The Corner Shop - Spring 2008

The Corner Shop is a Foursight Theatre and Black Country Touring project.

With English Heritage, Sandwell Community History and Archive Service and Sandwell Museum Service.

The Corner Shop project is about uncovering stories, behind the changing face of the corner shop over the past 60-years. We talked to shop owners and unearthed stories about traditional English corner shops, South Asian shops, African Caribbean shops, and shops now run by newer immigrant communities.

The Corner Shop a coproduction with Foursight Theatre and English Heritage

Images taken by Anand Chhabra will form part of the photography archive

Oral history interviews were at the heart of the project. The process of recording the stories and celebrating the important social history happening through a number of different strands:

• A series of training sessions where members of the community were trained in oral history interviewing and recording skills. These interviews then formed the foundation for the rest of the project.
•  A school project, where the subject of local corner shops was used to connect the school children with their local community and shop owners. The project culminated in a performance after numerous workshops with a creative team and members of The Corner Shop partnership. For more information. 
•  A site-specific theatre production, using the recorded interviews as the starting point, taking the audience on an experiential journey through live performance. For more information.
•  Interviews to be catalogued and made accessible at Sandwell Community History and Archive Service and The National Monuments Record (in Swindon) run by English Heritage, so that members of the public can learn about this aspect of our heritage in the future.
• In addition to the interviews a touring exhibition to be created using photographs specially commissioned covering all aspects of the project also including sound and objects. This will be touring from Spring 2009 onwards.
• An ongoing presence on the Internet at the Connecting Histories website run by Birmingham Archives and Heritage.

The archive will document all aspects of the Corner Shop

Just what is it like behind the counter or in the stockroom.

Phase 2 Of The Corner Shop Exhibition is led by English Heritage from May 2010 - exhibition dates and venues.