Twickenham businesses hosted Diwali themed events across the high street to celebrate the festival of light and to attract families into the town centre to support businesses.
Discover Twickenham Business Improvement District (BID), a not-for-profit association of 350 local businesses, helped sponsor these events on Sunday 19 October.
Martin Goldthorpe, 60, who is the manager of Discover Twickenham BID, said the organisation sponsors these events because: “It brings people into town and restaurants, like Namaste Village, get to promote their business.”
When asked why the Diwali events were popular in Twickenham, Goldthorpe responded: “It’s a family event, it’s kids entertainment.
“There’s also a huge south Asian community within the catchment area.”
Indian restaurant Tsaretta Spice, offered free Diwali snacks such as onion bhajis and samosas whilst Namaste Village, another Indian restaurant located on York Street, offered free Indian sweets.
Diwali events didn’t stop at Twickenham’s restaurants. Patch, a co-working space on York Street, held various free events for children and parents including face-painting and a Bollywood kids’ disco.
Koa Kids, a tutoring service, held a free Rangoli bookmark station for children and Crusader Travel, an independent travel agency on Church Street, hosted an Indian travel event.
Foreign Stones, a tile showroom, held a diya candle holder painting event. The owner, Sandrine Singh, 30, who is also chair of Discover Twickenham BID, told the SW Londoner that it was important to celebrate Diwali.
Singh said: “It’s nice for everyone to understand other cultures — my husband is Indian Punjabi and I do love to explore the tradition more and the culture.”
Mariam Khan, 41, who has been in the UK since 2018, said that this was her first time celebrating Diwali in the UK.
Khan said: “I used to live in the UAE and I would celebrate Diwali with my Hindu friends.
“I’m just so happy that after so many years I’m actually here doing something.”
Discover Twickenham BID has been sponsoring Diwali events for the past five years alongside other celebrations to support the development of the town centre and its businesses.
The organisation will sponsor this year’s Christmas lights on Friday 21 November.
The charity’s efforts reflect a wider push across London to prevent the loss of high street businesses. In July of this year, The Mayor of London announced that 12 London boroughs would each receive £50,000 to help regenerate their high streets, including Surbiton town centre in Kingston-upon-Thames.
Photo credit: Sofia Brooke
