It’s Where We Go

Listen to the voices. Look at the pictures. Share your memories.

**Content warning: death of a parent, depression, near-drowning experience. Full transcript + more info.
 
 
 
 
An office chair sits on a pebbly beach. A person holding a carrier bag is walking in the distance.
A closed-down ice cream parlour by the seaside
Sunny day. Brightly coloured beach huts. Four boys in summer clothes hanging out. One looks out to sea. Their towels hung up on the railings.
Blue skies. A red closed-down food truck is parked on an empty road by the sea.
A picnic bench, with a mug upon it, is set amongst overgrown shrubbery with the sea in the distance.
An old blue camper-van is parked on an empty street facing the sea. A seagull sits at the top of a street lamp. Blue skies.
Three friends sit on the promenade wall of a sandy beach, looking out to sea. A seagull flies overhead.
Pebbly beach with patches of grass. The sea in the distance. Partially erected concrete block wall on the right of a navigational marker and caution sign
Behind the sea wall a man in a hat sits on a sandy beach, looking out to sea. The beach is empty but one figure in the distance, near the water. Blue skies and green shrubbery on the sand.
A telephone box at the side of an empty road with the sea in the distance.
A woman is sat down drinking from thermos flask, looking out to sea through railings. Upon these railings, a bunch of flowers are attached.
A lido at the seaside. Ducks are swimming in the water. People sat on the beach behind. The sea in the distance.
Two people in the distance walk across a sandy beach. Large seaweed formations by the shore. The sun is beginning to set behind the sea.
A seagull sits at the top of a tall yellow pole on a pebbly beach at dusk. Several brightly coloured kayaks scattered. Two people in the distance are sat looking out to sea.
The exterior of an arcade: brightly coloured bulbs. A neon flamingo. Fish and chips signposted in the background.
The sun sets beyond the horizon. Two adults and two children are paddling in the sea.
Purple skied sunset on a pebbly beach. A sign for fish and chips.
A person is sat on the sea wall. They look out to sea as the sun is setting.

Share your memories

Contribute to our community archive @itswherewego

Handwritten postcard: Predominantly a memory / experience of complete ease. I had genuinely forgotten how relaxing the seaside / beach is and how pretty are herring gulls.
Handwritten postcard: Thanks for last night. The swim at sunset, the fire, the frisbee and the friends. Thanks for your horizon and the perspective.
Handwritten postcard: My memory. Our annual Sunday outing, Valerie and Me. Standing on the bus seats to be first to see the sea. In the sea, I struggled – big waves were all around. Mr Evans from the chapel smiled benignly as I ‘drowned’!
Handwritten postcard: Earliest memory aged 5 losing and finding my baby brother on South Beach Tenby. Body boarding for the first time aged 56 at Newgate Beach, West Wales. A beach clean and Rhossili Bay, The Gower and joining the Marine Conservation
Handwritten postcard: I once came across a family wading in the muddy, grimy waters of Penarth during a particularly cold February. I instantly knew they were not local – Americans eh?
Handwritten postcard: At Blackpool on the promenade there were thick heavy railings, like scaffolding poles, taking us down ramps and steps to the beach. Railings like that always excite me – my grandma must have said excitedly, ‘that’s the way to th
Handwritten postcard: Windy whispering wild waves waving. Calls of seagulls. Sandcastle sand boats. Sandwiches. Still silent sea. A place to be.
Handwritten postcard: Memories of teenage years, down to Margate – Dreamland and to see / hear the Radio One Roadshow. Having to get the train from Canterbury with school friends and enjoy the Roadshow. That in the late 70s and early 80s was famous a
Handwritten postcard: Went to university in Bristol. When I’d come home and get in sea smelling distance and this excitement I would feel just coming from inside of me, I was just so excited to see the sea!
Handwritten postcard: Lovely here! First memory was of us on Shoreham beach in Sussex, we’d all gone for a swim/paddle and forgotten Nan on her deck-chair. There was a scream, she tried to stop the waves as King Canute had, failed, and all we saw two
Handwritten postcard: I like the fish and chips because they taste so British. I like swimming in the sea because it’s refreshing.
Handwritten postcard: I remember being in a blow-up dinghy with my brother, while my Dad stood on the beach, holding the rope that was attached to stop us drifting out to sea. I remember the frustration, but also enjoyed the fact we didn’t drift off
Handwritten postcard: Boiled ‘beach’ eggs at a seaside picnic, stuffed in one into my baby brother’s mouth! Happy seaside days!
Handwritten postcard: As soon as I’m at the coast I feel it cleansing me. You just look out there and think oh god. There is something really in my soul about having to be by the sea.
Handwritten postcard: I remember as a child being on holiday at the coast with all the family, I’m not even sure where. We were all on the beach for the day and my Grandad used to sculpt cars out of sand that we would sit in and pretend to drive. It
Handwritten postcard: My memory of the seaside is the harbour. The smells of fish and seaweed. Back some 40 years ago it was a bustling business centre, now it’s a shadow of what it was.
Handwritten postcard: I remember my father going to buy a tray with a pot of tea and cups etc on Barry Island Beach. My brother and I made a table out of sand to put the tray on.
Handwritten postcard: My seaside memories. I always went to the seaside as a child with my brother and Grandparents. My brother would always ‘accidentally’ fall in and we’d have to go to a shop to find him a whole new outfit.
Handwritten postcard: I can not live far from the sea. The sound beckons me, calls me back. I learned to swim in the sea. I made friends in the waves. Sandy sandwiches. Seagull stealing ice creams. Building sandcastles, buckets of water to fill the m
Handwritten postcard: I remember coming down to Tenby from Llanfallteg in the 1950s. Every year it would be the Sunday School outing from Capel Mair. A bus full of parents and children, we would walk up from the Coach Park to the North Beach, while p
Handwritten postcard: One of my fondest memories of living by the sea is watching our jet ski break and my dad who couldn’t swim fell off into the sea and began to struggle to get back to shore. It sounds so evil but watching a 40 year old man doggie
Handwritten postcard: Tiffany and Olivia, thank you so much for the wonderful sense of nostalgia you stirred up. Loved hearing the stories of other people’s memories while I lay on the pebbles listening to the sounds of the waves and the seagulls.
Handwritten postcard: Reminds me of 99s, one arm bandits, salty water and pebble beaches. God bless Herne Bay.
Handwritten postcard: I like the weather by the sea and fish and chips.
Handwritten postcard: When I was a child, I came to Whitstable and I had a gobstopper in my mouth. I choked on it and I had to be turned upside down and all I asked for was water!
Handwritten postcard: Memories of seaside trips. Not being from the seaside originally, the sight and sound of the sea still brings a joy that’s hard to explain. ‘I can see the sea’ still comes to mind and I’ve lived by the sea for 30 years now. I on
Handwritten postcard: ... My Mum’s been dead a long time now. The tape made me think about my memories which I’m often too busy to do. Maybe I should think more! I’ve got more memories now of myself with my own children. I hope they too will remember
Handwritten postcard: My main memories of the seaside are of family holidays in County Donegal, Ireland – jumping in the waves altogether, screeching and laughing and diving into waves – then sandwiches and shivering in the sand.
Handwritten postcard: Seaside brings back the memory of floating on a lilo when I suddenly panicked and believed I was drowning. However my Dad rushed out and rescued me.
Handwritten postcard: My most vivid memories of the beach both involve Margate. As a young boy from London, we had day trips to Margate. I wandered off and got lost, was taken to the Red Cross. My name was announced over the tannoy and my brother cam
Handwritten postcard: Scarborough. My memory of the seaside is when I used to come as a child. My grandparents and I used to walk on Marine Drive to the Corner Café. My Grandad used to pretend to dangle me over the railing to chick me in the sea. I n
Handwritten postcard: I love living by the sea. The big, dramatic skys, the wonderful fresh air and a total sense of being truly alone. My house is on the beach and a total haven of peace.
Handwritten postcard: Tiffany, brilliant, just brilliant. Had a blast. Now moving onto fond memories. As you know, I would always lose a trainer in the sea. ‘Puma King Astroturfs’. That’s my memory. And I very much look forward to many more.
Handwritten postcard: Memories of the seaside. My Dad swimming like Tarzan. Being little remembering that the stones didn’t hurt your feet then. Feeling like a mermaid swimming in the deep water. Catching crabs, being nipped by crabs. Sand in your sa

About

itswherewego.com is an audiovisual performative archive of memories about the seaside in and around the UK. These are stories of nostalgia and loss, but also of community and hope. This performance explores our communal understanding of these unique spaces and their potential for shared experience.

itswherewego.com is an online adaptation of It’s Where We Go, our 2016 site-specific performance exploring the seaside and nostalgia, performed at Coastival Festival, North Yorkshire; Herne Bay Festival, Kent; and Tenby Arts Festival, Pembrokeshire. We gave each audience member an audio device and encouraged them to take a walk along the seafront. Then we invited them to contribute their memories on postcards, which you can see above.

In early 2021, when live performances could not take place in line with COVID-19 restrictions, we adapted this performance to make it accessible to a wider audience online. We collaborated with photographer Ian Howorth, whose work explores memory, emotion and nostalgia, to add to the stories and help frame these seaside experiences as you listen to them.

We hope the themes in this performance will speak to you, especially during these challenging times, and bring you a little bit of light. Listening to this performance now is about remembering what we once had, and the people we shared those experiences with.

In time, we can share new moments and create more memories. The seaside will be there for us.

See your shared memories @itswherewego

 
 

Created by
Tiffany Murphy
and Olivia Lamont Bishop
with Hannah Fisher

In collaboration with photographer
Ian Howorth - @ihoworth

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