Alistair Fair

Theatre at demolition risk over Raac loses listed building bid East Lothian Council has said it has little option but to demolish the Brunton Theatre building.

Disappointing news about the non-listing of the Brunton Theatre, despite it being deemed list-able by HES. A replacement building will cost £50m+, replacing the roof was estimated at £22m... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A screenshot from Duolingo for (Scottish) Gaelic, which translates as 'I need a new house, I need an architect'

Alistair: let's de-centre the architect in architectural-historical writing. Meanwhile Duolingo:

My copy of this issue of the AR came via a colleague who had various things that had once belonged to Percy Johnson-Marshall, one of the Coventry planners in the 1940s. Given that the cover says 'Johnson' in biro I do wonder if this issue once was his.

Cover of the Architectural Review, 1950, showing a drawing of the proposals for central Coventry

Archive-based teaching this afternoon, on the post-war reconstruction of central Coventry.

experience: the Barbican Arts Centre's men's with the very long trough urinals and foot-operated sinks.

I've long wanted to see the theatre: an important influence on the Festival Hall as well as post-war British theatres.

to my great delight, I've just discovered a version of that clock online: aj-computing.co.uk/network-sout...

I like this though the numbers don't seem to sit entirely happily in the circle - as you say, analogue would be good. (All that said, they could and maybe should just have reinstated the Network SouthEast clackety 24 hour clocks)

essay prompt: 'discuss the "wide variety of retail and cultural experiences" imagined by Ebenezer Howard'

Love that little curved balcony above the entrance. I'm imagining proclamations of interest rates and such things!

A tortoiseshell cat, sitting on curled up human legs, on which a copy of a book is also visible. The human to whom the legs belong is sitting on a carpeted floor, and is in increasing discomfort due to not being very flexible.

End of week reading. @samwetherell.bsky.social's excellent new urban history of post-war Liverpool.

Three drawings on a table. That on the left is a 1951 perspective of Coventry Cathedral, in colour. The two on the right are quicker sketches in Spence's hand which explore massing and lighting.

Yesterday - teaching @edincollegeofart.bsky.social Architectural History students in the archive. Drawings of Coventry Cathedral from the Basil Spence archive, as well as many other items that showed the collaborative process by which the cathedral was designed and built.

I'd long wondered if Clarence was an acronym (because Strathclyde had a wee dog called RALF - Road & Light Faults). I thought it might be 'Central and Lothian something'; it was Customer Lighting And Roads ENquiry CEntre.

An image of the character 'Mr Therm', dressed in a school cap and with a satchel, in front of a photo of a school. Caption: Mr Therm goes to the newest schools. This was an advert for gas-fired hot water and central heating

First day of the new academic year @edincollegeofart.bsky.social. This semester's teaching includes my course on architecture in Britain 1919-56.

The SE is doing a tribute to Bridget Riley

There's a lot to be said for 1970s houses and flats - at their best, they can be really well planned. Many congratulations!

New towns stuff! It was very good to talk to @charlielynch.bsky.social for this feature. The book is still available - in print but also as an open access (free!) e-book at www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?do...

I have to say that I quite like the Reader title even though it often needs explaining! But then I have always been a bit contrary.

Recently @vawright10.bsky.social and I were interviewed for a podcast about the Scottish new towns book which we recently co-wrote (and which is available Open Access for free download via bloomsburycollections, though you can also buy a copy in print if you wish!)

A projecting oriel window in polychromatic stonework, with part of two pointed arches below

Northampton Guildhall extension - 1991 by Stimpson Walton Bond. Contextual Gothic to echo the adjacent Victorian Gothic.

A building with a decorated stone facade including carved lettering saying 'Malcolm Inglis and Company, Glasgow'

A concave arch above a doorway with the words 'let Glasgow flourish' and a carving of St Mungo plus two salmon

Malcolm Inglis building, Northampton (1900). Built for a leather and hide factor. A piece of Glasgow especially in the carving above the entrance, where we have St Mungo and the two salmon from the city's coat of arms.

A Duolingo screen saying 'There is not enough Gaelic in the world', in English, then 'chan eil Gàidhlig gu leòr anns an t-saoghal' which is the translation into Scottish Gaelic

Important message from today's Duolingo session

I was in Digbeth for the first time in years recently for a new towns thing and was astonished by the changes as the HS2-related wave of housing sweeps in

YouTube video by EvenThisNameTaken Linda Jardim - (60 Miles by Road or Rail) Northampton

Working on Northampton new town. Today's discovery is that a promotional record about the town was issued as a single in 1980. It had a version of the song with lyrics about aliens on the A-side with the promotional version, '60 Miles by Road or Rail', on the B-side. www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7ZQ...

Former Debenhams/Bon Marché store, Gloucester: the early 1960s part of the building very like the Festival Hall's original 1951 elevations, especially the small windows to the left which echo those which originally illuminated the RFH's side fire escape stairs.

'Why, there's another hankersniff!'

Watch this space for an Essex Design Guide article...on my list of things to write up this autumn.

A small tortoiseshell cat sleeping on a beige carpet

A morning of course admin and intranet stuff for next semester. Luna has appeared to offer moral support.

Good to see this chapter in print, perfectly timed to go on the reading list for my course on interwar architecture next semester!

Didn't know about the Lock plan - must look it up. In the early 1970s, there was a plan to put a theatre on the riverside and designs were made by Rod Ham (who'd done the Leatherhead Thorndike). The idea must trace its roots back to the Lock plan.