Liz Taylor invites history teachers to consider how diverse and uncommon the ‘common’ person’s experience of place might be. She draws upon cultural geography to show how words like ‘place’, ‘space’ and ‘landscape’ can be unpacked and questioned and so become better tools for pupils’ critical thinking in both geography and history classrooms. A key purpose of the article within this edition is to develop history teachers’ awareness of some different approaches to place (in particular, sense of place, a relational approach to place, power relationships in place and iconography of landscape) and present some of the debates. Broader and more informed approaches to the idea of place have much to offer history teachers who are seeking fresh ways to develop pupils’ historical thinking, curiosity and knowledge.