Did my annual lecture to the new students of UCL’s Development Planning Unit (#DPU) yesterday. The day was quite wearing and I was tired when we began at 1700h but, as usual, the necessary adrenalin appeared from somewhere and I talked for an hour, followed by questions and discussion for another hour which I much enjoyed. These students come from most of the world and are in many cases quite experienced so the range and depth of questions is all good and stimulating. A repeat coming up today for Bartlett Planning students but on zoom, so harder to do.
Typically we had some good exchanges on ‘which countries get it right?’ about housing. I spoke about Germany and about Switzerland’s coops (and was going to say about Vienna and Finland but we got diverted). I said that on this subject the discussion often ends with someone saying Singapore is the best model. A woman in the theatre shouted ‘NO, I live there and it’s absolutely not’, to cheers and laughter.
Jason Katz came along and told me he made a recording. He was a help with some of the questions, partly because my hearing fails on questions from the back of a big auditorium. We should have used a roving mic. He’s probably hoping we can publish a text. We’ll see.
Then I went home and had dinner with Sue and flopped, not able even to focus on the TV. I idly picked up the latest LRB and in amongst the reams of scholarship I don’t want or need is a wonderful long review by Adam Thirlwell of a new book on Gertrude Stein, one of my great heroines (¿heroes).
I woke up and was gripped, still awake when I finished it at 2300h, long after I would normally have gone to bed, or at least to sleep. Nobody uses language as Stein does and this reviewer – and clearly the book’s author Francesca Wade – share fully in the delights and puzzles. Birthday reading I think if there’s a Kindle. [Next day I am reading the review again, slowly, and reach this point: ‘And they can’t be read quickly; they seem to require deep leisure time before and after, just as they were written, almost as if you have to be in Paris or the South of France, with many parties ahead of you, to be able to enjoy them.’]
[Later 31 Oct: Sue got me the book for my birthday and I am reading it with glee.]
One of my favourite phrases is ‘I like a view but I like to sit with my back turned to it.’
I put out a post on Bluesky asking people what I should recommend for new students to read to get the hang of England and keep up: newspapers and so on. ‘FT (free to our students), ByLine, Londonist, LondonCentric; warnings on Guardian and OnLondon.’ Suggestions welcome. Max Nathan adds @londonermag.bsky.social
Then on Wednesday I did the repeat talk to some hundreds of Planning School new entrants, on zoom. I felt it went badly. Big gatherings are much better live, in my experience. My cold had me coughing a lot which didn’t help and some interesting interruptions slowed things down. I didn’t get to the end properly but stopped after a long hour, fearing people would get restive. But the questions (via CHAT) were very good ending with ‘You have stressed the negative features of London Planning. Is there nothing positive to be said?’ After a rather long pause I spoke about the air quality improvements and how both CC and ULEZ needed strong mayoral support to go through. And I described the public transport system as really brilliant, for all its faults. But I should also have spoken about the huge achievement of the Livingstone period in reversing the trend of modal split and the threats to it now from the reduction of bus lanes. I’ll mention that to them when. I see them again on Friday on our Thames boat trip.
michael edwards 