Otto Saumarez Smith

It's an account of meeting Bentley, in the diaries, but also reused fictionally in the Roll Call.

I'm *so* pleased! Isn't it good? Do you know Arnold Bennet's extraordinary description of Westminster going up.

grey cover of Bricks and Mortar reprint with colourful bookmark

2 pages from the book about Westminster Cathedral (Bentley)

Side view of Bentley's Westminster Cathedral from the side, red brick and white stripes against bright blue sky, camapanile furthest from camera

Thanks to @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social for recommending Helen Ashton's novel Bricks and Mortar, 1932, republished by Persephone. One of the few novels about architects, written with sympathetic understanding of the profession and the ambitions of two overlapping generations in British architecture /

The following letter was sent to the Master of the college by an English teacher in 1981:

All bangers. Such a great city for Modern churches. The best?

Madonna dei Poveri is incredibly moving.

Barbican revamp to give ‘bewildering’ arts centre a new lease of life Project will make the famously confusing London landmark easier to navigate and more accessible

Piece on the revamp of the Barbican (www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...) displays a depressing negativity from the project team, nobody appears to want to work with the grain of these thrilling spaces, & accessibility issues are grossly exaggerated: I know it’s a brilliant place for a wheelchair.

Slightly surreal for the Modern British City to be co-reviewed in the Literary Review alongside @holsmith.bsky.social's wonderful Up in the Air, on the page after my father's new book on Vanbrugh. Three excellent books I think, & Jerry White concludes of MBC that 'Its richness is truly staggering'.

I'm chasing why your author copy hasn't come! Sorry... We love your chapter.

Reader, holding a copy of the book “the modern British city 1945-2000”

just delivered… looking forward to reading! @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social @petermandler.bsky.social

I'm very proud of this book: it has a wonderful array of work by many of my favourite historians, which cumulatively makes the pitch for understanding modern British History through the lens of the urban. Lund Humphries have done a wonderful production job, & it is a big beautiful book. Buy it now!

Contested Commons

Formidably erudite, compellingly argued, and dryly humorous, Contested Commons will change the way you think about the politics of space, the "myth of the commons", and the history of England since the eighteenth century: MATTHEW KELLy, author of The Women Who Saved the English Countryside "Starting with Kennington Common, and ranging from Steeple Bumpstead to Sheffield, Stonehenge and Brixton, and with a cast that includes ramblers, ranters, revolutionaries and ravers, this is a superb, sweeping but fine-grained history. It's also a highly necessary, politically urgent reminder of what public space is - places for everyone, owned by everyone, accessible to everyone, whether carefully tended or wild - and what it isn't, the tradition of pseudo-public space that runs from Victorian parks to privatised malls.' OWEN HATHERLEY, author of A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain

A reminder that my book on the history of protest is now published. It is superbly produced with a great cover. Buy it now from @reaktionbooks.bsky.social

Staircase

Staircase

Wash rooms

Camping Fusina, 1958-9, a rather unlikely Carlo Scarpa project, but full of characteristic moments despite the low budget.

Launch event for the Modern British City at
@c20society.bsky.social on 26th of January: secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...

Do come!

The book is out with @lhartbooks.bsky.social next week.

Cool! Too far to hang out sadly. Enjoy

Where are you going?

A war memorial for an unexploded missile that landed in the Frari.

Sandbag protection of artworks in Venice in 1916, in anticipation of bombing.

Assistant Professor in Environmental History (111009-1125) at University of Warwick Explore an exciting academic career as a Assistant Professor in Environmental History (111009-1125). Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities.

🚨#History #envhist Job Alert: My Department is hiring an Assistant Professor in Environmental History.
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Come work with us at Warwick. You'll get both excellent colleagues and great students!

See details below... And do not hesitate to spread the word...
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www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPK289/a...

How nice! I had fun with it...

Chapter 7 Architecture and sociology: Oliver Cox and Mass Observation | Democratising History | University of London Press Transforming scholarly publications into living digital works.

That was a very happy chat! You might enjoy my first foray into interwar London: read.uolpress.co.uk/read/democra...

I’m reading it, learning a lot, & think it’s super.

Super piece. I loved it as the Frick, especially how utterly gorgeous the Fragonards looked; but it’s a space that will make all sorts of art sing, so just right for Sothebys.

Repopulating the high-rises A new history of Britain’s tower blocks reveals the ways architecture and ideology have combined to ensure residents are always forgotten

I’m in this week’s @newstatesman1913.bsky.social with a review of Holly Smith’s brilliant history of house rise council housing in Britain, Up in the Air
www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...

COMING SOON!
The Modern British City 1945-2000 brings together architectural, urban and social historians, to chart the extraordinary changes that took place in British cities between the end of the Second World War and the early 21st century...
Pre-order now! www.lundhumphries.com

A day teaching in Carlo Scarpa’s Castelvecchio. Magic.