Delivering Heritage: a place-based creative scanning approach to investigating post office cultures in India and the UK
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY OF HUDDERSFIELD
Department Name: School of Arts and Humanities
Abstract
Context/Challenge
British post offices in India have immense cultural values attached to them; sadly, though due to rapid urbanisation they are often neglected elements in the urban plans of cities. As a knowledge exchange project between India and the UK, we will focus on colonial architecture in India and de/post-colonial futures for post office communities and cultures in both countries. Our understanding of the cultural heritage of post offices in India and the UK will expand through our collaborative interdisciplinary working. We will consider how heritage interventions can generate and render visible the values of post office cultures along with site specific retrofitting plans. The use of scanning technologies in this project will help us to document/archive and conserve the past as well as imagine the future use of post office buildings in the present. New knowledges will be generated through co-creative processes of skills sharing, community participation, education and learning between academics, students, external partners and communities.
British post offices in India have immense cultural values attached to them; sadly, though due to rapid urbanisation they are often neglected elements in the urban plans of cities. As a knowledge exchange project between India and the UK, we will focus on colonial architecture in India and de/post-colonial futures for post office communities and cultures in both countries. Our understanding of the cultural heritage of post offices in India and the UK will expand through our collaborative interdisciplinary working. We will consider how heritage interventions can generate and render visible the values of post office cultures along with site specific retrofitting plans. The use of scanning technologies in this project will help us to document/archive and conserve the past as well as imagine the future use of post office buildings in the present. New knowledges will be generated through co-creative processes of skills sharing, community participation, education and learning between academics, students, external partners and communities.
| Title | Post Office Cultures Exhibition (June-Sept 2026) |
| Description | Exhibition of research work to date, featuring the following outputs of the project: 1. Sonic Postcard - soundscapes aligned to work by artists Supriya Nagajaran and Duncan Chapman 2. Letters and oral histories with different communities. 3. Films about the place-based contexts of the project. 4. Scans and Drone footage of Huddersfield Delivery Office, Shimla GPO, Dewsbury Post Office. 5. Community engagement materials. 6. Photographs. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2026 |
| Impact | Stimulating change in public attitudes, perception or behaviour about post office buildings and cultural heritage. |
| URL | https://research.hud.ac.uk/institutes-centres/ceada/post-office-cultures/ |