Encounters Shop
What is Encounters Shop Princetown?
The Shop is a warm, welcoming and creative space where you are invited to share stories, memories and experiences of Princetown, and your hopes and dreams for what Princetown could become.
It’s an unusual kind of Shop where “where nothing’s for sale but there’s lots on offer” where we hope to seed a sense of ‘What If…?’ for the future of this amazing place in the heart of Dartmoor.
Come along and:
- Share your experiences, memories, hopes, concerns, ideas and dreams.
- Tell us what you love most about Princetown and what could make it a better place to live, work and visit.
- Reflect on the challenges Princetown faces and explore creative ways to work with, or move beyond them, together how they could be overcome, together.
- Explore what a positive future for Princetown could look and feel like.
- Be part of building a community-led vision for Princetown.
Who’s it for?
Everyone of all ages are welcome – residents, organisations, businesses, visitors and anyone who cares about the future of Princetown. We hope to see you there!
When’s it open?
Thursdays and Fridays 12.30pm to 6.30pm
Saturdays 11am to 5pm
From 28th November 2025 to 17th January 2026.
(Closed from 21st December. Re-opens 8th January)
What happens at the Shop?
Pop in and take a look! Share a cuppa, tell us what you love about Princetown and what would make it a better place to live, work and visit. There’s lots to see and do at the Shop. You can make your way around the space, see what draws your attention and respond to the different questions and activities as you go. You can take part in as many (or as few!) of the activities as you’d like, for as little or as long as you’d like to. There are no right or wrong answers! And there are shop hosts on hand to welcome you and make you a cuppa 🙂 . There’s also a community noticeboard for local events, for you to add things or find out what’s on.
What if?
What’s Princetown like now? What was it like in the past? And what could it be like if we come together to imagine and explore how it could change and evolve?
What if over the coming years we’d done everything we possibly could to create the Princetown of our dreams? What would it look and feel like? What remains the same? What’s changed? What obstacles did we have to work with or overcome? Who did what to get there and what role did you play?
There are opportunities at the Shop to share what you wish were different or what you’d like to remain the same. You can say what you see as the unique identity of Princetown, and what you imagine the future of Princetown could be. We also ask how you might want to contribute to that future.
There is space to read about and share ideas from elsewhere, and to celebrate the gifts of this community.
Everything shared will contribute to a picture of what people love and value about Princetown, as well as what people’s concerns are, and what their (your!) vision for the future is.
What will happen with what everyone shares?
Over six weeks everyone’s contributions will grow into a living collection of local stories, thoughts and ideas about Princetown.
Everything shared will feed into creating a vision and place strategy for Princetown, and to designing the next phases of the project. In the next phase of the project, we hope to bring back some of the ideas for the vision and see what people think about them.
Everything you share is anonymous unless you choose for it not to be.
Who’s behind the project?
We hope, in time, that all kinds of people across the community will be involved. Right now, the initiative is being developed by the Princetown Place Strategy Steering Group – a group made up of representatives from the Parish Council, the local business community, the Duchy, local community organisations, the National Park Authority and West Devon Council.
The Shop is designed and hosted by artists from Devon based organisation, Town Anywhere with local hosts too.
We hope to see you there!
Come and take a look around, join in, and come back as often as you’d like. See how the shop evolves as everyone adds their stories & memories, hopes & concerns, ideas & dreams for Princetown.
A bit of history about Encounters Shops
Encounters Shops started in Sheffield in 2003 and have been delivered on high streets across the country. Thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds have enjoyed the open space and imaginative, hands-on activities that the Shops offer. They inspire creativity, conversation and exchange between people of all ages and backgrounds, inviting participants to find new ways to see themselves, each other, where they live and the wider world.
To find out more
You are welcome to come in and see us at the Shop and ask questions. You can also email princetownvision@gmail.com