I’ve lived in Southampton all my life. It is by no means the most beautiful, exciting or progressive city, but it is home. I learnt to ride a bike on The Common, I went to my first ever gig at The Joiners, kissed my boyfriend for the first time next to the old walls. I even went to university here.
Southampton is the kind of place that will always be a little bit rubbish, a little bit behind the times, a little bit of a stopgap for people while they figure out where they want to be. But it is constantly improving and building upon its foundations – filled with some really wonderful people that want to watch the city succeed and develop. I don’t often love Southampton, but I love the people that live here who make it what it is. I love the diversity and the community of the place.
And a part of that developing community are the people who choose to talk about Southampton, who write about it, who take photos of it. There are some truly wonderful individuals who can make the city seem so beautiful and vibrant from their point of view, and so I have collected a list of some of my absolute favourites to share that beauty! Please go and follow them on Instagram and look at their blogs (all are linked) to see if you can discover something great about the unlikely gem of the south coast.
The Littlest Darlings
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQD9jBsgQJJ
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXDv0VOni-Y