About

Strandlines Digital Community is the first strand in a multi-part project, STRANDLINES, which aims to explore lives on the Strand – past, present and creative. It is a JISC funded initiative organised by the following Centres and Departments at King’s College London:

the Centre for Life-Writing Research

the Centre for e-Research

the Department of Geography

King's College London Archives. 

Strandlines also collaborates with several project partners, including Westminster Archives and Age UK Westminster.

The Strandlines website combines material selected from archives (Westminster City Archives and King's College London Archives) with the life stories and photographs of people who have lived, worked or visited the Strand. It also explores how methodologies associated with the practice of life writing might be used to encourage the communication of creative as well as informative personal stories. 

What is life writing?

Life writing, as a genre, can take many forms, but is generally thought to include reminiscences, letters, diaries, memoirs, testimonies and blogs; it can also include film, photography and the visual arts. In many ways it complements oral history: while both value information about the past, life-writing also encourages awareness of literary and creative characteristics in the present, and how these may shape accounts of the past.