capital's Tubes, buses and trains, which, it is hoped, will also encourage Londoners to use public transport.

Director of London String of Pearls, Dylan Hammond, today welcomed the Mayor's support. He said: "We are delighted that Mr Livingstone has decided to support the event in this way. It is mutually beneficial; the poster campaign will get people visiting the buildings but also using public transport to do so."

Organisers estimate that last year's festival attracted two million visitors and promise that next year's festival will be "bigger and better". The Prince of Wales has already agreed to become patron of the event.

Mr Hammond, added: "The institutions will all be offering something special to visitors, something which explains what they do and also throws light on their royal connections.

"There are fantastic places in London which people never get to see and we wanted to find a way to open them up.

They are our public institutions. They belong to us. We pay for them and we should know what they do.

"Our aim is to build a bridge between these conservative institutions and all sections of our society.

It's about helping people to feel that they belong."

With this in mind, there will be a concerted effort to involve what organisers call "socially excluded groups" to take part in the event. A programme of community arts projects bringing together the institutions with schools and community groups is one of the initiatives planned.

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