Heritage Trail

In 2005 I was asked to facilitate an Art Project to celebrate a Methodist's Churchs' Centenary. Many people in the locality were upset about the changes on Princes Avenue. Much loved local shops over the years closed, the whole area changed into wine bars and eateries and the focus became on the night life for people outside of the area.  I wanted to celebrate all that the Avenue had been in the living memory of the local people and try to give the Avenue back to them.

The whole of the Avenue was photographed early one morning and the photos joined together to make the street. Originally I had tags hanging off each dwelling/shop listing from archives who had lived or sold from the premises. People had to lift the tag to be able to read the list to check if I'd found the name of the shop they remembered. There were gaps, which I hoped people would fill in from living memory. I was privy to many stories and memories from all age groups which was a great delight. I found pictures from the 1900s and the 1930s showing the shops and street life, shots of old public transport, bombed buildings from the war and so on, invoking memories for the people who had lived there all their lives.  The archive I created has been borrowed and reused a number of times, more recently the brand new Hull History Centre also made use of it. The blow ups that they did are pressed into service for Hulls Heritage trail weekend where they on display again at Artlink's lovely new premises on Princes Avenue.The tiny old premises can be seen on the right of the second picture. Tomorrow as part of the Heritage weekend I will be doing a Mega map making workshop drop in for the children there.