Bedford, Part II from 1945: Postwar Planning and Innovative Development
We left Bedford last week in the midst of war but, like many towns in the country, thinking ahead. Planning Continue reading
Municipal Dreams
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Bedford, Part I to 1945: Controversy and Construction
A joke about Bedford is that no-one, perhaps even some amongst its residents, is quite sure where it is. AI Continue reading
The Kingswood Estate, West Dulwich II: ‘Something of a Paradox’
In last week’s post, we examined both the opposition to the London County Council’s new Kingswood Estate in West Dulwich Continue reading
The Kingswood Estate, West Dulwich: ‘a New Dulwich ‘Village'”?
The Kingswood Estate in West Dulwich, planned in the late 1940s by the London County Council (LCC) as a showpiece Continue reading
Dutch Hofjes: ‘Small, surprising green oases’
Hofjes are Dutch courtyard almshouses. As we’ll see, their detail may vary but their essential form is uniform: (1) All Continue reading
Sidney Colwyn Foulkes: ‘Reluctant Modernist’
Adam Voelcker, Sidney Colwyn Foulkes: The Architecture of a Reluctant Modernist (University of Wales Press, 2025) I m not going to Continue reading
Book Review: Ned Newitt, Housing the People of Leicester – a History of Social Housing
Ned Newitt, Housing the People of Leicester: a History of Social Housing (Leicester Pioneer Press, 2025) When I started this Continue reading
How Rotterdam Shaped Social Housing: Part II, Bergpolderflat and the Prototypical Slab Block
Last week’s post examined Michiel Brinkman’s Justus van Effen Estate in Rotterdam, a 1920s’ pioneer of deck-access housing. Today, we Continue reading
How Rotterdam Shaped Social Housing: Part I, the Justus van Effen Estate and ‘Streets in the Sky’
With two notable interwar schemes, the city of Rotterdam can justly claim to have shaped much of western Europe’s post-war Continue reading
Gidea Park: the Modern Homes Exhibition, 1934
Gidea Park, now in the London Borough of Havering, has hosted two significant housing exhibitions. Both were held to promote Continue reading