Lewisham wins Twitter’s World Cup of London boroughs

World Cup of London boroughs league table

World Cup of London boroughs league table. Pic: @Zone1Bracket

Lewisham has beaten Lambeth to be crowned the winner of the ‘World Cup of London boroughs’.

Lewisham won with 56 percent of the vote, with over 10,000 people voting in the final.

The competition, which concluded on March 22, has been putting each of the 32 boroughs in London against each other with polling being held on Twitter.

Voters were given the choice of two boroughs for each poll. But there was no criteria to judge against, turning the vote into a simple measure of their popularity on Twitter.

Following the announcement of the results, Lewisham Council said: “Lewisham has won the London World Cup of boroughs. Thanks to everyone who has backed Lewisham.”

@Zone1Bracket, the Twitter account that has been running the ‘World Cup of London boroughs’, started the competition on February 19.

Their aim was to find out the public’s favourite of the 32 London boroughs. Each round saw two areas pitted against each other, with Twitter users voting for the one they wanted to advance to the next stage of the competition.

Once advancing through the first round of 32, the 16 winning boroughs would face off again to reduce the numbers to eight, then four, and then the final two.

Lewisham pushed past Southwark, Camden, Hackney and Islington to reach the final against Lambeth.

Despite a narrow victory against Southwark, winning by just 7 votes, Lewisham saw some major victories, with their largest against Camden, with over 66 percent of the vote.

Hugo Marrow, who has been running the event and the Twitter account, has been shocked by the community involvement that has come from something he started as a joke.

“The account was set up as a World Cup of Zone 1 Tube Stations, but following the conclusion of that, I changed the purpose of the account.

Firstly, to Zone 2 Tube Stations, then to London boroughs. I maintain that the polls are just a bit of fun – certainly they hold no real weight except in a tongue in cheek discussion.”

This is not the first time a ‘World Cup’ of things has been held on Twitter, as Marrow said: “The World Cup of London boroughs was originally inspired by Richard Osman’s ‘World Cup of biscuits’ and Geoff Marshall’s ‘World Cup of tube lines’.”

The polling attracted lots of attention in the final rounds, with each vote receiving thousands of views and even members of the local government getting involved.

In a response to the final poll, Sir Steve Bullock, Mayor of Lewisham, said: “I’ve just spent the evening sitting next to the leader of Lambeth council, Councillor Lib Peck, who seemed very confident that Lambeth would overhaul Lewisham’s early lead.”

Vicky Foxcroft, the MP for Deptford, also showed her support: “I’m delighted that Lewisham is in @Zone1Bracket’s final for best London borough (still time to Vote Lewisham!).”

Cllr Joe Dromey's response to the Lewisham win

Councillor Joe Dromey’s response to the Lewisham win. Pic: @Joe_Dromey

Although Lewisham won the competition, the three other EastLondonLines boroughs fared well, with each of them at least making it into the second round.

Both Croydon and Tower Hamlets lost in their second-round polls, to Islington and Lambeth respectively. Hackney received more votes than Waltham Forest to reach the Quarter Finals.

In the quarter finals, it would be Hackney versus Lewisham, with a final count of 2,021 votes, and Lewisham winning with 63 percent of the vote.

This was not much of a surprise given the large turnout that has occurred in nearly every poll involving the Lewisham borough, which helped in securing the overall victory for the borough.

Now that the competition has come to an end, there are plans in the future to hold another round of polling, focusing on either Great British cities or the best ice cream flavours.

Check out the @Zone1Bracket Twitter account for any future polling.

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