Poetic Places was a free app for iOS and Android devices, and the main outcome of a collaboration between Sarah Cole of TIME/IMAGE and the British Library.

Poetic Places let users uncover hidden histories and culture, bringing poetic depictions of places into the everyday world, helping them to encounter poems and literature in the locations described, accompanied by audiovisual materials drawn from archive collections.

Utilising geolocation services and push notifications, Poetic Places could let you know when you stumbled across a place depicted in verse. Alternatively, you could browse the poems and places as a source of inspiration without travelling.

We started with London-based content but included some materials from elsewhere in the UK and Australia in collaboration with the State Library of Queensland.

Poetic Places aspired to give a renewed sense of place, to bring together writings and paintings and sounds to mean more than they do alone, and to bring literature into your everyday life in unexpected moments.

The Poetic Places app was discontinued in December 2019.

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Built with no coding for under £5000 (including labour), this project has hoped to inspire others in the cultural heritage sector to try their hand at making creative apps. You can find more information about how we made Poetic Places throughout this website.