View from Dragon Hall, Norwich, photo: ICOMOS-UK

Finding the Spirit of Place, an initiative of the ICOMOS-UK Cultural Tourism Committee, explores different ways in which the historic environment, cultural, tourism and heritage sectors are using the concept of a spirit or sense of place to bring value to local communities that live in the areas that people visit.

The first part reviews the one-day workshop, ‘Norwich HEART – People and Places: Optimising public benefits of urban historic environments’ held at Dragon Hall, Norwich, which addressed heritage management implications of ‘realising the reality’ of placing people centre stage in decisions concerning conservation. The accompanying short film showcases Norwich as a case-study for heritage-led regeneration and features Cultural Tourism Committee Chair, Sue Millar, CEO of Norwich HEART, Mike Loveday, and County Archaeologist for Norfolk, Brian Ayres. Look out also for appearances by Norwich’s Lord Mayor and Sheriff.

The review called Norwich: People and Places highlights the key points made by all the speakers.

The workshop in Norwich ended with a debate on The Norwich Accord which is a proposal for a charter on how the spirit of place can inform how we conserve, understand, interpret and develop our historic spaces. ICOMOS-UK members will be debating this Accord online and as consensus develops we shall be posting more information as part of this feature.