[gutnor]

Also, silicon roundabout is at 5 min walking distance of the heart of the city of London, so any kind of success would have priced them out. The council is doing what their own success would have been doing in a few years.

It would have required tremendous effort by the government to maintain the right balance of cheap business place and accommodation required to let the community survive. 100 meters away from one of the world finance capital ( and only sector still working in the UK ) that's an impossible challenge.

You cannot bootstrap a startup community too close to such location. You need some room for the community to create a culture and some momentum.

[gaius]

We have had a lot of Silicon-whatsits in the UK. Silicon Fen in Cambridgeshire and Silicon Glen somewhere in Scotland. There's a big electronics scene in Bristol.

Tho' this is something that it's impossible for governments to do, really, all the money will be creamed off by "advisers" and "consultants", small companies given impossible bureaucratic hoops to jump through, etc. The best thing the government can do is just take a step back.

Or my pet harebrained scheme: resurrect the original Acorn Archimedes and buy a million of then, requiring that all govt departments use indigenous British computing technology...

[ses]

Acorn machines were great.... ah happy days. The A3010s with their stylish green function keys!

On a serious note, I dispute that government can't have a positive impact in stimulating the technology industry in the UK. In fact if we held on to more manufacturing businesses (through state-ownership, tax cuts etc.) we'd have a more diverse and robust economy. But the current government's so called schemes to foster business and innovation are typical of this administration - there's little substance to them at all. And successive British governments have failed to truly work with businesses and really listen to their needs rather than launching grand initiatives without prior consultation to real business owners.

[pjc50]

Could you describe the electronics scene in Bristol? That sounds interesting.

RiscOS will run on the Raspberry Pi (made in Wales) if that counts :)

[pgeorgi]

Moving the UK govt to Archimedes would certainly slow down GCHQ for a while.

[duncanawoods]

I agree that startups in central London is pretty daft. Bit like choosing Manhattan with good views of the park.

I like Bristol. 90 mins from the big smoke, decent airport and railway hub, more chilled and counter-culture than South/South-East, closer to countryside, climbing and surfing. Has a history of new and high-tech like chip fabs and renewables. Oh and its not the North :)

[adwf]

I second Bristol as a recommendation. Great city, good university, decent rents and a long history of great engineering. They could call it Silicon Hill...

[vidarh]

There's some effort going on in Croydon (that's South London, and one of the cheapest parts of London for those of you not in the UK): http://croydontechcity.com/ (heh - just noticed I'm in one of the pics on their site)

They run regular event to try to pull together a startup community, and it's extremely well attended, to the point where they've had to restrict numbers for some of the meetings. It'll be interesting to see what comes out of it - it's only been going for a year or so, but seems to be growing rapidly and it does seem like there's an increasing number of actual startups rather than just people talking about it.

Croydon, despite its reputation has the advantage of lots of cheap low grade office space (though the cheapest stuff in the main business district is gradually being demolished to create space for new high grade expensive high rises, but there are also a couple of "retail parks" in the midst of a sea of cheap office buildings and warehouses a few minutes walk/bus out of the town centre), there's at least one local data centre from a good provider, and it's very well connected to central London and the South coast.