Everywhere Means Something to Someone

Introduction

Everywhere Means Something to Someone is our series of guidebooks that reveal what local people think are the most interesting destinations near to where they live. Our guidebooks explore quirky, mysterious and overlooked locations in a variety of towns. Our three guidebooks to date include the blossoming seaside town of Folkestone; Lens in Normandy where a new Louvre gallery has been built and across north Kent, taking in the station towns between St Pancras and Margate.

We invite residents and folks who know these places well and have a vast amount of local knowledge, to help us fill the pages of the guidebooks. People can find places significant for many different reasons and we have collected passed-down family stories about particular places, tales of exciting events and seemingly inconsequential memories, that animate unexpected locations. Through these guidebooks you will start to build an understanding of why local people call these places their home.

Louvre Lens - Ces Lieux Qui Nous Racontent

Our first people’s guidebook was in response to a commission from Andrea Schleiker for Folkestone Triennial artwork in 2011. The guidebook has become No.1 best seller and was so successful in revealing the most important places in Folkestone from the point of view of local people, that the Louvre-Lens Tourism office commissioned us to recreate the artwork for them. The book was launched on the 28th February 2015 to a great reception from the local community. This region in France is a UNESCO World Heritage destination and is home to a new extension of the famous Louvre gallery, which in 2013 welcomed over 1,000,000 international visitors. Lens, a former mining town, is known for its landmark slag heaps which rise above the otherwise flat landscape like two enormous volcanoes. The Guidebook is full of the places that people from the Lens region consider reflect their history, culture and personal memories. In a nutshell, the things that makes it feel like home. The project was funded through the ICR INTERREG programme which both Strange Cargo and the Mission Départementale Louvre-Lens Tourisme are partners in.

Strange Cargo worked with Compagnie Hendrick Van Der Zee (HVDZ), a Lens based theatre group who collected the stories from the general public, which formed the basis of the new artwork. The huge publicity drive that was under taken to make the project a success was helped along by the Pays d'Art et d'Histoire group. Strange Cargo ran a workshop with photographer Ben Hills, to share his experience with a local french photography team, Dans la Boite, who where responsible for visually representing the stories that are selected for this exciting project. Copies are available through our website.

Romney Marsh Edition

A new guidebook is now being made and we are currently talking to locals and people who know the Marsh well, to discover as much interesting local knowledge as we can, to fill the pages of the guidebook.

Add your story to our next version of Everywhere Means Something to Someone and if you live in Romney Marsh or know someone who has any type of local story about a life lived on the Marsh, please see below for how you can take part in this project.

Download our poster here.

The North Kent Station Towns Edition

Strange Cargo were commissioned as part of the Turner Prize 2019 programme to create a guidebook that would entice people off the North Kent train line to visit unexplored places. The Guide covered the station towns between St Pancras and Margate, from the industrial areas of North Kent, the rural areas of Swale, and the glories of the Summer holiday destinations of Thanet.

The towns covered in the guide are Kings Cross (St Pancras), Ebbsfleet (including the villages of Northfleet and Swanscombe), Rochester, Rainham, Chatham, Gillingham, Sittingbourne, Faversham, Gravesend, Strood, Herne Bay, Whitstable, Birchington-on-Sea, Westgate-on-Sea and Margate.

Quotes from happy buyers include:

Ann in Whitstable: "I’ve got a guide and wow it’s a thing of beauty. It finds wonder-filled things in the most unlikely places. My partner says it’s “enchanting” and I couldn’t come up with better! Congratulations. I’m now going to get more as presents!"

Vanessa in Medway: "I Love this! Thank you for making it! As someone who has grown up in the Medway towns and taken the commute to St Pancras daily for years, as well as a lover of the coastal towns, reading it feels like a familiar warm fuzzy hug. So many great stories - such a wonderful project." ❤

Other People’s Photographs

Strange Cargo has produced the publication of Other People’s Photographs: The Making of a Very Public Artwork. This is the definitive book of the permanent public art installation, comprising personal photographs of family and friends in the streets of Folkestone, Cheriton and Sandgate. Along with photographs from many of the now distinctive signs that have come to characterise the streets of the area, the full-colour book reveals many more of the images that were donated by the public, amounting to over 740 photographs accompanied for the very first time, by the stories behind the images. Beautifully printed in A4 landscape format with a foreword by Brett Rogers, Director of the Photographers’ Gallery in London, the book begins with the most recent colour images, running chronologically back in time as far as the 1800s and capturing the collective experiences that unify us through the generations.