ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the construction of a place that has been central to discourses of creativity, London, by thinking about the relationship between place and policy. It argues that understanding creative industries requires not just an understanding of place but also an understanding of the intersections of policy, practice and the built environment, appropriately historicised. The chapter focuses on C. Paulsen and W. Freudenberg approach, incorporating the focus of the intersection of objects, governance techniques and discourses. The creative city is the assembly of state actions, court judgments, social norms and material practices, such as the building of walls. It illustrates the long gestation of the act of labelling as part of the demarcation associated with identifying South Bank as a creative place. South Bank's status as the creative other to the City was eventually questioned as the Puritans banned performing on the stage in 1642 and theatres across London were closed down.
