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
From 1971, the brochure produced to mark the opening of the BBC's new Birmingham Broadcasting Centre at Pebble Mill. John Madin was the architect and, like so much of his work in Birmingham, it is no longer with us, having been demolished over 20 years ago when the BBC moved into the city centre.
1941 WW2 Women municipal workers of Bermondsey, London, being trained in rifle drill by members of the local home guard. Southwark @municipaldreams.bsky.social @lccmunicipal.bsky.social @pasttensehistories.bsky.social @history.dulwichsociety.com @womenofsouthlondon.bsky.social Always Anti-Fascist
An early tenants’ guide from the Basildon Development Corporation. The cover image speaks of a new future and sums up the 1950s optimism of the new towns:
Lovely, this is in our local library in er West Wickham 😆
The Borough of Beckenham was granted its Charter in 1935 and would survive for another 30 years before it (together with four other councils) was replaced by the London Borough of Bromley. Croydon Road Rec was the centre of the 1935 celebrations - a location later associated with David Bowie…
A guide to the Metropolitan Borough of Holborn’s Library Services from the mid-60s. An interesting stapled addendum is a note informing readers that the library was transferring to LB Camden Library Services from 1/4/65 - an immediate casualty was Saturday opening hours, with an hour lopped off!
Here is the Technical College badge (presumably):
LCC municipal@lccmunicipal.bsky.social · 5mo agoToday’s municipal treasure: I got this off eBay, where it was listed as an “East Ham Town Council” badge. That doesn’t sound quite right for a County Borough, so my guess is that“TC” stands for Technical College instead. Thoughts welcomed!
Today’s municipal treasure: a County Borough of East Ham Home Help Service badge. It sits alongside the EH Technical College badge that I posted a few weeks ago, both featuring the “unofficial” coat of arms of the Borough.
Postcards of Newcastle's Civic Centre. The building, from the late 1960s, was designed by City Architect George Kenyon and has a strong Nordic influence. c20society.org.uk/100-building...
Gosh, I had forgotten my forays to Churchill Gardens.
Today’s municipal treasure - a badge featuring the coats of arms of the London Borough of Newham. Newham largely adopted the former Couny Borough of West Ham arms, CB East Ham not having been formally granted them.
Two related items here: a cap badge for the pre-65 Borough of Leyton (left), and one for the post-65 LB Waltham Forest (right). Not much of Leyton’s coat of arms made it into the successor’s, only really the black and gold lion at the top (“rampant” for Leyton and “passant” for Waltham Forest).
Helsinki City Hall, initially a hotel designed by Carl Ludvig Engel - the original neoclassical style building was radically remodelled and extended by Aarno Ruusuvuori during the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
The tone & text of the leaflet makes clear that this was a 'cry to municipal arms' in the face of the wave of 'pirate' bus operators who were a serious disruption to the order of things in the Capital at the time. One West Ham tram survives in the LTM Collections. @lccmunicipal.bsky.social
Some Helsinki tram action for you. Here are two of the four main types (so Wikipedia tells me) currently in operation. The first image is of a Škoda Transtech Artic MLNRV-3, while the second is a newer Škoda Transtech Artic X54.
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
