ABSTRACT
This chapter examines visitors' interactions with, and responses to, material and spatial qualities in the three case study sites. It explores whether these qualities of the derelict, underused and neglected site, when retained in the developed landscape, give rise to similar forms of re-engagement with the past. Differences in interviewees' perceptions might also be due to the intentions of the owners and managers of the sites. The geographer Doreen Massey's theories of place and space are particularly suited to an examination of such heterogeneous sites, with their conflicting and contingent histories, the openness of meaning and uncertain identities, the changing materialities, the multiple temporalities and the possibilities they raise for future change. However, there is also evidence of a more generic understanding of the relationship between the site and its surroundings that makes reference to its past history, and is used as one strand of a frame for reading.
