Brutalism
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Some things I saw in Bristol
The promise of hills from drizzly Victoria Park, while walking the dog. A hot air balloon factory, guarded by a Batman / Stimpy amalgamation. An Intercity 125 on its way to Cardiff. And a Brutalist car park, though not the one threatened with demolition. Read more
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Park Hill: Urban Splashback
In Sheffield for Offbeat, and with an hour to kill at the station, I climbed up through the snow to see how the redevelopment of Park Hill is going, eight and a half years since my last visit. Back in 2014, the privatised, brightly cladded section [1] was at the bottom of the hill, but Read more
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Balfron Tower: then and now
A short, insomniac post from me, on this grey Wednesday morning, to note that flats for the refurbished Balfron Tower are finally on sale. Oliver Wainwright has all the grim details here. And here’s what I wrote about it back in 2015. And on a related, entertaining-timing note, here is an investigation into the landlord Read more
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REVIEW: Clean Living under Difficult Circumstances: Finding a Home in the Ruins of Modernism, by Owen Hatherley
As the title implies, Owen Hatherley is trying his best in trying times. This collection of his essays covers everything from tributes to Black Box Recorder to shop signs in Walthamstow High Street, from early blog posts to recent essays for the London Review of Books, as Britain staggers from late Blairism to coalition austerity Read more
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Wimpy #4: Worthing
A hiatus! A palpable hiatus! It has been ten months since my last Wimpy visit, before Lockdown III came along and made burger restaurant-based geographical sagas tricky. It’s been ages since the government’s specific ban on travelling up and down the country reviewing Wimpys was lifted, but I’ve been busy running comedy nights, walking dogs Read more
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Open House: South Norwood Library and St Bernards, Croydon.
My understanding of London’s Open House began with a vision of queues: hoardes at the gates of the Foreign Office or some other shining city on the hill grudgingly opening up for the hoi polloi for one weekend a year; to reveal where all those tax dollars go. The social media moans about the wait Read more
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Balfron Tower, Poplar
The National Trust are running tours of a Brutalist masterpiece in east London. The stock warnings on their website as you book – picnic hampers are usually allowed, but check before your visit – reveal that this isn’t your typical NT territory. We are advised to meet outside a cafe in Poplar called Starlight. Unexpectedly Read more
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