“Join us on a stroll through streets full of linen stories, exploring heritage and contemporary design as we walk and talk.”
Sounds great to me, and it sparked new conversations about the role history & heritage, the buildings, people and their stories, can play in our tackling #highstreet vacancy work today.
So “Welcome to Dunfermline (along with Cupar and Kirkcaldy), one of Fife’s three premiere Linen Towns.”
We spotted the linen references out & about on our first ‘audit’ of town centre empty units here, including the stunning ‘ghost sign’ featured in our lead image.
As ever when we start thinking history & heritage on these trips we’re wondering how much of a part it can play in taking on those vacants.
Options – in general, not specifically here – might include…
- Opening a mini-museum to focus on part of your history. It doesn’t need be a full-scale museum, it could focus on just one era or story even;
- Creating a new archive centre;
- Hosting an exhibition or display of old photographs in an empty shop or maybe just in its windows. Images of your #retail and #hospitality businesses in days gone by are always popular;
- Using a town centre space for workshops or classes on an historical theme, maybe with an arts & crafts element.
And beyond those taking on space opportunities, themes and characters from your place past can help with…
- New sculpture or art installations featuring famous residents or their stories;
- Murals, mosaics, street, wall and shutter art;
- A new history or heritage-focused event.
What am I missing…?
It’d be great to hear how you are making use of place history and heritage today…?
