During 2022 I worked with a group of people from Café 71 Spider Project in Chester to reflect on their relationship with the city centre and the Heritage Action Zone around the Rows more specifically.

Café 71 is a non-clinical space used by people experiencing mental health challenges. Over the course of nine sessions we went on photo walks, looked at and discussed images and worked with historic photos of the city centre to make some collages. Their work was exhibited in 2023 in the Grosvenor Shopping Centre.

The project was funded by Historic England and run in partnership with Open Eye Gallery and Photoworks as part of the Picturing High Streets residency programme. Some of the group’s collage work has been put into the Historic England archive.

Installation shots by Rob Battersby.