What is the Local Parade?
Because today’s ordinary places are tomorrow’s history.
The Local Parade is a long-term photographic archive project documenting neighbourhood shopping parades across the UK.
Neighbourhood shopping locations that serve a local community.
Often overlooked, these small collections of shops and businesses form the everyday commercial landscape of towns, suburbs and villages. They are the places between home and the high street – where people collect a takeaway, visit the barber, pick up a newspaper, post a parcel or stop for a coffee.
Although familiar to millions, these small ecosystems are constantly evolving. Businesses open and close, shopfronts are refurbished, buildings are repurposed and communities change. Individually these changes may seem small, but together they tell the story of how Britain’s neighbourhoods and local communities develop over time.
Each location in the archive is photographed and recorded as a snapshot in time. By revisiting the same parades in the future, the project aims to create a lasting visual record of change, preserving the architecture, businesses and character of Britain’s local shopping parades for future generations.
Want to learn more about the definition of a Shopping Parade? There is an excellent report by Historic England that you can read by clicking here.
There are many other useful resources on the internet that discuss the history of local shopping parades, and study their different styles and designs. Check out the Resources page for more information.
The Local Parade is an ongoing documentary project, with new locations added regularly from across the UK.
Please take a look around.
Alan
About Me
I’m a fifty something with fond memories of taking photos on and off for the last 40 years, using film, and digital, and on many different types of camera. I don’t really have a preferred ‘style’ or genre, but enjoy snapping reportage, natural photographs and documenting everyday life.