Uploaded January 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Picturing High Streets was a 3-year partnership between Historic England and photography champions @photoworks_uk, who worked with 9 regional partner photography organisations to create a contemporary picture of England’s high streets.
Picturing High Streets had two parts: photographers in residence and a mass public participation project.
From 2020 to 2023, resident photographers in Bristol, Chester, Coventry, Leicester, Prescot, Stoke-on-Trent and London spent time with local communities to create snapshots of how the high street is used and who it is used by.
From 2022 to 2023, people across England responded to a national call out on Instagram to submit their photographs of high streets using the hashtag #PicturingHighStreets. Over 10,500 photographs were posted, from portraits and street photography, to artistic interpretations and black and white scenes.
Photographs from the public and artists toured across the country in outdoor exhibitions on show in London, Derby, Bristol, Hastings, Middlesbrough, Prescot, Norwich, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent and Walsall. The exhibition reached over 1.1 million people.
#PicturingHighStreets
Find out more: historicengland.org.uk/picturinghighstreets
Picturing High Streets was a 3-year partnership between Historic England and photography champions @photoworks_uk, who worked with 9 regional partner photography organisations to create a contemporary picture of England’s high streets.
Picturing High Streets had two parts: photographers in residence and a mass public participation project.
From 2020 to 2023, resident photographers in Bristol, Chester, Coventry, Leicester, Prescot, Stoke-on-Trent and London spent time with local communities to create snapshots of how the high street is used and who it is used by.
From 2022 to 2023, people across England responded to a national call out on Instagram to submit their photographs of high streets using the hashtag #PicturingHighStreets. Over 10,500 photographs were posted, from portraits and street photography, to artistic interpretations and black and white scenes.
Photographs from the public and artists toured across the country in outdoor exhibitions on show in London, Derby, Bristol, Hastings, Middlesbrough, Prescot, Norwich, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent and Walsall. The exhibition reached over 1.1 million people.
#PicturingHighStreets
Find out more: historicengland.org.uk/picturinghighstreets
