City Reflections

Celebrating Southampton’s Community Legends

This project transformed Southampton’s medieval city walls at Westquay Esplanade with a large-scale animated projection and soundscape celebrating more than 350 Community Legends, nominated by local people in recognition of their contributions to the city.

Sponsored and hosted by Westquay, City Reflections ran daily over nine evenings during February half-term in 2025, alongside pop-up projections at five community venues across Southampton.

Central to the project was a city-wide community nomination campaign, delivered in partnership with Our Version Media CIC. Their expertise in community engagement helped us reach communities across Southampton and encourage broad and diverse participation, resulting in more than 350 people being nominated and celebrated through the final projection.

The stories of 40 Community Legends were explored in greater depth. In late 2024, these nominees were invited to Solent University, where students captured portrait photography and filmed interviews with them. The resulting images and stories were woven into City Reflections, putting a particular spotlight on 40 of the people behind the nominations and the contributions they make to Southampton.