Tin Street

Deptford High Street

This project recreates several shops from Deptford High Street in South London, one of London’s most distinctive and multicultural high streets. Described by Time Out as “the most alive street in London”, many of its shops have been part of the area for decades, with some established for over a hundred years. With the area undergoing rapid regeneration, the project captures some of the unique character of the street at a moment of change.

Each shop was recreated as a tin, based on a real shop on the high street. When the lid is opened, a recording made inside the original shop plays, bringing the voices, conversations and everyday sounds of Deptford into the work. During the making of the project, both Cod Fathers, the local fishmonger, and the Egg Shop closed down. The work therefore became an unintended record of a changing high street, preserving a small part of Deptford