Matt Bristow

Sorry 617 Squadron, sorry Barnes Wallis, sorry Operation Chastise. Y'all just aren't on Trump's level 🙄

Some 100 private jets will fly to Venice for Jeff Bezos' wedding, and I recycle yoghurt cup lids.

Fun fact, the text book for that GCSE History of Medicine module was written by the late Ian Coulson of Kent VCH. There’s always a VCH link if you look hard enough.

Ironically, if that happens, I then need to cheer for a Chelsea win in the Europa Conference final. It’s a funny old game 😂

Know that feeling. Keeping everything crossed for a Forest win today to keep Chelsea in 7th

A couple of pics from our visit to the Devil’s Arrows this week. #standingstonesunday

I'm not a huge consumer of podcasts, but this one is excellent. If you're into 20th century urban planning and the more 'out there' proposals for the post-war reconstruction of Britain, this is likely to be very much your thing!

I'm the first guest on an excellent new podcast series by Ewan Cameron on utopian design. I'm chatting about Geoffrey Jellicoe's provocative Motopia scheme.

You can find Brave New Worlds on any podcast platform, and here it is on Spotify:
open.spotify.com/episode/7n99...

Now, I’m not saying Historic England should bring out a line of Action Figures but I’m certainly not saying they shouldn’t 😂😂😂

In a functioning world, the SEC would be looking very closely at the positions taken by Trump’s stock portfolio over the past 10 days. Anyone who sold stock before the tariff announcement, bought it back at the dip and sold it again after the tariff pause, made a ton of cash!

Lost? Or discarded in a wild, frustrated rage?

They called it Project 25 for a reason….

It’s clearly the very rare albino ghost from Pac Man.

The kids are in bed, the wife is still too hungover to function properly, so I’m downstairs on my own, watching junk on the tv, drinking an espresso martini and mainlining After Eight mini eggs. So much winning!

So it’s World Book Day today and for once we were organised enough to put in some effort. Corey was desperate to go as Roz the Wild Robot from the @peterbrownstudio.com novel which he loved us reading to him. A couple of balloons and a bunch of papier mache later…. #worldbookday

One small piece of analysis missing from recent events is that Trump has also killed the entire spy/espionage genre of fiction/tv. How can a writer produce something gripping about turning assets, tradecraft, covert operations when the Kremlin control the actual President?

Can’t believe @chrisgpackham.bsky.social does a #foxoftheday and I’ve never sent in the photo of this handsome fella peeking in through my patio doors. That wrong has now been righted.

The Welsh told the Saxons this hill was called "pen" (meaning "hill"). The Saxons added their word for hill, "tor," and called it Torpen (hill hill).

Later the Norse added their world for hill. So it became Torpen Haugr (Hill Hill Hill).

Now the English call it Torpenhow Hill (Hill Hill Hill Hill)

Interesting that the Lib Dem’s aren’t making headway. Partly of course the massively disproportionate amount of coverage Reform get based on only 5 MPs. Also suspect that Lib Dem’s not being bold enough on key areas of difference, namely Europe.

These are two of the ones me and Marcus are currently working on. 1778 and 1785

Image of a building on an old Sanborn map, labeled “stable - used also for lard storage”.

Me filling out an online dating profile

It would also be remiss not to mention Elizabeth Williamson’s Pevsner work on Docklands www.abebooks.co.uk/978014071096...

Pub and smaller shop, Lincoln, Corby New Town, Northamptonshire Buy Pub and smaller shop, Lincoln, Corby New Town, Northamptonshire by Corby Development Corporation Architects Department from the RIBApix online shop. Ref RIBA63848

It looked rather striking from the other side, coming in off the Lincoln Way piazza. RIBA Pix have a nice view of it shortly after it opened. www.ribapix.com/Pub-and-smal...

Farage has also underestimated quite how unpopular Musk is over here. ‘Because Elon says it’s good’ moved the needle in the states, it won’t here and his brand is only likely to get more toxic the more mad his pronouncements get. Dumping on Starmer via X only excites those who’d vote Reform anyway.

How many are still open? Open hearth was closed when we were there, Corby Candle too I think. Pluto long gone and Corinthian too. Think the Maple Leaf was also closed - has Canada Square gone altogether now?

Didn’t know that about the Talisman, which we did visit while wandering around Danesholm. We also went in the Rockingham Arms. Would have loved to have been in the Golden Cockerel when the Lincoln Sector was shiny and new. Sounds like it had a wacky interior with light up Perspex sculpture.

A History of the County of Northampton - Boydell and Brewer Comprehensive and authoritative history of Corby and Great Oakley, charting their growth and development from the early medieval period to the present day.Ly...

Thanks Mark. Good old Corby. I know it very well and edited a history of it a few years back boydellandbrewer.com/978190435637.... The pubs are interesting collection. The Rockingham Arms is a high quality design, while the Open Hearth has an interesting planning history.

Interesting, which pub? We might have visited pre-pandemic.

UK's weird, wonderful and largely overlooked estate pubs are quickly vanishing Architectural investigators Matthew Bristow and Emily Cole warn that post-war drinking dens have fallen out of fashion, yet symbolise an important part of the UK's history

Before the bleakness of 2025 really sets in, why don’t you treat yourself to me waffling on to the Mirror about post-war pubs www.mirror.co.uk/travel/uk-ir...

03.22! Yeah we can still do it! Happy New Year y’all