Omni-temporality and place making: evidence from Colchester in the long-nineteenth century

Sewell, Michael ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1211-055X and Warnaby, Gary ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6696-6671 (2025) Omni-temporality and place making: evidence from Colchester in the long-nineteenth century. Urban Geography. pp. 1-19. ISSN 0272-3638

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Abstract

This article focuses on themes of how Colchester, in the south-east of the UK, has reinvented its image through its historic environment during the long-nineteenth century (1750–1920). As the national and global landscape changed, towns like Colchester actively tried to remain relevant and important urban centers. Using Colchester as an exemplar, the article highlights how urban environments have accommodated both modernity and preservation throughout the last two centuries, to showcase attempts to remain relevant and contemporary. The study demonstrates the importance of historic narratives within the urban landscape for a town that seeks to reinvent itself and how they can be harnessed to promote and celebrate local identity, arguing that place branding and place marketing are not just a contemporary phenomenon, but are also evident in the early-modern and modern periods.