The Long Way Round

Every Thursday · 40 minutes · 212 streets so far

One street a week, told by the people who live on it, and the ones who remember it

A local history podcast made in a box room with foam on the walls. No narrator explaining the past; just neighbours, a kettle, and a microphone on the kitchen table.

Listen to this week's
A silver studio microphone in a spider mount, lit against a dark room with more microphones behind.

Ep 21241 min

Tanner Row

The last house with an outside toilet, and the woman who refuses to change it.

A vintage chrome microphone against a soft purple background.

Ep 21138 min

Palace Street

There was never a palace. There was a cinema called the Palace, and six people still have the tickets.

A black and white close up of a condenser microphone behind a round pop filter.

Ep 21044 min

Canal Terrace

Three generations of lock-keepers, one of whom is now a dentist.

Two people at a table talking into a black microphone, one in headphones with a laptop open.

Ep 20939 min

Market Hill

The stallholders' version, recorded between customers on a Saturday.

A black microphone in a shock mount on a boom arm against a pale grey wall.

Ep 20842 min

Station Approach

Everyone who ever left the city from here, and the one taxi driver who drove them.

A man in headphones laughing at a desk microphone in a room with brick walls and shelves.

Ep 20740 min

Albion Street

A barber, a mosque and a chip shop, all in the same building since 1981.

Rows of terraced rooftops and chimneys stepping down a hill towards a road lined with autumn trees.

How an episode is made

Two of us, about thirty hours a street, and nearly all of it is listening. The box room is only for the last step.

01

Knocking

A leaflet through every door on the street, then we knock on the ones who ring back. Usually eight to twelve people.

02

Kitchens

An hour in each kitchen with one small microphone. We ask about the street, not about them, and they tell us about both.

03

Cutting

Ten hours of tape down to forty minutes. Nobody is made to sound worse than they did, and everyone hears their part first.

04

The box room

Two short links recorded at the end, a bit of music we own, and out on Thursday morning.

What we don't do

No adverts read by us, no sponsors on the street, no "hidden history" nobody on the street recognises. If an archive says one thing and the neighbours say another, you hear both.

What we keep

Every full recording goes to the city library's sound archive, with the speaker's permission, so the hour in the kitchen outlives the forty minutes.

The next three streets

  1. A narrow lane of red-brick terraced houses with white doors and lamps, fading into mist.

    16 Oct

    Foundry Lane

    Where the bells were cast, and the man who can still hear them.

  2. A long pale terrace of tall houses with bay windows curving away along a quiet street.

    23 Oct

    Victoria Parade

    A seafront with no sea since the harbour was filled in.

  3. A cobbled alley between small painted cottages, climbing plants on the walls.

    30 Oct

    Ropewalk

    An alley too narrow for a car, where rope was twisted for two hundred years.

Want your street? Ring us, or leave a note at the library desk with the name of the street and one person who should be in it.

Keeping it going

It's free to listen, everywhere podcasts are, and it always will be. It's paid for by the people who can.

A cup of tea, once£3

A street a month£5 / month

Your name in the credits£10 / month

A school or a care homefree visit

Advertsnone, ever

How to support the show
A recording desk with two microphones on arms, lit pink and purple, acoustic panels on the wall behind.