Staying Alive: Breathing New Life into Old Industries

Industrial heritage is increasingly popular as an attraction. It can take the form of the open air museum of living history, a direct form of interpretation that is designed to link in with a nostalgic, half-remembered childhood past of its consumers. More commonly, however, it is presented where it actually happened: in the factory, mine or depot where the original buildings and (when preserved) the machinery can re-create the process as an activity to be consumed by tourists. Both routes present their challenges in respect of authenticity: how can one recreate an imagined and often poorly documented past authentically, and how realistic is it to keep factories that are no longer economically viable going to satisfy tourist’s demands? This paper examines the European, and especially British, experience of this activity and how these attractions might be sustained into the future through training, education and volunteering allied with a robust attitude towards commercial sustainability.