EVENT: Join C20 and Historic England for a special two-day event, celebrating the 80th anniversary of the 1946 New Towns Act and the launch of the late Elain Harwood’s final major publication, 'New Towns Mark One'. 🗓️ Thu 10-11 Sept 2026 📍 London + Harlow 🎟️ secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...

A really brilliant review of the Modern British City: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4.... Captures exactly what we hoped to achieve.

Susan Pedersen · Worker, Hipster, Banker: Modern British Cities

Deindustrialisation was not a long, slow process but a very quick one, erasing whole occupations and transforming one...

lrb.co.uk

I'm on the scientific committee for the Symposium of urban Design History and Theory conference, whose next meeting will be 15-18th of September in Sheffield. The call for sessions is now open: sudht.org/callforpapers/

Review of an excellent exhibition about Willow Pattern at @spodemuseum.bsky.social: spectator.com/article/the-.... Really advise going.

The joy of willow-pattern ceramics

My granny used Spode willow-pattern crockery for everyday use. There was another grander service for Sunday lunch, also blue-and-white chinoiserie: Booths dragon, picked out with a gold border. Willow...

spectator.com

A short thread to introduce myself. I’m a part-time PhD researcher at @uni-of-warwick.bsky.social, where my work examines how the future of British seaside towns was imagined and negotiated through postwar planning and management of the built environment.

Monday blues: Bye-bye to Bath Fire Station (1938-39) How did it come to this? A rare pre-war building by a female architect, Molly Taylor; survived the Baedecker Blitz; located within two UNESCO World Heritage Sites; recommended for listing by C20 & Historic England, yet rejected by DCMS in 2025.

A short piece about Bricks & Mortar, a novel I loved:

For diaries. Friday 29 May TOWNSCAPE65.Eventbrite.co.uk. Gordon Cullen examined, with a dash of Ian Nairn (from me at 3.30) to add laconic spice.

TOWNSCAPE 65

Gordon Cullen Study Day, Archive Visit & Book Launch

townscape65.eventbrite.co.uk

“Belfastmen: An Intimate History of Life before Gay Liberation” @cornellupress.bsky.social featured in the Guardian! 🥹 www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

‘Live and let live’: Northern Ireland historian uncovers surprising era of tolerance of gay men

Public records and private papers reveal compassion and tacit acceptance before ‘moral panic’ took hold in the 1950s and 1960s

theguardian.com

Something jollier from Coventry: the delightful confection of Festival fru fru that is Alfred H. Gardiner’s Christ Church, Coventry (1953-8).

I’m so angry about this. Bull Yard (1963-9) was a humanely civic-scaled square, with elegant bronze clad mullions, good lettering, the splendid William Mitchell sculpture, & local shops. Coventry council’s advertising their net zero aims in front of the utter vandalism they’ve wrought is grotesque.

Looking at a book about Limoges porcelain funerary plaques in 19th century cemeteries. Incredible things.

EVENT: C20 Open Mic is back for 2026! Join us for an evening of short talks by early-career professionals, spotlighting the latest research of upcoming specialists in 20th century heritage. 🗓️ Thu 2 April, 6.30-8pm 📍Cowcross St Gallery + Online 🎟️ Tickets: secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...

Lecture on Brutalism and the Transformed City on Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9ED...

Part 2 - Brutalism and the Transformed City

YouTube video by British Architectural Library Trust

youtube.com

A modernist oddity: an austere slate-monopitched, single-storey estate village, built by Richard Llewelyn-Davies & John Weeks for Baron Rothschild at Rushbrooke, Suffolk (1956-1960). More Cumbernauld than East Anglia, especially in the mist, but creating a tough sense of place with economy.

Spode Coventry Cathedral commemorative plate, designed by Harold Holdway, 1972. Referencing the Angel of Agony mosaic mural in the Chapel of Gethsemane by Stephen Sykes.

I'm giving a webinar lecture for the British Architectural Library Trust on 'Brutalism and the Transformed City' tomorrow. Details here: thebaltrust.org/part-2-bruta...

Part 2 –  Brutalism and the Transformed City

Part 2 –  Brutalism and the Transformed City Image Credits: Architectural Press Archive / RIBA Collections 26February2026Part 2 – Brutalism and the Transformed CitySpeaker: Dr. Otto Saum…

thebaltrust.org

NEWS: C20 has supported listing Eduardo Paolozzi's polychromatic Pop Art murals (1983) at Kingfisher Shopping Centre in Redditch, described as the 'Ravenna of the New Towns' by historian Owen Hatherley. The 12 mosaic panels depict the towns industrial heritage. ➡️ c20society.org.uk/news/support...

Hooray!

C20 Society@c20society.bsky.social · 6mo ago

BREAKING NEWS: We’re absolutely thrilled to announce that the Southbank Centre - the Hayward Gallery, Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall and skaters undercroft - has finally been Grade II listed by DCMS after a 35 year long campaign. ➡️ c20society.org.uk/news/southba...

CALL FOR PAPERS - Modern British History and the 'Environmental Turn'. A two-day workshop organised by @maxlong.bsky.social and myself at Lincoln College, Oxford, 16-17 September. Deadline for abstracts is 15 May. Details in poster below, please share.

NEWS: C20 has written to Historic England requesting an urgent spot listing assessment for Grimsby Central Library (1966-68), after concerns that the 'civic masterpiece' is facing an imminent threat of being stripped-out, having been closed since March 2025. ➡️ c20society.org.uk/news/concern...

The latest issue of History Workshop Journal is out now, and it marks two exciting milestones: 50 years and 100 issues of innovative radical history. You can read the journal on the HWJ website through the link below! academic.oup.com/hwj...

An Injury To All: The Unmaking of the British Working Class will be published by Verso in October! Today I submitted responses to last comments from my editor and worked on the blurb. It's getting closer and closer!

Interview for @urbanhistory.bsky.social of Simon Gunn, @petermandler.bsky.social, & I about the recently published book The Modern British City. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wvE....

Krista Cowman interviews with editors of The Modern British City 1945-2000

YouTube video by Cambridge University Press

youtube.com

Brilliant new article by @malcolmrussell73.bsky.social on glue-sniffing panics, youth boredom and deindustrialising towns c. 1970s-80s, published in @mbhjournal.bsky.social This began life as an exceptional MA dissertation at @uclhistory.bsky.social Congrats Malcolm! doi.org/10.1093/tcbh...

‘All the Kids Wanna Sniff Some Glue’: glue-sniffing, deindustrialization, and moral panic in 1980s Britain

Abstract. This article analyses anxieties surrounding glue-sniffing in 1980s Britain and their entanglement with the era’s accelerated deindustrialization.

doi.org

For anyone interested in geocoding historical census records, my new article in @socscihistory.bsky.social's journal explains how I've used ordnance surveys and trade directories to link British Victorian records! doi.org/10.1017/ssh....

Looking for an intellectual treat? @petermandler.bsky.social 's Ford Lectures on 'The Language of Social Science in Everyday Life' begin Thursday 22 January and continue weekly through 26 February in Oxford. #Skystorians

The James Ford Lectures in British History

The Language of Social Science in Everyday Life - Peter Mandler (Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge)

history.ox.ac.uk

Staffordshire Pearlware child’s mug with sign language decoration, c.1820

Boxing Day morning coffee and new books. This edited by Simon Gunn @petermandler.bsky.social @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social is a real treat. Highly recommend.

Lovely Christmas present left on my doorstep today - it really is as amazing as I’d hoped -all 29 chapters. The illustrations look fantastic - big thanks to Lund Humphries and the editors. Never seen an academic book looking happier on a coffee table 🙂