Sian Broadhurst

A formal horse and carriage drives through a decorative archway that welcomes visitors in German. In the background is the village of New Earswick

In 1909 the German Garden City Association visited the UK, including the garden village of New Earswick

Sun shining on a beautiful lake surrounded by trees. In the distance there a few people swimming

Last outdoor swim of the year - 13.5 degree water temp is definitely my limit even in the beautiful sun

Allotment competition certificate

Leek entrants dismissed for being too short and having secondary growth

Brass bands playing under a gazebo with brightly coloured deckchairs in front

5 beautiful pinky - purple Dalias in the allotment completion

Allotment life is a welcome break from the news. Though the leek judges are tough. We will be celebrating our third place in the best newcomer category and my wife has accepted that she will now be forever known as Harry

a man in a military uniform says are we the baddies Alt: The Mitchell and Webb sketch of a man in a black military uniform with a skull on the caps says ‘are we the baddies’?

Trump announces that the Department of Defense will now be the Department of War

At this stage in the PhD it is becoming very definite that I am allergic to some books. I do mean this literally. Thankfully not all books and not yet had a problem with archive papers so now got to figure out the pattern. Still, pretty devastating

I suspect we’ve gone as far as a 300 character exchange is going to take us. We may not agree on this but I appreciate the dialogue

They should be able to make a profit, but I am cynical of financial viability assessments that reduce responsibilities locally (and they will drop social housing first because the other amenities contributes to value of private housing) while still achieving v healthy profits overall

Yes, but if the developers don’t pay for wider facilities under S106 then the costs fall to local authorities or other parts of the public sector. Meanwhile the developers are still able to make decent profits nationally whole claiming locally that schemes aren’t viable if asked to meet these costs

The big house builders have operating margins between 12 and 20%. When they escape their responsibilities in providing basic amenities the money is not being spent on more social housing. Government subsidy for social housing is separate from the point that the Guardian article was making

But then I think you know all this. It seems unlikely that a Labour MP and a history graduate doesn’t have some sense of the problems created by housing developments built without facilities - or the logic of new towns in making sure that there are plans for these things

Houses without access to facilities, transport, employment opportunities, and community networks are unlikely to provide good homes. How people feel about their wider environment and circumstances shapes what goes on at home

Photo of a large advert for the Suburbia exhibition at Vienna Museum of Architecture. Includes an overhead photo of a suburban sprawl and has the subtitle ‘living the American Dream’. It runs until the 4th August 2025

Karl Marx Hof - the world’s longest residential building and reminiscent of a castle. 7 storey building with large archways with trees in the background. Building is pink and sandstone, imposing, and has statues under flagpoles representing different aspects of working class life

The Hundertwasserhaus combines building and nature. It is a large building with lots of colour, trees and other greenery growing out of the building.

Not much time left but if any housing geeks happen to be in Vienna this week then the Suburbia exhibition is worth a look. We combined it with a trip to Karl Marx Hof and Hundertwasserhaus

This kind of take makes me want to weep. We’ve been here before. Building houses without transport and facilities is a false economy that stores up problems that take decades to undo

Building housing without an eye to how the community will function is a false economy

Priorities are important but Bevan’s words still ring true: “while we shall be judged for a year or two by the number of houses we build… we shall be judged in 10 years’ time by the type of houses we build”

Table with various produce from an allotment: lettuce, potatoes, beetroot, raspberries, red currants, and gooseberries

Obsessed with allotment life

Courtyard of Nowa Huta steel works with socialist realism architecture

Inside the steel works admin building, imposing corridor with 1950s furniture and lots of marble

Map of Nowa Huta a communist planned city with lots of green space

The internal roads and building of one of the neighbourhoods in the town. Lots of mature trees and Soviet architecture

Wondering how many planned communities, new towns and model villages I can fit into this holiday before my wife puts her foot down. We start with Nowa Huta (with bonus points for the steel works admin building tour)

Author Val McDermid and her wife, geography professor Jo Sharp, take part in the Pride parade through Edinburgh city centre on Saturday afternoon

𝘐𝘔𝘈𝘎𝘌: 𝘑𝘢𝘯𝘦 𝘉𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘰𝘸/𝘗𝘈 𝘞𝘪𝘳𝘦/𝘗𝘈 𝘐𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴

I’m not sure photoshop is even the right word for this. That seems to imply an attempt to look real. This was labelling - a key to understand the supposed symbols. Nothing about it was designed to look real. Can’t wait to hear his gangland interpretation of ‘fig. 1’

A half sized allotment that is pretty well tended, with a greenhouse in place, and very near the communal kitchen

So excited to have made it to the top of the allotment waiting list and I think we have struck lucky with the plot

Hopscotch taken very seriously around these parts. 1 - 50 and back again

Quakers condemn police raid on Westminster Meeting House Police broke into a Quaker Meeting House last night (27 March) and arrested six young people holding a meeting over concerns for the climate and Gaza.

You think the arbitrary arrest of political dissenters cannot happen in the UK? It already does. www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-eve...

Photo from the walkway looking up to York uni’s brutalist library with a sculpture in the foreground

York uni’s brutalist concert hall

Sunny days on campus really show off York’s brutalism

Personal in medieval armor with a cat in the background

Our boy is an angry cat. He has a special note on his vet’s file. Sometimes they resort to a muzzle. Sometimes they sedate. We are trying to get several doses in a day armed with nothing more than a towel and the advice to gently stroke his chin…

Illustration of a woman in a laboratory with the text 'Analyses, formulae, compounds, distillations, sediments - she's always on the go. The analytical chemist is full of problems; who isn't, in these days? And so, like other hard-working folk, she's glad of a cup of Rowntree's Cocoa, so soothing to nerves that are forever keyed up. Many a housewife too, coping with all the problems that even now still beset her, finds that Rowntree's Cocoa calms down her jangled nerves and aids digestion. Unlike so many drinks, it contains body building protein, energy-giving carbohydrate and fat. Rowntree's Cocoa soothes frayed nerves'.

In 1945 Rowntree's launched a campaign advertising their cocoa to women at home & in the workplace. As well as being architects, designers, musicians, reporters, librarians and bank tellers, the campaign also showed women as analytical chemists and scientific assistants #WomenInScience #WomenInSTEM

Everything you've been told about the 'unpopularity' of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods is a lie.

Information sheet from Newcastle Council showing plans for a rain garden, designed to mitigate against flooding.

A terrace street has one end blocked off to prevent through traffic. The road end has been turned into a rain garden with seats, planting, and bug houses

Flooding in Chillingham road in Newcastle

I wonder whether the closure of these roads (c2009?) were as controversial as recent attempts to expand LTN measures in Heaton. The new garden looks nice, remains to be seen if it will prevent flash flooding on Chillingham Road

External facade of the Farrell Centre / Claremont tea rooms

Concreted Dreams exhibition

Killingworth towers - a series of 1960s tower blocks demolished 15 years after opening

Friday afternoon pick me-up: some 1960s planning followed by tea and cake

Slide by @toderianUW.bsky.social saying “Adding car lanes to deal with traffic congestion is like loosening your belt to cure obesity.“ – Lewis Mumford, 1955

It's a goal of mine to help make this the most famous, well-known and UNDERSTOOD quote about cities in history. Please share it as much as you can. #InducedDemand

Newcastle, UK, has the Farrell Centre established by the University (Sir Terry Farrell is an alum). Not huge, a couple of rooms for exhibition space, but an active programme of events, lectures, city walks etc www.farrellcentre.org.uk