Copyrighted imageCredit: London School of Economics Charles Booth poverty maps: coloured according to social class, from 'loafers and criminals' to 'wealthy, servant-keeping class' The History of Our Secret Streets, first broadcast on BBC2 in June/July 2012, explores six London streets, drawing on evidence from Charles Booth's 19th century poverty maps and interviews with today's residents. We see some graphic illustration of how life has changed over the past 200 years, for better and for worse.

Here on OpenLearn, we've collected some stories behind the streets in five other cities to extend the BBC series beyond London. To widen this further, we're inviting you to contribute a story about life on your street, as it is today, or how it has changed. Your secret street diary may be in pictures or words.

Read some of the Secret Streets stories we have received from contributors around the UK.

Share your stories

Use your Open University account, or register with the OU for free!

Look out for the clues and send us your diaries!

Your story will be published here by the OpenLearn moderator within a week.

Creative commons imageCredit: A M Jervis under Creative Commons license View from a railway bridge looking towards Scotstoun, Partick: tenements, semi-detatched houses and high-rise Over the past couple of hundred years, we've seen major changes in UK villages, towns and cities. Help us to build a picture of these changes through the history of our secret streets.

There's all sorts of evidence you can find to illustrate life in a street.

Here's some questions you might ask, but there's plenty more: how old are the properties, and how can we know? has there been any change in use of the buildings, what are the clues? do people live above shops or offices? do people live in flats or houses? if there are flats, are these converted from larger houses? how do the residents feel about living on the street? do the houses have gardens? is there a sense of 'community'? how do people describe the street, has this always been the same? what clues does 'street furniture' provide about bygone days; horse troughs, street lamps and post boxes?