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 Teignmouth Atmospheres
On walking sideways through a place with Phil Smith
 
What I bring is this:
Teignmouth is almost the oldest seaside resort in Devon.The years of experience have ensured a wonderfully richholiday atmosphere.Teignmouth retains much of the quaint charm and homely atmosphere which has drawn generations of visitors
.In 1690, the year the clarinet was invented inNuremberg, the French invaded Teignmouth.
Or this:
A pen and a book.
Or this:
 An enquiry.
How will I know anatmosphere? It seems rather a large, all-encompassing thing. Like a parachute so big thatyou think it’s the firmament.
Two answers:
1. The pervading tone or mood of a place orsituation, especially with reference to thefeelings or emotions evoked.2. Atmos is vapour. The tone does indeed pervade. It goes through. It goesthrough me. But the tone pervades itself too. The town, ora street or a place or a space pervades itself with its owntone. The place constantly recreates itself by emitting andabsorbing its own tone. Just as I do - constantly recreatingmyself, emitting and absorbing my own tone. Sentient andconscious, I can also choose to – or seek to – change mytone, in a way that Higher Brimley cannot.Americans say ‘tony’. For posh. Tony Spice perhaps?Can I change the tone of the places we visit? Can I changethe atmosphere? Can we, together, change it? Can itchange me? Or us?
 
Stepping into the atmosphere, do I become part of it? Doesit absorb me? I breathe the vapour. Is my own atmosphereseparate from the atmosphere of the place?When the atmospherechanges, as on rounding astreet corner, what exactlychanges? Is there a line inthe air, as where two riversmeet? Or is it only thefeelings evoked in me thatchange?What about those feelingsevoked? Called out. Theatmosphere becomes a Siren,perhaps. Only a stronger tonecan resist it. My babble. Else,plug my ears with beeswaxand tie me to the mast. If Idon’t resist it, do I become a litmus? A litmusphere? Amoss dye?Arriving, I am aware of 
genius loci.
The spirit of the place. Is that atmosphere? Orsomething different? The spirit of the place is best found inthe tessellation of the pavement – the patterns we aremost familiar with as head-turned-down children scuffing ornot scuffing, hopscotching or crack-hopping in our newshoes. Is that atmosphere?I did not scuff or not scuff here. What do I know? There is vapour and there is spirit. Do I conflate these two?Blow or breathe them together?
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