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What makes a ‘Creative City’? The literature suggests that there are often conflicting accounts as to what the reality of the cultural and creative production is in cities, what their images are in terms of their cultural consumption and how they stimulate the cultural and creative capital of their citizens. This paper, inspired by Hall (2004), highlights how so far our understanding of the ‘Creative City’ has been fragmented and problematic in England by looking at data and measures of both creative production and consumption in two English cities – Birmingham and Newcastle-Gateshead. The authors call for a more holistic approach which takes into account not only the presence of creative industries and creative workers but also the level of cultural consumption and participation occurring in cities and the relationship between the two.