That's A Wrap! 2025 At The Junction

As we enter 2026, here at The Junction BID, we’re excited to continue developing initiatives that support local businesses and enhance our vibrant community. 

With a new year upon us, we thought it a perfect time to reflect on the past 12 months and how, through communication, marketing, safety, and community engagement, we’ve worked to promote Clapham Junction as more than just a station — showcasing it as a standout destination. Join us as we take a virtual stroll through the past year…

EVENTS & FESTIVALS

In 2025, Wandsworth embarked on a year-long celebration of culture, creativity, and community, with the official launch of The Mayor’s London Borough of Culture 2025.

This provided a great opportunity for the business community in The Junction BID to showcase the area as a vibrant and welcoming place to eat, drink, shop, visit, entertain, work and live. Key events funded by The Junction BID included…

The Northcote Road Summer Festival

This annual festival – sponsored by The Junction BID – returned bigger and better on 13 July, attracting an estimated 15,000 people across the day and delivering a FREE fun-filled day for the whole family, packed full of live entertainment, plus more than 50 stalls offering street food and unique arts and crafts. And, once again, our big screen broadcast the Wimbledon Championships Finals. 

With a captive audience of thousands of visitors, it was a perfect opportunity for all businesses across Clapham Junction Town Centre to promote offers and deals and gain greater visibility during the weekend.

The Lavender Hill Festival: Infusion of Culture

In September, the first Lavender Hill Festival – sponsored by The Junction BID – took place inside and alongside Battersea Arts Centre, the cultural heartbeat for arts and entertainment in Clapham Junction. Celebrating an infusion of culture, it was a free, fun-filled day packed with live music, dance and fashion showcases, storytelling, activities for kids, and food and craft stalls, attracting approximately 1,000 visitors.

The Christmas Lights Switch-On

Christmas officially kicked off in Clapham Junction on Friday, 21st November with our annual Christmas Lights Switch-On event. It was an evening of festive entertainment around the spectacular Christmas tree, located on the corner of Northcote Road and Abyssinia Road. Local schools, Belleville Primary School, Dolphin School, Park Gate House School and Wandsworth Preparatory School sang along Northcote Road, with a grand finale on the stage on Abyssinia Road, culminating in the lights being switched on by the Mayor of Wandsworth, Cllr Jeremy Ambache. The evening also saw special performances from Archer Street SW11 and Battersea Arts Centre.

Christmas Advent Calendar Elf Trail

In December, The Junction BID Advent Calendar Trail offered free fun for all the family, inviting them to discover 24 naughty elves who were hidden on the shelves of businesses around Clapham Junction. The campaign received 43,868 views on social media.

Networking Events 

Throughout the year, we worked with local businesses to offer several business networking opportunities, including:

• International Women’s Day (IWD) Networking Event
• Barclays Bank Networking Event
• Hospitality Networking Event, promoted by Lightspeed

SAFE & WELCOMING

As part of our mission to provide a cleaner, safer and more welcoming environment, we continued to work with Wandsworth Council, the Metropolitan Police, British Transport Police, local agencies and businesses to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour. This included…

BID Security

The Junction BID contracts two uniformed security officers, Monday to Saturday (from 9:30 am to 6:00 pm), to liaise directly with BID businesses, identify anti-social behaviour, share local intelligence, and help profile prolific shoplifters using DISC.

During 2025, our BID Security Team handled hundreds of enquiries, sharing crucial information via the Wandsworth Business Against Crime portal, which is regularly reviewed with the Police and Council’s Community Safety Team.

In May, as part of Operation Slaven (a team of officers focused on reducing retail crime in Wandsworth for a minimum of twelve weeks), BID Security worked closely with the Police by sharing intelligence of known offenders and hot spots for retail crime, and were able to successfully apprehend two males shortly after committing a significant theft in Boots on St John’s Road.

In June, we joined several proactive policing initiatives in the town centre. Notably, a passive drug dog operation at Clapham Junction Train Station – led by British Transport Police.

Throughout the year, we continued to work closely with several agencies to address the impact of homelessness and street begging. Where appropriate, we were able to speak to and refer several homeless people to homeless charities – SPEAR and Streetlink – to connect with support services, and we identified and reported persistent street begging to the police.

BID Workshops

In 2025, we organised a series of workshops to offer business owners, managers, or security staff the chance to discuss shared issues, exchange best practices on combating retail crime and learn about new Police initiatives addressing under-reporting of crime, street begging, and anti-social behaviour.

• Protecting Businesses From Cyber Crime
• Nightime Economy Networking Event
• Safer Neighbourhoods Drop-In Session

Wandsworth Council Retail Radio Scheme

The Wandsworth Retail Radio Scheme is a collaborative initiative designed to bolster the safety and security of businesses across the borough. This subscription service connects businesses directly to Wandsworth Council’s Joint Control Centre and the Metropolitan Police using advanced digital radios.

Ahead of the rollout, The Junction BID Security Team and Executive BID Manager tested the radios for signal coverage and ease of use. The Junction BID is now fully integrated into the network, ensuring seamless coordination throughout Clapham Junction.

Wandsworth Safe Haven Scheme

As part of the Council’s commitment to ensuring that Wandsworth is a safe borough for everyone, the Community Safety Service worked with local businesses to establish Safe Havens across the borough, providing places of safety for anyone feeling intimidated, harassed, unwell or just in need of some help. Participating BID Businesses include Battersea Arts Centre, Battersea Library, MEATliquor, Oddono's, Northcote Library, and Northcote Records.

Safer Business Action Week (SaBA)

In November, we invited BID businesses to participate in this initiative, introduced by The National Business Crime Centre (NBCC) as part of the ongoing police and partnership response to tackling retail crime, anti-social behaviour and other crimes impacting businesses in local communities.

A Welcoming Environment

Working with Enable earlier in the year, we coordinated the lights in the trees along St John's Hill to be removed to allow the bi-annual pruning to take place. This helps to maintain tree shape and allows for misshapen and dead branches to be removed, leaving the trees healthier and tidier.

As part of our efforts to make our locale an attractive and inviting place for locals and visitors alike, we worked with local businesses and Wandsworth Council to ensure graffiti was removed, as part of the Council’s free graffiti removal scheme. 

In July, we invited BID restaurants, pubs, cafes and food market traders to register for a one-to-one session with a business advisor from ReLondon, to explore how ‘beyond waste’ ideas could benefit their businesses and our environment. This initiative also offered participating businesses the opportunity to apply for a grant of up to £5,000. 

In December, we were delighted to see the completion and launch of the Falcon Road Bridge rejuvenation project. The new underpass creates a safer and brighter route for pedestrians and a more welcoming gateway to our local business community.

MARKETING & PROMOTION

Using a full mix of marketing tools, we worked to attract footfall and customer spend by showcasing Clapham Junction as more than a station, highlighting it as a standout destination. Marketing initiatives included…

Website: visitclaphamjunction.com

The BID website – visitclaphamjunction.com – continued to serve as a central information hub for consumers with a comprehensive business directory, event information, local offers, and informative blogs and news updates, as well as important resources for BID Businesses.

2025 saw almost 126K sessions and over 234K page views with above industry average performance on visits to the business directory, events, offers and blog sections. Notable content highlights in 2025 included The Northcote Road Summer Festival, Christmas in Clapham Junction and Your Guide to The Lavender Hill Festival campaign pages. 

Businesses actively shared 123 marketing updates and benefited from almost £21k return on investment with listings and blogs. Participating businesses included: 

• Food & Drink: Archer Street, Azteca, Black Sheep Coffee, Costa Coffee, Kibou, La Mia Mamma, Folde, Franco Manca, MEATLiquor, Northcote Records, Patty and Bun, Pepe’s, Pizza Express, Pottery Café, Rosa’s Thai, Sugar Cane Bar, The Ivy, The Goat, The Humble Grape, The Northcote, The Thieves, Zambrero
• Shopping: Clarks, EE, Flying Tiger, Headmasters, Made the Edit, MORI, Palmer, Ryman
• Health & Wellbeing: 12 Rounds Boxing, Headmasters, Milo and the Bull, Laser Clinics, Sadhana Yoga, Oh My Cream!
• Professional Services: Battersea Library

Social Media

We continued to use Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn to engage with businesses and the wider community, to share timely and informative updates and behind-the-scenes video footage, always working to expand audience reach and encourage clicks to the website. In the last year, via social media, we’ve had over 16.87 million views with a reach of 1.71 million.  

Newsletters

Our monthly consumer newsletter was delivered to circa 1.3K subscribers, further promoting events, offers and news, promoting Clapham Junction as a destination location.

Our B2B newsletter provided levy-paying businesses with project updates, important safety and security updates, business tips and resources, and spotlighted local businesses and success stories.

The Junction BID Business Strategy

In March, we published a document which sets out our mission, vision and business strategy, and how we’ll ensure our BID businesses are placed front and centre of all that we do as a Business Improvement District. This document can be viewed here…

BID Business Survey

In May, we surveyed BID levy payers to gather feedback on our progress after the first full year of our second BID term, and we are delighted to share that the respondents rated their satisfaction with our efforts at 4.3 out of 5. The results confirm that, in this new term, the BID has grown as a purpose-driven organisation that champions, represents, and actively supports local businesses.

Clapham Junction…More than a station, we’re a destination!

In July, following on from the publication of The Junction BID Business Strategy Document, we launched our new strapline and promotional video.

This strapline was developed to support our overarching mission as The Junction BID – to position Clapham Junction a standout destination, which includes providing a cleaner, safe and more welcoming environment, along with raising the profile of our locale with its unparalleled transport connections, distinctive blend of bustling retail, diverse hospitality, and essential service businesses, a lively nighttime economy, inviting green spaces, and excellent local schools. 

Free Business Health Check

In November, we partnered with SaveTheHighStreet.org and HelloThriver.com to offer a limited number of free business health checks to local businesses in Clapham Junction, providing them with a comprehensive report on how the business is performing in Marketing, Sales, Finance and Brand – the four key areas every high street business needs to get right.

B2B Offers

Last year, we encouraged our BID businesses to share offers with other local businesses via our targeted B2B Bulletins, in an effort to help increase footfall and sales. Participants included The Clapham Grand, The Thieves and La Mia Mamma.

THE YEAR AHEAD

2025 was a busy year, and we’re looking forward to an equally busy and exciting 2026, full of initiatives which support our BID businesses and promote Clapham Junction as a standout destination!

In the meantime, we’d like to thank all the local workers, residents and visitors who have supported our BID business community over the past year. We hope you’ll continue to show your support in 2026!

With best wishes,

Gary Burt

Executive BID Manager, The Junction BID