This month Dr. Monica Degen (in collaboration with Dr. Camilla Lewis, Prof Astrid Swenson and Isobel Ward) are launching their report "The Changing Feel of Smithfield: exploring sensory identities and temporal flows" which examines the interactions of past, present and future place identities of Smithfield market. The findings are based on a 6 month pilot study funded by Brunel University London and in collaboration with the Museum of London.
The MoL relocation in 2022 to West Smithfield and the launch of the Culture Mile provides an exciting opportunity to focus on the ways urban change will transform the sensory identity of the current West Smithfield site and to consider how this might be incorporated in the museum’s design and exhibition spaces. Focusing on sensory and temporal dimensions in the making of place identities has allowed us to understand the shared as well as competing and parallel meanings of Smithfield, and the way London’s history informs its present and future more broadly.
The report and a series of evocative maps that capture our findings are available here.