Residents’ high street photos added to Historic England Archive

Photos of high streets taken by people across the country have been added to the Historic England Archive.

Pictures taken in Bedfordshire, Norfolk, Essex and Suffolk were included in the 377-strong collection.

In September, members of the public were asked to submit shots for consideration using Instagram and competitions were launched in other areas.

The final collection documents a year in the life of the English high street.

Ten of the images were selected from the Picturing Norwich competition where members of the public submitted more than 100 images of the city’s high street.

Three winning, and seven runner-up, images were also selected to be displayed as part of the Picturing High Streets exhibition at The Forum in Norwich during summer 2023.

Over 10,500 posts were made by the public using the relevant hashtag: #picturinghighstreets.

Some participants submitted images fortnightly in response to themed challenges which included “high street hang outs” and “bright lights to dark nights”.

The Historic England Archive contains photographs, drawings and publications of national importance.

Collections focus on archelogy, architecture and social history.

Over 14 million photographs and other documents are included in the archive with over 650,000 images available to search online.

Duncan Wilson, Historic England chief executive, said: “This new national collection is a truly brilliant historic record of high streets today for generations to come.

“Through contemporary photography, people have captured what makes high streets such special places for social connection, revealed the histories hidden behind shopfronts and celebrated the communities that are keeping them alive today.”

Picturing High Streets was a partnership between Historic England and charity Photoworks.

Photoworks director, Louise Fedotov-Clements, said the project “produced a truly unique and important photographic representation of the high street”.

“The works highlight a diversity of views featuring the places, people, histories and activities that help us to understand our dynamic relationship to, and the importance of, the high street today.”