Open plan offices and why I dislike them
August 1st, 2013
What follows is a compilation of thoughts originally expressed on Twitter. For more context listen to Lucy Kellaway talking about office space in this programme here:-
Forty years of UK housing in one graph
March 7th, 2013
The Guardian published a selection of results from the General Household Survey and the graph below caught my eye showing as it does the fall in council housing occupancy over 40 years.
How to make a documentary – Fifties War Films:Days of Glory
January 2nd, 2013
Simon Heffer is a man in love with his subject. This personal documentary sets the standard by which future documentaries ought be made and stands head and shoulders above many lesser films of recent years.
It is a personal journey through the war films of his youth which dramatised the events of the Second World War and made stars of the actors involved reminding us of the heroism of those they portrayed.
Anna Minton – Four Thought – Radio Four
November 1st, 2012
“It became clear to me that high security was especially a feature of very poor and very wealthy areas, a visual marker and reflection in the landscape of our sharply widening inequality.”
Still available here -> FourThought.mp3 <- Right click and Save As.
Of here if the BBC drop it -> FourThought.mp3 <- Right click and Save As.
Here’s Anna Minton writing in the Guardian on the day before her Radio 4 talk:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/oct/30/cctv-increases-peoples-sense-anxiety
Will Hutton put forward a similar point of view in an article about fairness for the Observer in September 2010.
“Ever more sophisticated CCTV policing the fortresses of the rich and the desolate housing estates of the disadvantaged has become the iconic social intervention of the age.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/26/them-and-us-will-hutton
#UCLStratford – Saving Carpenters Estate – 31st Oct 2012
November 1st, 2012
UPDATE: Keep an eye on future events UCLUSAVECARPENTERS
Last night I had the pleasure of attending a talk organised by the UCL Student Union about the future of the Carpenters Estate in Stratford, East London. By the start time of 1800 the lecture theatre was more or less full. Present were a majority of students, a few lecturers and three members of UCL management on the front row (including Andrew Grainger, Director, UCL Estates) both to see what they were up against (of which more later) and to answer the inevitable questions.
A write up by Michael Edwards is available here:-
http://michaeledwards.org.uk/?p=1135
and my own notes from the evening are available below.
Beds in sheds go legal
October 25th, 2012
UPDATE: Landlords solution to housing shortage live in a garage
Click photo for article (subscription required)
“Temporary structures that add low-cost housing to existing east London estates judged top in Building Trust International competition. Levitt Bernstein has defeated an 85-strong short list in the international contest to design low-cost, single-occupancy housing for urban areas. The studio’s winning proposal uses temporary structures to occupy redundant garages on housing estates in east London.”
Blue London
May 5th, 2012
This is a sad day for London. The election of Boris Johnson as Mayor for the second time, made worse by it being only a narrow victory, when seen in the light of his support for the Conservative administration of H&F and his planning decisions in support of the social cleansing policies of that borough, is not to be welcomed by anyone who cares about the plight of council tenants across London.
This blog was created as a direct result of an article in the Evening Standard on Thursday 9th July 2009 highlighting the intention of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham to rid the borough of council estates and their residents. In the nearly three years since they have gone some way towards this and certainly done little to reassure the worried that their intentions are otherwise.
How the other half live
May 3rd, 2012
Browsing the stats the other day I noticed a visit from Squire and Partners who converted the former Kensington Odeon into flats and a basement cinema. While looking at the drawings for the site, which normally contain outline images of kitchen units, sofas and a dining table, I was intrigued to notice that each of five apartments in a row, had a piano outlined. More in keeping with a music school than a residential street I would have thought or is this how the rich pass their time?
Kensington Odeon – Drawing
I regularly cycle along a street of three storey houses through whose bay windows may be seen a baby grand in a least half of them but all? Perhaps it was simply wishful thinking on the part of the architects in order to generate sales.
I have written to Squires to ask but have not so far received a reply. I’ll let you know when I do.
Cameron and the Police
March 3rd, 2012
There seems no end to the lengths this bunch of millionaire muppets will go to sell the family silver, well what’s left, but this really must be a bridge too far. The Guardian article that appeared yesterday has so far attracted over 2000 comments, a rare event even for the frantic bloggers from both sides of the Atlantic who keep an eye on such things. I’ve read most of them, of which the vast majority are bitterly against, and angry. This [edited] one below pretty much sums up how I feel about it all and if you want to look up my two short contributions they’re under Piecesofeight
3 March 2012 7:15PM
I’m outraged and shocked by it all naturally. In fact, I’m starting to suspect that Cameron is on a mission to make sure the Conservatives are never a palatable voting option for an entire generation and he’s doing a brilliant job at it.
St Paul’s Cathedral sightlines
February 25th, 2012
29/11/16 – This article is rather out of date. If the sightlines are important to you please keep an eye on this webpage:-
London View Management Framework
UPDATE: 25/11/16 – and another one Manhattan Lofts Stratford
If the following is the result of the present building restrictions supposedly preventing visual clutter obscuring or degrading the views of St Paul’s Cathedral from well known landmarks around London then why bother? They have clearly been watered down to the point of no return. I thought they were intended to PROTECT the views of St Pauls from a set of established points around London including Primrose Hill. Who is responsible for this change? Ken or Boris? How is this protecting the view of St Pauls from Parliament Hill? I am horrified.
The best exposition I have seen on TV about the St Pauls sightlines has been from Andrew Marr in his series Britain from Above when he devoted a whole section of the programme to the Abercrombie plan for London and to the subject of sightlines.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/britainfromabove/stories/buildingbritain/3dmodelling.shtml