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The Ladybird Book of Postwar Rebuilding
Since I first wrote about the Ladybird books obsession with modernism (article here) I've become increasingly fascinated by the role they played in fostering a spirit of excitement in Britain's postwar...
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Licking Modernity
Despite my recent brush with the splendour of the Modern University Buildings stamps, I'm not a stamp collector, but my eldest brother is. He was keen to show me some of his recent finds, and among...
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Full of lost luggage and lost souls
Here's a couple of short films about Preston. The first is 56,000, about Preston Bus Station, by Andrew Wilson and Paul Adams. It's a lovely short film shot (or at east edited) in black and white,...
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Life and Death
Taberner House is being demolished. You might think that Croydon town centre is overrun with landmarks. There are, after all, over forty office blocks jostling for attention. But few of them are...
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Drowning in Berlin
The small brass studs in the pavement weren't obvious, and it was only on our third trip to the high street that we noticed them. Adam and I were staying in a flat in Wedding, north Berlin, a sprawling...
View ArticleThe housing crisis: postwar edition
With our current housing crisis being so timidly tackled, I thought it might be interesting to look back at some Pathe news clips of how we dealt with previous crises. I hadn't realised quite what gems...
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Prefab, Post fab, and just fab
Every time I've visited Britain's largest remaining assembly of prefabs, the Excalibur Estate in Catford, it rains. I've become used to the sight of them huddled low under black clouds, the great...
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The Curious Files – my new blog for Faber
In my working life – the bit that happens during the day rather than the edges that involve writing about concrete modernism and watching old newsreels – I work for publishers Faber and Faber on their...
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Farewell to the Didcot Sisters
Didcot A Power Station. Photo from https://twitter.com/OGBCollinsEarly this morning, three of the most recognisable landmarks in the country were demolished. The three cooling towers of Didcot A Power...
View ArticleLiving at Thamesmead, 1973
This is a slightly strange and rather charming semi-fictionalised 1973 promotional film about Thamesmead, the vast modernist new town near Woolwich on the banks of the Thames.I've already posted a link...
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Carry On Modernism
While Britain modernised itself between the fifties and the seventies, our most conspicuous cinematic output was the Carry On series, lasting for 30 films between 1958 and 1978, with one further errant...
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How We Used to Live
I am a fan of Saint Etienne. I am a postwar history obsessive. I love the Barbican. So the screening of Saint Etienne's archive film How We Used To Live at the Barbican last night was pretty much my...
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Concrete events
Town centre and carpet mills, Halifax, West Yorkshire ©Edwin Smith / RIBA Library Photographs CollectionSo, I have a couple of events in London lined up for autumn 14.Bookmarks Bookshop, Thursday 16th...
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South London Hardcore
I was very lucky to be asked to be a guest on South London Hardcore, the brilliant podcast by Jack Mcinroy and Steve Walsh. As they told me, they used to only cover areas with SE or SW in the postcode,...
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Ernő Goldfinger – audio style
Here are four beautifully made radio programmes/soundscapes by James Torrance on Ernő Goldfinger. Under the title Homes of Tomorrow, Torrance has organised his thoughts and material on Ernő into four...
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Richard Seifert in the Sixties
Buildings by Richard Seifert and Partners are surprisingly easy to spot. Especially those designed by George Marsh. There's an avoidance of the right angle to an almost obsessive degree, leading to the...
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The Lansbury Estate, Poplar, in One Wish Too Many
Here's a Children's Film Foundation film from 1956, called One Wish Too Many. It was filmed in the Lansbury Estate, designed by Frederick Gibberd for the 1951 Festival of Britain.It's a lovely bit of...
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The Michael Faraday memorial, by Rodney Gordon
The Faraday Memorial in Elephant and Castle was designed by Rodney Gordon, more famous for his 'Get Carter' Trinity Square carpark in Gateshead and the Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth, both now pulled...
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Killingworth and Cramlington – the almost New Towns
Here's an extract from a lovely 1970 film A New Life, made for Northumberland County Council about Cramlington, Northumberland and Killingworth, North Tyneside. Killingworth was a locally sponsored...
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Maxwell Fry and the Kensal Green flats, 1938
So this is the worst quality film I've posted on this site, but it's also one of the most interesting. The audio is terribly degraded, but can occasionally be tuned into, and although the visuals are...
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