Happy new year to everyone. This post has in fact been in the making for years – further delayed by Covid-related workload – as I have tried to collect my thoughts and fill in gaps and it can still only scratch the surface of understanding something about the history of flats. Some flats and indeed [...]
At a recent event I was reminded of the artist Georgia O’Keeffe, whom I knew to be American and prominent in 1920s modern art. Sometimes things seem to come back to you for a reason and unexpectedly, I also had Frida Kahlo on my mind, and her Blue House in Mexico. It prompted me to [...]
Whilst some may criticise the ‘sameness’ of suburbia of the interwar period 1918-1939, looking more closely we can find numerous decent family homes set in landscaped places and some lovely examples of housing design history, especially those built during the 1930s. Development of suburbia was not of course an isolated event, but part of an [...]
One of the best things about living on the London underground is having such easy access to London's countless cultural venues and range of exhibitions. At first glance the V&A - a museum of art and design - may seem an unexpected place to host an exhibition about social housing. It's a small exhibition, but [...]
Lubetkin’s stairwell hovers like layers of propellers in the atrium at Bevin Court; it is nothing short of stunning. If this is not enough, in the entrance hall to this modernist council built apartment block, there is also a bust of Ernest Bevin and the Peter Yates' mural Day and Night, Winged Bulls. How must it [...]
In last month’s blog we went to Margate and that’s where we start again this month. Margate’s seaside heritage is exemplified by the Royal Sea Bathing Hospital built practically on the seafront in the 1790s, back in the days when sea air and sea bathing were considered to cure all manner of diseases. This hospital [...]
