ABSTRACT
In 2016 the Survey of London launched a major three-year study into the history of Whitechapel, an area of East London now in the midst of rapid economic, demographic and urban change. A critical aspect of this project was the creation of an experimental website to collect and disseminate the diverse stories, impressions and memories of people with knowledge of the area, alongside writing by the Survey and other professional and amateur historians. The use of digital technology has enabled the Survey to pursue an agenda of co-creating urban history, giving voice to the many rather than to a singular authority, and so generating a multi-vocal record of Whitechapel’s streets and buildings. But in producing this representation of the built environment with all its tensions, what is the role of the public historian in narrating the past?
