‘The history of a place is part of who you are, whether you know it or not’

It’s common knowledge that Bristol has a rich history, but the specifics might be a little unclear to most. Placeum – Bristol’s new digital audio map – aims to change this.

Placeum is an online interactive map, loaded with short audio bites conveying novel insights into Bristol’s past, and how it has shaped the city today.

Using the map’s various dropped pins, locals and visitors alike can learn about the history of the city. Each pin is charged with quick, accessible and clean audio clips – or ‘placeums’ – ranging from light overviews to in-depth discussions of historically-important places, characters and events. With this varying detail, Placeum hopes to offer users of all ages with a flexible learning experience.

Placeum allows you to browse a map and listen to clips of audio based around each location

The mind behind the project is Sam Green, a Bristol-based ex-journalist and lawyer, who started curating the project nine months ago. Reigniting his professional skills, he started the project because of his personal interest in Bristol’s history, and how a place can relate to the self.

“I live here, and I think a lot is going on in this town,” Sam told Bristol24/7. When you live somewhere, it’s easy to lose sight of things that actually are pretty cool. That goes for people who arrive here as well as people who have lived here all their lives. You need to know where you are: you need something to connect you to where you live.

If Placeum helps you into the life of the city, understand and negotiate it, then great! The history of a place is part of who you are, whether you know it or not. I think it helps you to feel grounded within your community and yourself, somehow.”

Founder of Placeum Sam Green in Castle Park, a location where he plans to add pins to the audio tour in the future

The creation of Placeum has been an intricate DIY process; Sam has researched, scripted and recorded the content himself. He hopes that the site’s detailed content, flavoured by his professional comment, will make the project difficult to replicate and mark Placeum as a revolutionary way to access Bristol’s history.

Sam talks excitedly about the project’s ability to relay past perspectives from sources such as newspapers that contrast contemporary interpretation, giving users a fuller historical picture, and a sense of place.

“The launch of the SS Great Britain was a topic that challenged my preconceptions. You read the stuff out there, and people are a little sneery about it – saying that it was rubbish, a disaster, because of its sad end in the Falklands. Then you go back to the time and find out that people were so excited by Prince Albert launching this ship. Whether that is a less accurate picture of what’s going on, I don’t know. But it’s still someone from that time who, I think, may have a better handle on some of it than someone sat in an Oxford college now.

I think people put a narrative on history of now: the way we look at the world now is projected onto the world that was then. I’m not sure you can do that. You have to take their conception of the world in its own words.”

The accounts of the SS Great Britain’s launch came as a surprise to amateur historian Sam

Sam admits the biggest challenge of the project was actually starting it, comparing it’s beginning to a skydive, whereby fear of such a tremendous, but self-willed, project is underpinned by an absolute thrill. Despite this initial struggle, he’s clearly proud of the end product.

He discusses a pin on Placeum which, from a professional viewpoint, he is particularly pleased with: ‘Eugenie’, found on the Royal York Crescent pin, tells the story of Eugénie de Montijo, who was an Empress of France who once lived in Clifton Village as a schoolgirl.

“The journalism I like doing is taking complex information, digesting it, and then communicating the essence of it to people. With this project, I can do just that: it’s quite satisfying,” Sam says.

“Eugénie is amazing, and I think everyone should know about her. Listening back, I felt I had done what I set out to do. In two minutes, I had encapsulated everything.”

To find out more and to use the map, visit www.placeum.org. To give feedback to Sam, which will influence future pins and possibly the development of an app, email info@placeum.org