LCC municipal
@lccmunicipal.bsky.social
London County Council, Greater London Council, pre- and post-1965 boroughs in London (+ occasional forays outside of the capital). Municipal stuff from the past that lives on today. Oh, and new towns, shopping centres, infrastructure etc. lccmunicipal.com
Municipal guide of the day: the London Borough of Merton from the mid-70s, with the PR department working overtime to shoehorn the contents into a MERTON mnemonic. This also features some of Merton’s distinctive low rise social housing from the era. Oh, and Wombles.
Municipal guide of the day: the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell from the late 1920s, featuring the original Town Hall (the former Vestry Hall), the Sunray Estate and Dulwich Library.
![Photo caption: DULWICH LIBRARY, LORDSHIP LANE.
Per Wikipedia: A Passmore Edwards Library designed by Charles Barry and Son in Elizabethan Revival style and erected 1896-7. The original single-storey north-west wing damaged during World War II was replaced circa 1950. The building was refurbished in 2013.
MATERIALS: red brick with sandstone dressings, wooden window frames and hipped and pitched slate roofs with brick chimneystacks.
PLAN: an irregular butterfly-shaped plan of two to three storeys and basement. The original plan consisted of a staircase-hall with reading room leading off to the east of the main entrance, book storage to the south-west spanning two storeys, offices on the first floor, a head librarian's flat on the second floor and a single-storey offset wing to the north-west of the main entrance. This north-west wing was replaced following war damage by a two-storey wing with a children's library on the ground floor and a hall above. In 2015 the original part of the ground floor comprised an open access library to both the main rooms and the first floor included staff offices, a wi-fi lounge, a quiet study area and a reference library and offices on the second floor.
EXTERIOR: the north-east elevation fronting Lordship Lane is of three bays and includes three large arched windows on the ground floor with a projected moulded stone sill supported by stone corbels, Tuscan pilaster jambs and segmental stone arches with projecting keystones. The wider panes of glass used here indicate that the lower sections of these window frames have been replaced as the panes originally would have matched the spacing of those of the upper arched section. [extract as character limit reached]
Photo credit: Ed. J. Burrow and Co. Ltd
Taken from: The Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell Official Guide
Published by: Ed. J. Burrow and Co. Ltd on behalf of the M.B. of Camberwell
Publication date: Undated but appears to be c. 1928](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rdc3t32wbru3m5gcgjsb2t2c/bafkreiax5g5kbd74jhoabntdgi56l2ynlwfmlzjbuihbh3ropltnecpbke)
Ted Bieler’s Helix of Life from 1971, outside the University of Toronto’s Medical Science’s building.
The pleasingly retro logo of the Toronto Transit Commission:
I didn’t get any further than the main reception, but still got to see some of the nice details inside. Those lovely wooden doors with the T-shaped handles, the great tiled floor and David Partridge’s amazing Metropolis nail sculpture.
Viljo Revell’s Toronto City Hall from 1965 - right next door to E J Lennox’s Old City Hall!
Today’s reading is this beautiful 2024 book covering NYC’s MTA public art commissions from 2015 to 2023. It’s by Sandra Bloodworth and Cheryl Hageman. I know “lavishly illustrated” is a cliche, but it really is… Featured here are works by Vik Muniz, Xenobia Bailey and Yayoi Kusama. Grab a copy!
@lccmunicipal.bsky.social St Marylebone Borough Council coat of arms on public housing at Chapel Street, NW1.
The first Labour GLC administration in 1965 had ambitious urban motorway plans. But the public mood had changed by the early 1970s, the lived experience of Westway being one (but by no means only) nail in the coffin of those plans. By 1973, the campaign message was firmly anti-motorway:
Another plug for this (it won’t be the last…): Saturday 13th June saw the 213 heritage running day between Sutton and Kingston. Here are my photos from the day, plus the obligatory lecture! lccmunicipal.com/2026/06/20/o...
On the Buses
Saturday 13th June saw the 213 heritage bus running day, organised by the London Bus Museum. The route has run between Sutton and Kingston in one form or another since 1921, initially as the…
lccmunicipal.com
It’s Saturday Morning Municipal Street Lighting Nerd Club. Here’s one for fans of 1960s & 70s post top lanterns. All the classics from Phosco, Eleco, Thorn and GEC! From Thamesmead to Brookside Close via many municipal leisure centre car parks…
I’m not a brand ambassador for www.booksaboutart.co.uk (although happy to be considered for the role, of course…), but they are serving up this book on Resopal, the German plastic laminate (for just £10), and I am slightly obsessed. Some fantastic photos. Link to book in alt text
The Lost Logos of the London Boroughs. Now updated to include Ealing, which recently retired its old tree in favour of a new tree!
There's a great photo from exactly the same angle taken of Camden LBC's *first* council meeting (the chamber is rather busier). This was on the wall at the Crowndale Centre, Mornington Cresc, when it housed the temporary chamber while they renovated Judd St
From 1965, the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras’s farewell/valedictory publication “The End of One Story”. It commemorates various aspects of the Borough’s history including the not altogether uncontroversial decision to fly the Red Flag from the Town Hall roof on May Day, 1958.
Here’s a 1980 brochure from the GLC telling the story of multiple plans for redeveloping Piccadilly Circus. Various schemes were proposed in the 1950s and 60s - think major demolition, tower blocks, pedestrian and traffic separation etc. - all of which seemed to cause outrage.
The London County Council Parks Department brochure for the 1963 season of open air entertainment, which took place across the Council’s various parks and outdoor venues:
From 1968 until '78 i lived on the estate next to Sutton Bus Garage, and before that as a very young boy off Stonecot Hill. The number of times i've been on the 213...! Thank you for the photos. My favourite bus is still an RF, and in particular the 80A, between Morden tube and Walton-on-the-Hill.
Last Saturday saw the 213 heritage running day between Sutton and Kingston. Here are my photos from the day, plus the obligatory lecture! The website has undergone an unexpected emergency rebrand (thank you Wordpress), so please excuse any temporary glitches. lccmunicipal.com/2026/06/20/o...
On the Buses
Saturday 13th June saw the 213 heritage bus running day, organised by the London Bus Museum. The route has run between Sutton and Kingston in one form or another since 1921, initially as the…
lccmunicipal.com
FRM1, the experimental rear-engined, front-entrance Routemaster from 1966, seen in Kingston today on the 213 running day. More pics to follow!
Eugene Rosenberg’s Architect’s Choice is a great book on post-war sculpture, murals and the like in public, civic and corporate spaces. And it offers a reminder of William Pye’s Slipstream in Gatwick’s North Terminal, now lost to retail space!
Here’s a recommendation if you have a spare £15. I really enjoyed this, to borrow a cliche, *lavishly* illustrated book on the 1981 Milton Keynes HomeWorld exhibition. There were later exhibitions (e.g. Energy World 1986), which also would be worthy of a book!! www.mkcdc.org.uk/shop/p/homew...
HomeWorld 81 - It's What's Happening to Houses — Bradwell Abbey
HomeWorld 81 was the first major housing exhibition held in Britain since the Second World War and developers from around the world were invited to come to Milton Keynes to build their “House for the ...
mkcdc.org.uk
Two rather lovely postcards here of the Post Office Tower (the correct description for the age of the cards!) by night:
Does anyone know of a definitive list of the concrete murals of Henry Collins and Joyce Pallot? This Surbiton example is a favourite of mine, and their work in places like Colchester (where they were based), Southampton and Newcastle is well known. But what of the rest?
With thanks to @hoosiersands.bsky.social for pointing this out: a new entry to the Lost Logos of the London Boroughs as Ealing updates its longstanding tree logo: www.ealing.news/news/out-wit...
In my bid to provide ever more niche content, here is a short video on West Midlands PTE bus destination blinds from Coventry's Harnall Lane and Sandy Lane bus garages in 1984. Enjoy! (And don't say you weren't warned)...
