Clik here to view.
Joe Gilbert's obsessions
Documentary film-maker Joe Gilbert is obsessed with brutalist buildings and postwar architecture. In a series of short films he's catalogued this obsession in great detail. Usually shot in black and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Dirty Modern Scoundrel Christmas Gift Guide 2017
Hello my lovelies. What on earth do you get that grouchy social geographer, town planner or brutalist fanatic for Christmas? Well, the Dirty Modern Scoundrel Christmas Gift Guide hopes to solve all...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cedric Price rips it up and starts again
What better way to start the new year, than with architectural anarchist and Fun Palace king Cedric Price ripping it up and starting again, talking about demolition in the early 1970s.Against a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Young People go to WH Smith
The internet. If you ignore all the Nazis, bots and people posting the laughing-weeping emoji it's brilliant.Well, this clip is, at any rate.An advert for WHSmith filmed in Croydon Whitgift Centre and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Outskirts, the paperback!
Very excited that the paperback of my book, Outskirts: Living Life on the Edge of the Green Belt, is out on 8th February.Obviously I'm all about buying books from actual shops with people and carpets...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Livingston – a Town for the Lothians
Here's another of those heroic new town corporation films from the 1960s. This is for one of the last new towns, Livingston in Scotland.It takes us on a journey from overcrowded Glasgow to bucolic...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How To Love Brutalism
April 2018 I have a new book published. How To Love Brutalism is published by Batsford, and is illustrated by the brilliant Brutal Artist. Here's what the publisher says:A passionate and personal book...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book events in 2018
So, I'm starting to get book events lined up for 2018. I'll add more to this page as they get confirmed.MARCH:Outskirts at Hyde Book Club, Leeds.Wednesday 21st March, 7pm, Hyde Park Book Club, 27-29...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Queen Elizabeth Hall, 1969
This is a remarkable recording. From 1969, a year after the Queen Elizabeth Hall opened on London's South Bank, came a landmark performance of Schubert's The Trout.The performers were Daniel Barenboim,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
New book Iconicon – can you help?
Very excited that my new book, Iconicon, was announced today by Faber and Faber. It's a sequel to Concretopia, covering the period 1980–2017. Here's the press release. It will be published in 2020, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Battle for Docklands: the story of the LDDC
Here's a film made in 1998 to help wrap up the London Docklands Development Corporation. Called The Battle for Docklands, the title is a little misleading, as it's a pretty rollocking 50 minute ride...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Outskirts – Shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize
Two weeks ago I was amazed to discover that Outskirts, my book on growing up on the edge of the green belt, had been shortlisted for the UK travel and nature writing award The Wainwright Prize.Find out...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Interview with The Brutal Artist
I've been getting a lot of questions about The Brutal Artist, the mysterious illustrator whose work has so enlivenedHow To Love Brutalism. So we conducted this email interview. Follow The Brutal Artist...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Interview with Outskirts illustrator Eleanor Crow
In 2017 Eleanor Crow provided ten illustrations for my book Outskirts. Her work may be familiar to you from her celebrated cover illustrations for books such as Golden Hill or Grief is the Thing with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sweeney on the South Bank
The Sweeney is one of the best places to view 1970s London. More often than not taking advantage of all the remaining derelict bomb sites and unreconstructed parts of the city, the show features...
View ArticleClik here to view.
My books...
Clever me, after all these years I still haven't managed to round up my books in one place on my own website. So here goes.My first was Concretopia: A Journey Around the Rebuilding of Postwar Britain,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pimlico, no passport required
Here's a charmer from 1950, a film of the construction of Churchill Gardens estate in Pimlico, one of the first bits of postwar rebuilding in London.It was designed by a couple of architects fresh from...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Coventry in the 1960s
Here's a couple of films of Coventry from the early 1960s, when the pioneering shopping precinct and cathedral were newly open.The first is from 1961 and shows the pedestrianised shopping precinct in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi in conversation, 1984
This is a great interview with those pioneering postmodernists, Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi. Recorded in 1984, it's part of a series of interviews by Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel. They...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Eames House
Here's a record of Charles and Ray Eames' house, recorded by the designers after 5 years of living there. As befits their jaunty infographic style the whole film is a montage of shots of the buildings...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sydney 1973-75
Given we're living IN THESE TIMES I thought I'd start posting a bit more regularly on here again, a bit of escapism to the postwar world.Here's two cinefilms made in Sydney between 1973 and 75. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Living City: London 1970
Here we are in the City of London in 1970, the year I was born. This is a film made by the Corporation of London, and this print via the London Metropolitan Archives is great, if a bit wobbly.Treats in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
TV Cream Pocast – Signs of the Times: That Little Bit Different
Travel back to the heady days of 1992 in this TV Cream podcast where novelist Rose Ruane and I chat about the Martin Parr-led documentary series Signs of the Times where residents describe their home...
View ArticleIt is the end, but the moment has been prepared for...
I've not posted on here for a long time, sorry about that. I am closing the blog now, dear old pal that it has been. Thanks so much for everyone who has read and shared posts, I really appreciate it. I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Follow my new writing on Substack
The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that I stopped writing this blog a few years back. But I've been looking for somewhere to post new articles in its place, and have created a Substack email,...
View Article