“Our City: Migrants and the Making of Modern Birmingham”, by Jon Bloomfield. Review by Jane McChrystal.
Although Jon Bloomfield intended “Our City” for a general audience, I think some of our elected representatives could learn a lot from it.
history
Swinging London: A Lifestyle Revolution. Review by Barbara Lewis.
If Brexit is the result of a backward-looking nostalgia, the Swinging London of the Chelsea Set was the opposite: it marked a determination to move on from the devastation and austerity left by World War II.
Nellie Cressall on the Isle of Dogs Part 1, by Jane McChrystal.
In 1962 The Westinghouse Corporation made a documentary film exploring the state of the nation as Britain continued to register the aftershocks of war, adjusted to the loss of empire and witnessed the erosion of its status as a world-class industrial nation.
Your Culture is not mine…or is it? America’s tense relationship with high culture. By Stephanie V Sears
As a half French, half American individual, I give in to a pastime common to double nationals, which consists of regularly comparing both countries of origin.
London Grip Poetry Review – Edward Mackinnon
Neil Fulwood considers Edward Mackinnon’s forceful poetic dissection of 75 years of war
East End Suffragettes: the photographs of Norah Smyth. By Jane McChrystal.
If you can get along to Bethnal Green in the next three weeks, I highly recommend a visit to this exhibition of photographs. They document a dramatic period in the history of the East London.
Housing Ordinary People in London, by Jane McChrystal.
The Russian architect Berthold Lubetkin once declared “Nothing is too Good for Ordinary People”* and as a founder of the radical Tecton group he designed municipal housing which combined the creation of healthy spaces, where people could live healthy lives, with the expression of his modernist aesthetic.
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War. Review by Barbara Lewis.
Domesday Book, William the Conqueror’s 1085 survey of his recently-won kingdom, merits an exhibition in its own right.
Night and Day: 1930s Fashion & Photographs. Review by Barbara Lewis.
In 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. In the world of fashion, shoulders broadened and the iconic 1930s shape became established.
Excursion to Limehouse Town Hall, by Jane McChrystal.
A new municipal HQ for the Borough of Tower Hamlets is being built on the site of the old Royal London Hospital, and it’s due to open in 2022.
Excursion to the Mill House, Bromley by Bow, by Jane McChrystal.
There’s no other way to say it – we were in a different world – one with a clock tower and two oast houses, paved with cobble stones.
“Upon that memorable Scene”
Neil Curry indulges in a brief speculation on a recent parallel to a historical moment in the 17th century