Sense of Place – A Photo Essay
Humans are born with emotions, therefore there are chances that we can have an emotional bond with places we are familiar with. Places can range from our home to another nation which includes all particular locations and environments people can experience. Whenever someone is visiting a place for the first time, they would tend to explore around the place due to a feeling of excitement and anxiety. So if they are able to enjoy the environment and build up a positive emotion around it, there will be a high possibility that they will revisit the place in future. Returning to the place can then create more memories for people to have a better connection with that place, therefore it has more meaning behind it. As a result of people returning to the place, it would lead to a sense of place being created. Sense of place can also be used to describe the uniqueness of a particular area or region. Sense of place is therefore usually a positive feeling of a combination of comfort and safety. At the same time, people can have a feeling of placelessness when they have negative experiences in particular places. Hence it is important for planners and architects to design and create a place of comfort. Sense of place can be found from any pieces in the place and the environment including small things such as seating or even just a path. People would start to appreciate their surroundings once they understand the concept behind sense of place (Jagannath, 2018) (Foote & Azaryahu, 2009).
Street names are one way that a sense of place can be given to a location. In some locations, ‘streets were typically named after landmarks […], topographic features […] or location’. (Wonderopolis, 2021). Some street names can also act as ‘a physical marker of history’ (Ross, 2019) by being named after events that have happened in that location in the past. By naming a street after the history that has happened in that location or has led to its creation, it can help people to associate a sense of place with that location through their ‘engagement in [the] history itself [as well as] the historic environment’ (Graham et al., 2009, p.27) as they are able to learn more about the location they are in. Street names also allow people to see how locations are connected to other places through their history which ‘provides [an] insight into the ways in which people perceive themselves as part of larger systems’ (Kolodziejski, 2014, p.282).
Milton Keynes was built during the 1960s and was designed as an overflow town for London as the population in the capital city was rising too quickly for the housing market there to keep up with the demand (Cawley, 2017). In Milton Keynes, a lot of roads are named after streets and places that are located in boroughs that are in or close to central London. For example, there is a street named Ladbroke Grove in Milton Keynes that is named after the road Ladbroke Grove in central London. This gives Milton Keynes a sense of place as it helps to show the history of why the town was created and its connection to London. As many people moved away from London to live in Milton Keynes, having streets named after places in London helped people to have a connection between the two locations.
Lan Kwai Fong, the most well-known bar street, is located between Wyndham Street and Hong Kong’s popular D’Aguilar Street. Following Allan Zeman’s decision to replace his block in Lan Kwai Fong between 2011 and 2015, a major transformation occurred. As a result, a significant portion of Lan Kwai Fong has been turned into a construction zone. The crowds for the duration of special events such as Halloween or New Year’s Eve placed the vicinity at a literal standstill with the massive numbers. Another major characteristic that makes Lan Kwai Fong so well-known is due to the Hong Kong Beer Festival, which is held within the street. Lan Kwai Fong attracted many people, either local people or foreigners, who love the lively atmosphere (Trip, 2019).
I chose Coventry and Birmingham images, as I have been staying in England for a while and have got to know about the culture of Birmingham and Coventry. Everyone got attracted by the many people and different types of streets. The cultural strategy aims to recognise and expand the opportunities that exist for residents to engage with, experience and enjoy the arts and heritage that surround them in all of their variety. Coventry has a proud city-wide culture of being welcoming and a reputation for being a place of peace and reconciliation. Every street has its own history and tells a lot about a place. Birmingham’s cultural diversity is reflected in the arts: the city is the centre of the Asian music industry, the United Kingdom’s centre for Garage Music and the base for the UK’s first South Asian Music Performance and Dance company. England always has a crowded and lively atmosphere, if we talk about other countries like India, the culture and history of the United Kingdom is very different and very unique compared to other countries and every image shows a sense of place in the United Kingdom.
When town planners and local councils are working together to plan and design new housing areas or to change aspects of a location, they often choose street names that relate to the history of that location as they want them to be based on certain desired traits they want people to associate with the neighborhood’ (Wonderopolis, 2021). As a result of this planning process, the sense of place is ‘shape[d in] a neighborhood even before the first home has been built’ (Wonderopolis, 2021).
To conclude, we all took different images in different places of the United Kingdom and Hong Kong to describe a sense of place. The location by itself describes the sense of place. We also included the history of the streets to analyse the images and the sense of place that is created through this. All streets of the United Kingdom and Hong Kong have a different sense of place and can describe the particular area with every street name, therefore, people can get attracted to learn more about the location.
Bibliography –
Cawley, L. (2017). Milton Keynes: The middle-aged new town. BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-38594140
Foote, K.E. and Azaryahu, M. (2009) Sense of Place[online]available from <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780080449104009986> [3 April 2021]
Graham, H., Mason, R., & Newman, A. (2009). Historic Environment, Sense of Place and Social Capital. Historic England. https://historicengland.org.uk/content/heritage-counts/pub/sense_of_place_lit_review_web1-pdf/
Jagannath, T., (2018). What is Sense of Place?. [online] Medium. available from <https://medium.com/interviews-and-articles-on-art-public-spaces/what-is-sense-of-place-cd749f924712> [3 April 2021].
Kolodziejski, A. (2014). Connecting People and Place: Sense of Place and Local Action. University of Manchester. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/files/54555531/FULL_TEXT.PDF
Morollo, M.K. (2019). The Secret Stories Behind Hong Kong’s Street Names [online]available from <https://theculturetrip.com/asia/china/hong-kong/articles/the-stories-behind-10-hong-kong-street-names/> [1 April 2021]
Ross, E. (2019). Why the name of your street is a sign of the times – and what to do about it. The Correspondent. https://thecorrespondent.com/133/why-the-name-of-your-street-is-a-sign-of-the-times-and-what-to-do-about-it/144873575000-a27bcf63
South China Morning Post. (2014) Ask Mr. Know-It-All: Why does everyone go to Pottinger Street for their costumes?. [online] available from <https://www.scmp.com/magazines/hk-magazine/article/2036586/ask-mr-know-it-all-why-does-everyone-go-pottinger-street-their> [1 April 2021]
Trip.com. (2019) Best Bar Street in Hong Kong: Lan Kwai Fong [online] available from <https://www.trip.comblog/walking-around-lan-kwai-fong-hottest-bar-street-in-hong-kong/> [1 April 2021]
Wonderopolis. (2021). How do streets get their names?. https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-do-streets-get-their-names
