I have been photographing Martin since January this year. I first met him during a homeless project I was working on whilst at Stroud college. Martin has been living on the streets for some time along with Kelly, however, they now have a flat.

'Mother and Daughter' A warm welcome from Annette and the West End Cafe

"I don't really do this for a living, people drop in for a chat" Arthur.

Arthur, proud owner of a VW camper, which requires a significant amount of love, care and attention, located at his place of work in Grove street.

Scuffing about

First impressions, well, I don't remember mine, I am a Cheltonian. I was born in Victoria Nursing Home, incidentally, this no longer exists, however, its location was very close to the bowling green, which is located on lower High Street at the junction of St Georges Road, I have a good memory, but not that good! So, my first impressions, for this project, I have drawn upon my memories of July 2007, when I returned to the area from South Africa after living in Pretoria for 2 years.

Chris, Sam and myself had arranged to meet at Waitrose, for no other reason than 2 hours free parking and its location to the lower High Street. I have to say, I was a bit pushy on suggesting that we explore the lower part, for me this area is quite interesting, it also is the area of the high street where I noticed the most change during my time in Africa. During this time I noticed that there had been a significant influx of additional cultures to the area, however, my interest for this project is to look at areas that have stayed the same, for example, the shop by the zebra crossing near the Irish Oak pub, which I now know to be owned by Malcomn, age 83 from Cardiff. A delightful man who was more than happy to chat and show me his photographs of the lower High street some 40 years ago. More to follow..... Alex