If you missed it, I’m part of a small collective trying to bring a radical bookshop shop to Newcastle. We haven’t had a good proper radical book shop since the 1980s. We think that should change! We launched our crowdfunder today, support if you can: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/booksfromb... Pls share

Interested in the relationship between social movements and the politics of mobility? Movements & Mobility is looking for writing, video, and multimedia guest posts from activists, artists, academics, and students. Get in touch!

Can you help on 26th April? Sign up NOW to HELP forms.gle/MLqGjfv1UbqB... North Tyneside Kidical Mass..... it's back, before they set the routes need to get an idea of what help will be available. There's cake in it for you. (either marshalling on the day or helping distribute fliers and posters)

it’s #WHM, so I thought I’d post about books that explore women in/& architecture/built env’t & the women who write them. Women architectural historians go rather not seen. So today, an excellent book from 1994 & a link to a short piece I wrote about it. womenwritingarchitecture.org/annotation/e...

A couple of questions: 1) Can anyone recommend any (critical, early) reviews of Pride in Place that I might not have found? 2) Is anyone familiar with examples of Pride in Place boards talking about or engaging with space for play? I have found a few but guess there are more. Thank you!

Tales of the Suburbs is Book of the Day in the Guardian! ‘This fantastically entertaining alternative history of queer life in Britain’ www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...

I blogged about “Just Objects?”, the event I ran with @drhick.bsky.social about inclusion and belonging in public space, at the Farrell Centre in Newcastle. Photo courtesy of panellist @draflint.bsky.social www.catherinemax.co.uk/just-objects/

Happy publication day to @uobrishistory.bsky.social’s Professor Sumita Mukherjee!

The research funding landscape has changed hugely in the last decade, and it merits reflection. The AHRC Landscape & Environment programme basically kickstarted a generation of Env hums scholarship in UK.

👀 The Met has put 490,000 high res images online - including many of bikes - and made them free for everyone to use: www.openculture.com/2024/11/the-... @openculture.bsky.social

Pleased to this moving forward and Shred the North’s expertise being drawn in to find a new space. "It wasn't simply a skatepark; it was a unique, weather-protected space that supported a thriving, multi-disciplined community all year round”

I second this - it was a total pleasure and an amazing feat given we are all juggling so many other things. Not least some new babies and young children (not mine!)

💥New | What oral histories can teach us about effective environmental research ✍️ Paul Merchant & @angecass.bsky.social #OralHistory #ResearchImpact #CoProduction

🚨 New on Substack: my final post on Camden's Highgate New Town looks at the new trends that marked its later development - Defensible Space, Right to Buy, and the new demand for sustainable development. (Photo credit: Martin Charles / RIBA Collections municipaldreams.substack.com/p/highgate-n...

I am so honoured to be on @oldweirdalbion.bsky.social 's beguiling podcast series Uncanny Landscapes uncannylandscapes.podbean.com as part of an (unintentional?) trio of north-western English women discussing trespass, commoning and protest

This is fine as a snapshot of how things are in the place, but...what do we do? Whatever it is will almost certainly need spending not tax cuts. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Out today @intellectbooks.bsky.social: 'Reconstructing the American Dream: Life Inside the Tiny House Nation' w/Ella Harris, Mel Nowicki & Cian Oba-Smith. Through photographic and ethnographic accounts of life in Texas tiny home communities, we examine the politics of 'going tiny' in the US today.

Indicative of a) how communities can come to rely on universities as provisioning community services b) how a prestige project can become a liability c) how positive heritage narratives don’t pay the bills d) abt what constitutes legit use of student fee income www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

On the pioneering post-war survey of teenagers and young adults in Birmingham, funded by the Edward Cadbury Charitable Trust in 1950 archive.org/details/b327... Hope the new wave of strategic plans for England will commission similar. @oneplacestudies.bsky.social @historyandpolicy.bsky.social

Last night there was a vigil for the first cycling fatality of the year on London's streets. I was there. Here are some thoughts (no paywall). If this strikes a chord with you, please comment on the post and share. open.substack.com/pub/nedboult...

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.

Interested in the relationship between social movements and the politics of mobility? Movements & Mobility is looking for short essay, video, and multimedia guest posts from activists, artists, and academics, and students. Get in touch!

Thank you to everyone who shared their research with us yesterday! We enjoyed a brilliant first day of papers and a fantastic keynote from @sarahcrook.bsky.social. Looking forward to starting Day 2 shortly - look at this wonderful line up: 😊 voicesofmotherhood.wp.worc.ac.uk/index.php/20...

Pleased and proud to have written for the @bigissue.com today, talking about New Labour and housing. You can read all about it here: www.bigissue.com/opinion/new-...

Advance notice on this #OnePlaceWednesday of a Northumberland Archives #HouseHistory Workshop, Researching the History of your House. This will take place on Wednesday March 18th from 9.30am to 11.30am GMT, at County Hall, Morpeth. Follow the link for more info and to book a free place.

This looks brilliant - A call for children’s folklore!! 👇👇👇 “What do those who were kids in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s remember about the things they believed or told each other? … OR things a child you know has told you in the last five years?”

Just over two weeks left to submit your abstracts! Had quite a few already. Please share with your networks. Welcoming colleagues across time periods and disciplines!

"The mission of Living Streets has always been close to my heart. I am hugely excited at having the privilege of leading the charity as it expands its vital work.” Meet @johnstreetdales.bsky.social, our Chair-elect https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/press-media/new-chair-announced-for-living-streets/

The New World asked me to speak to some British trans women about what life has been like for them over the past few years - here's what they had to say, in their own words: www.thenewworld.co.uk/marie-le-con...

We’re thrilled to share this AHRC-funded PhD opportunity from Swansea University @swanseauni “Serious about Play: Childhood, Play and Policymaking in Wales, 1945 to present” explores how Wales developed its own distinct stance of child’s play through the examination of postwar Welsh childhoods.

🔊🔊 Episode 2 of our mini-series on authoritarian urbanism is out with @urbanpolitical.bsky.social. I discuss emergent and intensifying authoritarian practices w/ @nitin-bathla.bsky.social @alkejenss.bsky.social @sdwolfe.bsky.social @ebrukurtozman.bsky.social open.spotify.com/show/5PaTdRP...

Mooted social media ban for under 16s, instead of tighter regulations for social media companies. Reminiscent of efforts to remove children from streets instead of addressing road danger - caused by drivers and dangerous road layouts.

Our first Green Team volunteering session of the year is on Saturday, 24 January, 10am to 12.30pm. We'll be doing some practical grassland management work, removing invasive species by the River Team, and joining in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. More info: www.tynederwentway.co.uk/article/2736...

Hello and welcome to the Irish Historic Towns Atlas BlueSky page! The IHTA is a long-term research programme housed by @ria.ie with the aim to record the topographical development and history of towns across the island of Ireland. To date, 32 atlases have been produced with many more in the works.

'The report found that early career academics experience sector uncertainty “very differently” to those more advanced in their careers, and that early career academics believed more senior colleagues “struggled to understand and accommodate” their experiences.' 3/3

So long to Claudette Colvin, who made history by refusing racial segregation on buses, paid a mighty price for it, and long lived in the shadow of Rosa Parks (who herself lived in the shadow of MLK). This biography is very good and accessible 👇

How can locating women, children and diversity in the #archives be used in the present? Incl. @jessamycarlson.bsky.social from The National Archives and @lizzybarchivist.bsky.social from @northeastmuseums.bsky.social #Genealogy #genealogists #familyhistory #archivists #museums #divorce #marriage

Revamped website for @transportfornewhomes.org.uk - lots of research showing the gap between the good words in planning policy on sustainable transport and then what actually built on the ground: www.transportfornewhomes.org.uk

The DfT is doing some consultation on the new Manual for Streets with professional bodies and others (I don't know the full list). As I understand it, there will be three sections and section A was released just before Xmas with a response deadline just after.

“Around six months after the cyber incident I talked to the then chair of the science select committee, who was not aware of this incident” w o w

Really enjoyed presenting the work of the @historictownstrust.bsky.social and the @varchgroup.bsky.social winter conference. Great fun and lots of interest. www.historictownstrust.uk

Owls hooting and the football fans roaring here in Newcastle. A thin layer of snow on Armstrong Bridge.

Back in print! The Radburn Idea 1. Also available, The Radburn Idea 2! Stories of how postwar English architects and planners attempted to produce pedestrian-friendly, car-free housing estates. £10 each, postage free. For sale here: theradburnidea.bigcartel.com

Parking on the pavement in London has been illegal for 52 years and in the rest of the UK it's just a fact of life. Central government just opted against a blanket national ban. Anyway here's an excellent advert from when it was banned in London: www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8Yg...

“These new powers do not go far enough to protect pedestrians. It’s disappointing not to see a nationwide prohibition.” Our @charitycat.bsky.social responds to the news that local authorities will receive legal powers to restrict pavement parking. https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/pavement-parking

I call on my party and my government to remove themselves entirely from X and communicate with the public where they actually participate online and can be protected from such illegality.

Commenting as Govt launch a road safety strategy. Every death on our roads is unacceptable. We need a Vision Zero ethos: no deaths or serious injury. Change driving culture, reject speeding, use speed-limiting tech, strengthen sentences, end ‘accident’ language. Driving is a privilege, not a right.

Have started a new job which means I am going to be spending a lot of time on the @tynederwentway.bsky.social in 2026. This week meeting new colleagues in the snow!

Notwithstanding all this, the cover of the new Road Safety Strategy shows three mothers with children on a zebra crossing. It feels an awful lot like they’re not really the focus of the strategy.

Please sign and share. @playengland.bsky.social @playscotland.bsky.social @playwales.bsky.social secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/...