Mapping Southampton’s Phone Spaces
If you’ve been following the project, you’ll know that we’re creating a map of people’s memories of using phones as children and teenagers from the 1980s onwards. So far, we’ve been sent some wonderful memories from across England which we’ll be uploading soon, but we’re especially interested in collecting stories from people who grew up in Southampton.
Why Southampton? The obvious answer is that it’s the city where we’re based, so we’re always eager to learn and share more about its history. I’m especially excited to learn about the city, having only joined the History Department at the University of Southampton as a Research Fellow in the Summer. But we also think that mapping Southampton’s phone spaces can tell us a lot about the history of other places.
Southampton is a provincial city. Though some may claim otherwise, Britain has no archetypal town or city which can be held up as representative of the entire country. But Southampton makes for a fascinating local case study—not too big, not too small, and not a capital city—through which we can examine the spatial history of young people’s telephone use in the home and in other places. How did growing up in the inner city compare to the suburbs? Or, taking the area surrounding the city into consideration, how did growing up in the city compare to nearby villages or towns? While each story shared with us will be individualised and special in its own right, mapping Southampton’s phone spaces can help us to better understand some similarities in people’s experiences, and how they might have changed over time.
Southampton is a diverse city. As a port city, Southampton has a long history of migration. We hope that the diversity of the city will be reflected in the diversity of the stories we are able to collect and therefore tell. And though Southampton ‘does not automatically evoke an association with the LGBT community’, as historian Sebastian Buckle argues, focusing on the local history allows us to explore in more depth the ways in which telephones could provide a means of connecting with communities beyond the city limits—potentially becoming a lifeline for gay men in the 1980s.
Southampton is a city with a lot going on. True, this can be said of many cities, but Southampton really does: exciting historical research into the history and heritage of hip hop; arts venues and galleries (including one in a re-purposed K6 Telephone Box!) which are helping us to reach out to communities; and a City of Culture bid. It truly is an exciting time to be working on and in Southampton. We have a lot of plans for the coming year—so watch this space (and follow us on Twitter and Instagram) to find out more.
In the meantime, you can help us to research this important and over-looked history of a bustling city by sharing your stories. If you live in or grew up in Southampton and the surrounding area from the 1980s onwards, please do share your memories with us. Become part of this previously untold history.
