We want to revolutionise street signs in Hackney’s Regent Estate, so that they offer information and tell stories from the past, present and future of the Estate.

Rather than simply expressing prohibitions and space functions, the signs will visually communicate place meanings and identities, as defined by the local community.

We will work with local people to map their stories and histories and render them into storytelling street signs. But we need your support to materially realise the signs.

Help us cover their production cost and make Regent Estate’s streets talk!

What we'll deliver:

• Based on the results of this community mapping, we will design and make permanent street signs to be put in the Estate.
• Through interviews, workshops and door-to-door outreach, we will collect diverse histories, traditions and aspirations.

Why it's a great idea:

The project capsizes the idea of top-down street signs expressing information, indications and prohibitions to users. Rather, the storytelling street signage is linked to the grassroots placemaking, the signs presenting the actual usages and feelings of the people who have lived and live in those places.

The street signs will encourage the exploration of the Estate and of its hidden history and stories. This will also have a positive effect on the negative image often linked to Regent Estate.

The signs will help share diverse traditions, stories and visions in the Estate, thus fostering good relations and sense of neighbourliness.

Steps to get it done:

• From Workshop 44, a space at the heart of Regent Estate, we will involve locals in activities to map place meanings.
• We will analyse and condense the results of the community mapping and render them in street signs.