Category: planning

For the new year I just wrote a letter to the Guardian, finding myself irritated by the recent splatter of letters they have had on housing, triggered by CPRE etc people a couple of weeks ago. It’s probably too long for them to publish. [later: it was. ] This is it:

You have carried a great deal of material on the housing crisis this year and since Tristram Hunt’s tear-jerker on the protection of green belts (17 December) there have been sporadic responses in the letters page. Most of the coverage and correspondence, however, has been piecemeal and trivialising of a complex field. Can we start the new year, please, by taking a more comprehensive view which sees the dire housing situation as the outcome of lots of different aspects of the neo-liberal project? Continue reading “New Year / housing”

Just spent a highly stimulating day in a workshop on housing, real estate and the crisis, and was particularly interested to meet one of the other guest speakers Christian Zeller, a young prof in Wirstchaftsgeographie Salzburg whose analysis was very strong.  I’ve tried to summarise it below. Continue reading “December seminar on the crisis, housing”

Jonathan Glancey wrote an engaging article in the Guardian’s G2 section outlining the bleak prospects for architects in the crisis. Elena pointed it out and is using it with the students. [ Here is the article. ] It seemed to me he had missed the point of his own story – how radical social innovation in building could crack unemployment – so I wrote to the Guardian as follows Continue reading “Pessimism or optimism / Glancey / Guardian”

Article sent to CNJ

The Camden New Journal asked me to write a piece on what should happen now if the current proposals fall victim to the crisis. Here it is. [Later: it did appear, and led to an exchange of correspondence with Robert Evans at Argent.] Continue reading “King's Cross – what next?”

(1/11/2008) I just retired after 39 years and a month at UCL in the Bartlett School. There was a wonderful party organised by friends on 29 October and I cobbled together some pictures and anecdotes which now I should work up into a readable text here. For the moment you only have the whole period in pictures which are here
You can see them as a slide show or one-by-one in which (latter) case you can read the captions which some of them have. The story as a full text begins in 1964 and so far reaches 1966. Continue reading “A memoir of UCL / The Bartlett”

Had a good couple of hours walking round a very familiar bit of London, Dalston Junction on Friday 17th. Pictures here: Click on the image.

Dalston is clearly a case where a potentially-regenerating intervention (the new station/train service) which could genuinely help improve the condition of life for poor people, actually becomes an acellerator of gentrification and market-based upgrading with exactly the opposite effects. As with King’s Cross, the challenge is to innoculate an area against the negative effects – with more social housing, stop on RTB, better tenure security (huh)….. and what?

Consultations on the Dalston plan are now open and it might be good to get some students working on it – and/or comment ourselves.

Useful stuff at

Just back (10 Oct) from wonderful and inspiring INURA meeting in Athens inura08.wordpress.com.   (To see some photos, click the picture.) All through the conference the world financial knitting was unravelling.  Somehow this unravelling of the financial sector (though in NO WAY a political basis for any major change) seems like an opportunity for us to  say something.  I can’t resist it. Continue reading “What next? (for capitalism) – letters to the press”

Finally the result came through of the public inquiry on the Islington Triangle.  Argent won; we lost. More details and comments at http:www.kxrlg.org.uk

We had a good seminar at UCL in June, part of an ESRC/CABE series on whether the “Urban Renaissance” proposed by the Rogers/Prescott ‘Task Force’ of 1999 has had outcomes, good or bad.  There was half a day on King’s Cross.  My talk (as a slide show) is at http://www.kxrlg.org.uk/history/edwardskxesrc.pdf  and I’d be glad of any comments.  During August I have to convert it to a text, which will be  a chapter in a book edited by John Punter and due early in 2009. Offprintof my chapter: http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/14020

Main campaign at the moment is to try and secure decent pedestrian and cycle access to and through King’s Cross station.  Do please read it and sign the petition.  We are working with a super-dynamic local group.http://www.kingscrossaccess.com

Talk I gave at a Tel-Aviv conference on (effectively) whether to cut the state out and deal direct on planning issues. Just published in English, Arabic and Hebrew. The struggle against the development plan in the King’s Cross area in Planning and human rights, civil society and the state (ed) Shuli Hartman, Jerusalem, Bimkom and the Arab Centre for Alternative Planning: English 51-55; Hebrew 38-41; Arabic 85-88 www.bimkom.orgEprint of my bit in English at http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/10652/ 

An email comes in from Dave Hill (Guardian blogger/journalist): I’ve just discovered your blog and your post about Mayor Johnson’s housing policies and their implications. I’d love to learn more about your work in this area and your conclusions.Regards,Dave Hill; Guardian.  http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dave_hill/ 

Since I just did a short talk on this yesterday at the launch for UEL’s book “London’s Turning: the making of Thames Gateway” I have converted it into text here as a kind of reply to Dave:   

Continue reading “What IS the housing problem?”

Very good two days of discussion in a workshop of the EU 6th Framework programme concerning innovations in social inclusion (or prevention of exclusion).  Very impressive group of people old and young working on this and very good range of methodologies and integration of theory and praxis. Particularly good discussions on the need for abstraction from local cases rather than generalisation; on why terms like social capital and human assets should not lightly be used; useful grouping of ‘existential fields’.  The material will be on their web site http://katarsis.ncl.ac.uk/index.html    Then there was an excellent field visit to northern suburbs of Athens organised by Dimitra Siatitsa who is also playing a key role in our October conference of INURA http://inura08.wordpress.com/