‘To see the city in black and white is to see it through the tarnish of history: the patina of what is old and faded and no longer matters to the rest of the world.’ (Orhan Pamuk, ‘Istanbul: Memories of a city.’P38) Continue reading Newcastle: ‘the richest club in the world’
Which beautiful Abbey is a short distance away at the opposite end of the street from this beautiful industrial era configuration? Continue reading Beauty in the eye of the beholder…
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Which beautiful Abbey is a short distance away at the opposite end of the street from this beautiful industrial era configuration? Continue reading Beauty in the eye of the beholder…
Do you have a favourite map showing literary associations? “a map ‘has to use shorthand, or symbols, or metaphor, and in this it resembles poetry’” [1] ‘If I’m not really going anywhere, then travel by map of course provides the only possible route – everywhere, to nowhere in particular…buried treasure, lost continents and phantom islands…Maps are guilty of distortion, it’s true, but I forgive them … Continue reading Maps as poetry
Last night I listened to Kevin Boniface in his delivery van as he explored his everyday experiences in his own unique style. Good fun and thoughtful. Between the Ears – Species of Spaces – BBC Sounds Continue reading Huddersfield postman’s inspiration from the ordinary
Orwell in Southwold by Ronald Binns: A visitor would be forgiven for leaving the town without the faintest idea that it was George Orwell’s childhood home. Significant characters from Orwell’s time in Southwold later appear in his writing as vagrants, or the tortured… Continue reading Orwell in Southwold
Hardly an ordinary place but Priestley is quite brilliant and I couldn’t resist. ‘…the buildings have shape and solidity but no weight, they hang in the air like places in the Arabian Nights… a Gothic fairy tale…all the glimpses of ancient loveliness are there…’ Continue reading Morning in the City: JB Priestley
Who says nothing ever happens in Goole? Goole comedian Ian Smith wouldn’t agree. Catch his series of 8 minute videos on the culture and history of Goole (and discover more about Tom Puddings…). Continue reading Goole Dock
What must the American tourists be thinking as they wait at Halifax station? The train’s late, nowhere to sit, passengers hang around looking washed out, and the platform needs a spring clean and lick of paint. On the other hand, on the sandstone wall across from platform 2 there’s a poster advertising Shakespear’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ at the Viaduct Theatre. Parents shout at their … Continue reading ‘These days our hometowns are often more exotic and full of new curiosity than Timbuktu or Easter Island’ *
Maybe Bradford Interchange is not the blight on the spirit that it thinks it is. Continue reading What Ship is This?
Stuart Maconie in Adventures on the High Teas (2009) has this to say about the North: … the worst of the North, who bang on about it being God’s Country. It isn’t. There is no God’s Country. Unless it all is. Or unless it’s Einstein’s Country. Merely coming from the north per se is nothing to be proud of. You have to do something, go … Continue reading The North is not God’s Country
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Welcome to my blog. I’m the editor and new to this sort of writing, off the cuff, in the moment. I’m going to enjoy writing it. I hope you enjoy reading it. placesandculturaltraces.com is at heart a desire to link our past to our present. The dominance of the industrial era, for this country at least, appears to be over – for now. As industries … Continue reading Cultural Traces from Ordinary Places
Places and Cultural Traces 