Sally Watson

What is active travel? Opens up the discussion about how we’ve come to give something so everyday such an incomprehensible name.

Active travel groups call for clear targets on walking and cycling in England Exclusive: Groups including British Cycling call for active travel strategy to be put on equal footing with road and rail

‘A DfT spokesperson said: “We have committed £616m to Active Travel England up to 2030’ - a pretty paltry sum.

www.the guardian.com/politics/2025/dec/07/active-travel-groups-call-for-clear-targets-on-walking-and-cycling-in-england

Someone spent time on this and it must have passed over several people’s desks, and yet here we are. What does it take to change that culture?

I couldn’t fit this in the review, but it was a joy to have a strange augmented experience reading this with google street view and the NLS historic maps layers open, it brought the pages to life in a really marvellous way

maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/...

Lament for a lost London | The Observer

In The Observer, I’ve reviewed Songs Of Seven Dials: @tricksterprince.bsky.social’s fascinating, detailed history of the changing streets of Covent Garden through the early c20th. From race to jingoistic media to gentrification, a book full of resonances today

observer.co.uk/culture/book...

It was one of those buildings I got to know as a child and just thought was magical.

I should have just emailed 🤦‍♀️

We used to go to the Christmas Eve service there sometimes when visiting my cousins for Christmas. A very special place for me.

Sketch of the inside of Coventry Cathedral showing the altar

Day 6 of #sketchpadvent shows a Basil Spence illustration of Coventry Cathedral from his 1962 book Phoenix at Coventry

That would be brilliant - thank you so much! What’s the best way to get in touch?

Restoring children's freedom to play out: let's seize the moment Society is waking up to children's right and need to play out; councils and orgs around the UK are taking action, come and get inspired !

Tomorrow I'll be talking through the political process we went through on Wirral to get outdoor play on our council Work Programme.

Join the latest @playingout.bsky.social webinar if you can! Lots of other good stuff on the agenda as well 😎😀

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/restoring-...

Hi Keith. We’d love to invite someone to talk about cycle campaigning in NI at an @activetravelcaf.bsky.social next year - I don’t suppose you would be at all interested in doing this?

Illustration of eighties businessmen by an urban park in Central Milton Keynes

It's #sketchpadvent – celebrating amazing modernist concept drawings and models. December 1: Milton Keynes from 1981

To mark Disability History Month, explore how women’s experiences have shaped disability history and why they must be counted.

Read Dr Coreen McGuire’s article for the Women’s History Network:
womenshistorynetwork.org/making-women...

#DisabilityHistoryMonth #WomensHistory #Inclusion #Accessibility

Pavement Parking: An Unhappy Fifth Birthday | Streets Ahead We wish the government's pavement parking consultation its unwanted fifth birthday

NEW POD EPISODE! 🚨An unhappy fifth birthday. Five years and four prime ministers since the pavement parking consultation ended, and still no action.

What will it take to reclaim pavements?

shows.acast.com/streets-ahea...

Another play feature being removed after being neglected for many years and criticised for attracting anti-social behaviour - Leazes Park to lose its maze

I didn't know what to make of the Apollo Pavilion before I went to see it today, but I ended up spending 40 minutes just marvelling at it and taking photos.

YouTube video by SPYE SPYE Spring concert 2024

If you live in or near Newcastle and have a young person who'd like to join an orchestra, St Paul's Youth Ensemble could be for them. This is from their spring concert at St George's in Jesmond (bonus is getting to spend the afternoon here when they perform!) - www.youtube.com/shorts/Dgq_j...

Also a Helios Circe tandem but this one was shared

Now this is one I can do (although brand only - have no idea what the names are 😂)
Cannondale (never again)
Thorn (sturdy but impractical)
Cortina ❤️
Santos ❤️❤️

Page from 'Lollard Adventure Magazine', written by Lambeth children in the 1950s. It includes a drawing of a 'Teddy Boy' with accompanying text: "This is a real Teddy boy. There are lots of Teddy boys in Lambeth. I think they look smart. They have all sorts of styles in their hair. They are all stuck up, but quite stupid in their ways. I am never going to be a Teddy boy. David Jones." "Once a Teddy boy and a Teddy girl were walking along the road when they met each other and they said to each other, "Where are you going?" and they said, "I'm not going anywhere". Then the Teddy boy said, "Come to a dance at the Royal Log hotel". When they were there, they said, "Will you marry me?" So the next week they got married and they weren't a Teddy boy and Teddy girl any more because they liked to live ordanairy." "THE TEDDY BOY. Once there was a Teddy boy and he was a little shrimp but he could fight very good. He used to go and show off. One day he broke into a bank and took a thousand pounds. He was chased and caught and on the way he killed a man and he was caught and got hung. Leslie Presley."

Page from 'Lollard Adventure Magazine', written by Lambeth children in the 1950s. It includes a drawing of five children doing the 'Six five hand jive' and text: "Rock 'n Roll. I'm crazy about Pat Boone, He just sends me like a balloon. Maureen Sullivan." "When I grow up I want to be a typist and type fast at the typewriter. I go to Walnut Tree Walk School. I want to get ten guineas from work and work over London somewhere. When I've got all that money I will spend it on clothes then take a holiday. Then I will spend the other that I have left. I will spend it for food and things. Carole Brookman."

Page from 'Lollard Adventure Magazine', written by Lambeth children in the 1950s. It includes a drawing of the head of a 'Teddy Boy' with accompanying text: "The Teddy Boy. I saw a 'Teddy Boy' last night. His great big razor gave me a nasty fright. His turned-up velvet collar And his jutting out cigar Made him look like a villain His drain-pipe trousers And his awkward looking shoes Made me hurry away - Hurry, before he did chase me If he did choose. A. Pritchard." "My Birthday. My birthday was on Sunday And I am ten years old I have got six birthday cards And four birthday presents. A bucket bag, A tin of toffees, Seven and six, And a box of handerchiefs. But I did not have a party I could not have a party For my baby sister's illl. Anne Sweeny." "Rain Rain! Rain! Rain! Fall upon the house tops Fall upon the green grass Hang like beads On the flat leaves But don't rain on me please! Maureen Sullivan"

Page from 'Lollard Adventure Magazine', written by Lambeth children in the 1950s. It includes a drawing of a country cottage in a field, with smoke coming out of the chimney, and accompanying text: "Trip to the country I went to Sevenoaks on Sunday to see some lady and I came home at 7 o'clock and I went at 3 o'clock and it was a nice day down there and I had tea with Mrs. Rook. Billy Long." "The Red Spotted Car One fine Spring day, a car drew into our village of Townsend. It was a bright yellow car with red spots on - quite an unusual car. It stopped outside our house and out stepped a queer looking little man. He got up onto the top of his car and started ringing a bell. Everyone came running out of their houses to see what was happening. When everyone was quiet, the little man began to speak. He said, "I wish to marry our Queen Caroline. If she refuses to marry me I will bring disaster to your town and everyone will be killed." Then he got down and back into his car and drove away."

The late 1950s through children's imagination - pop culture, aspirations, tea and sudden death

The 'Lollard Children's Magazine', linked with the Lollard Street adventure playground, gave Lambeth kids a space to express themselves on the page #HistChild

mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/LAH/...

SHS Annual Conference 2026 Our 50th anniversary conference will be held at Lancaster University, the academic home of the Social History Society. A Significant Milestone The Social History Society was founded at Lancaster Un…

🚨 Call for Papers! 🚨

📣Join us @lancasteruni.bsky.social 1-3 July 2026 as we return to our original home to celebrate our 50th anniversary!

We welcome proposals from historians at all career stages across 8 thematic strands.

📅 CfP deadline: 16/01/26
🔗 socialhistory.org.uk/events/confe...

#CFP 🗃️

After a decade of raising this and getting zero response I am sure you are right

Cannot imagine what these families must be going through. This road is so dangerous but it doesn’t seem to matter how many times parents complain of this, cars come first. Hope some people in Newcastle City Council are taking a long hard look at their priorities and working out how to change this.

About time.

Coming soon!

Families of road death victims in West Midlands safety campaign Letters from families who lost their loved ones are on display for Road Safety Week.

We could change the design of our roads to address this crisis, like other cities are doing, but that might inconvenience car owners, so planners and politicians are choosing this option instead.

A map showing a new cycle route in yellow dotted line, redirecting part of NCN2 in Devon onto traffic-free paths, with the title Cycleways to nowhere

I FOI'd English councils whether they use legal land purchase powers to create traffic-free paths. Just 1% said they have successfully.

Why is something that's so common for roads almost never done for cycle routes? And what does it mean for cycling?
lauralaker.substack.com/p/cycleways-...

Call for chapters! Amy Tooth Murphy and I are editing the Routledge Handbook of Oral History Theory, and we are seeking contributions from a range of scholars and practitioners. See our full call here. oralhistory.org/2025/11/11/c...

They got rid of most of the people and the buildings. Carrying on with clearance into the 1990s so they could build a ‘boulevard’.