The Portland Office for Imaginary History

A satirical tourist information office complete with fact sheets, walking tours, maps and souvenirs.

Read about this project.

Advice Bird at Portland Bill, a map with annotations from a line drawing of a small bird.

Critical access map overlay for disabled and elderly people, of Portland Bill (a tourist destination in the southwest of England, not a person, if you’re not from the UK and confused.)

Off-road wheelchair safari, 2022.

Another critical access map, made with disabled people and other participants at Southwell, Isle of Portland.

A monochrome engraving of people working on large sheets of paper in a wood-panelled office. There is a hexagonal placard on the wall, with an eye inside a pyramid in the centre.
The upstairs confabulation room of the Office for Imaginary History, circa 1867.
A newspaper from the 1970s with the headline LOCAL YOUTH SEES 'LIZARD MAN' and an "artist's impression" of the Lizard Man sighting- a hunched, scaly figure with horns and sharp teeth.
Portland Lizard Man.
A Victorian photograph of a museum specimen- a skeletal, rabbit like figure with horns emerging from the top of its head.
Horned lagomorphs of Portland.
A monochrome engraving of a masked man on horseback either handing over or taking a woman in a white dress and a feathered hat from an early motor car with two men sitting inside it.
Illegal wife sales.
Alistair Gentry dressed as an Imaginary History ranger, holding an empty coat hanger with with a label that says "Portland Office for Imaginary History imaginary souvenir t-shirt (imagine your own design)"
Imaginary souvenir T-shirt. Photo by Paul Box.
White wax bunny candles for sale, with a horn/wick emerging from each of their foreheads.
Taboo underground mutton candles. Photo by Paul Millson.
Black and white image of Alistair Gentry in an Imaginary History Ranger costume, talking to visitors in the office. On the wall behind him are information sheets and maps of Portland.
The Portland Office for Imaginary History in 2016. Photo by Paul Box.
Souvenirs from the Portland Office for Imaginary History: white wax bunny candle, Unique handmade artisinal dinosaur, purple P.O.f.I.H. fabric patch, Craft Eco Pebble, "plus a selection of postcards and stickers".
Souvenirs for sale in the Office for Imaginary History gift shop by Alistair Gentry.
Portland Office for Imaginary History logo- it is hexagonal, in shades of purple, with two "normal" eyes and a third purple eye placed between and above them. In the borders it says in Latin "Custode Terre Portus Ridiculum".
Badge of the Portland Office for Imaginary History by Alistair Gentry.
A print called "Flora of Portland" showing drawings of many plants with fantastical or illogical names.
Flora of Portland by Alistair Gentry.
A postcard labelled "The Isle of Portland" and showing four municipal tourist attraction signs: Keith Finch's House (CLOSED), Lizard Man, Fish Falls, Historical Kidnap Area (300 yds).
Signs for imaginary tourist sites on Portland by Alistair Gentry.

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Imaginary history tour for wheelchair and mobility scooter users. Alistair Gentry dressed as an Imaginary History Ranger, leading a group of people in mobility scooters through a public park with large trees.
Imaginary history tour for wheelchair and mobility scooter users. Photo by Peter Millson.
Alistair Gentry dressed as an Imaginary history ranger, holding up a frame with a transparency inside it. he and three other people are looking through it.
Imaginary history tour with transparency viewer. Photo by Peter Millson.
Alistair Gentry dressed as an Imaginary History ranger with a hi-vis jacket and cap, with mobility scooter users beside an old stone building.
Mobility scooter safari, 2021. Photo by Brendan Buesnel.
Seen from ground level, people on mobility scooters. Each scooter has a colourful sign on the front with a circular design and the the words "b-side festival".
Mobility scooter safari, 2021. Photo by Brendan Buesnel.