New images of Northampton enter Historic England archive

Since September 2022, people across England have been responding to an online national call out to submit their photographs of the high street on Instagram under the hashtag #PicturingHighStreets.

Now, these 204 winning photographs have entered the Historic England Archive – the nation’s archive for England’s historic buildings, archaeology and social history – alongside 173 new images taken as part of local projects with resident artists on high streets.

In the Midlands, new images of Coventry and Derby taken by resident artists, in collaboration with communities, have been added to the archive. They join winning images taken by members of the public featuring high streets in Northampton and Leicester.

The Historic England Archive holds one of the largest and most significant aerial photography collections in Europe, alongside other major collections of national importance, including archaeology, architecture, social and local history. The collections include over 14 million photographs, drawings, plans, documents and publications from the 1850s to the present day, covering the whole country. Over one and a half million records and nearly 650,000 images are available to be searched online.

Instagram Call Out invited the public to share their images

Themed fortnightly challenges, from “high street hang outs” to “bright lights to dark nights”, invited and inspired the public to share their images and views of their local high streets across the country. To date, #picturinghighstreets has over 10,500 posts from the public and there have been over 13,877 engagements with the Picturing High Streets Instagram channel.

In Northampton, Robert Boler said of their photograph, DIWALI: “Diwali begins with brightly lit floats and people carrying colourful lanterns & candles. Revellers dance & sing. It’s a spectacular morale-boost for the town centre.”

Picturing High Streets has been a partnership between Historic England and Photoworks, helping to build a contemporary picture of England’s high streets through mass public participation and community engagement. It has revealed how important the high street can be as a space for people to come together and connect.

The Picturing High Streets call out and exhibition marks the final year of Historic England’s High Streets Cultural Programme and the £95 million High Streets Heritage Action Zones Programme which has been revitalising more than 60 high streets across England.

Taking place in more than 60 high streets across England, and receiving £7.4 million from UK Treasury, Arts Council England and National Lottery Heritage Fund, it’s the largest ever community-led arts and heritage programme.

Duncan Wilson, Historic England Chief Executive, said: “We were overwhelmed by the amazing responses from the public and artists to our call out for photographs of high streets across England. 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. This new national collection is a truly brilliant historic record of high streets today for generations to come.”

Louise Fedotov-Clements, Photoworks Director, said: “This incredible and ground-breaking national programme has 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. Created in collaboration with Historic England alongside England’s leading photography organisations we have worked together with artists, communities and the public through socially engaged residencies and mass participation. We are very proud of the range, depth and historical significance of the images that have been created and that will now enter the Historic England Archive.