Great work 👏 @ruthmersereau.bsky.social in Sheffield pushing back against digital advertising hoardings that block pavements, reduce sightlines and make our streets less safe and convenient to move along and that’s before we tackle the unhealthy and harmful gambling and other advert content.

North-east folk, look at this! 🏰🚲🚶🏾‍♂️🏭

And one closer to home - the “bumpy road” where my brother and our neighbours played in Wokingham, aged around 5-7 (photo taken on a return visit years later). This road and an alleyway opposite our house are my strongest memories of play as a child, on my doorstep with little direct supervision.

More from my piles of old photos - Novosibirsk (Western Siberia) in winter and in summer, approx 1997

More house sorting and found a photo of me sliding down an ice slide in Moscow in 1996 -

A different context and a more diverse demographic, perhaps, but this story has many of the same themes (desire for in-person connection, role of social media) yet tells a very different story of crowds gathering in public spaces, one of support and permission. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Enjoyed this piece on Sweden’s communal laundries: theconversation.com/how-swedens-... Argues that: “… these shared laundry rooms spread costs, reduce waste and nudge people towards sufficiency. Just as importantly, they give us a reason to meet, compromise and practice our negotiation skills.”

Good piece on teenage “link ups”, placing an emphasis on the destruction of youth clubs and youth services, the exclusion of young people from public space, and these young people’s everyday lives - and how social media facilitates “in real life” connections. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Our annual viewing of the Brutalist Easter Bunny in Jyväskylä, Finland. www3.jkl.fi/taidemuseo/v...

This looks like it'll be a really useful document, centring consideration of children and young people in Local Plans, and also highlighting that this would be supportive of other important objectives, such as walkability, active travel infrastructure, green space and climate mitigation -

Longer reflection on Westminster's semi-permanent play streets here. This is a remarkable and bold scheme – all credit to the team – and demonstrates an approach that other local authorities could consider, another tool in the campaign to restore children’s freedom to play on their doorsteps.

Sensible stuff from @nclgreenparty.bsky.social's Sarah Peters on the Town of Culture competition -

There is a roving band of 5th & 6th grade boys in my neighborhood and it's so joyful seeing them playing. They just bike around the neighborhood, play basketball and football at the park, climb all over the playground. Nary a phone or adult in sight. Very 90's and very awesome.

Our neighbors frequently comment to me how much they love to see my little hooligans roaming the neighborhood on their skateboards and bikes. It’s also brought other kids out we didn’t even know lived nearby. And that’s without decent sidewalks or a close city park. Pretty great.

As ever, a fascinating and inspiring Play Streets Forum this morning, with Max Goodchild & Farran Leach from Active Westminster talking about their *permanent* play street designations (reviving the Street Playgrounds Act), giving play priority on 4 (soon 5) streets. Check out the road markings!

I totally read this first as all car parks were to be turned into play parks. Also an April fool, but a much more hopeful one.

Spotted on this morning's school run: * 6 boys cycling 80s-teen-film-style down a suburban street * 3 teens trying to balance on a single bike * 2 young kids running and chasing each other down the street Three, almost-insignificant moments that highlight the value of making space for children.

Somehow our streets have become taken over by vehicles. We’ve allowed the needs of motor traffic to dictate the experience of everyone getting around or hanging around on our streets. 🚗 💨 🚚💨 🚦 And children have lost out more than any of us. We can do so much better. 🤸🏽 🤸‍♀️ 🛝🌷 🌳

In case you missed it, Utrecht, Netherlands has begun building the largest Dutch “car-free” neighbourhood. 12K people 6K homes 1.8K social rental homes 1.5 mid-range rental & affordable owner-occupied homes 21.5K bike parking spaces 250 shared cars 2 parcel hubs Parking structures on the edge.

I'm doing some research with Shiremoor Adventure Playground (North Tyneside) at the moment. This is a quote from a customer services team leader reflecting on how her (largely) 20-something team experience volunteering in the playground. It sounds a lot like free play to me.

"They're our future" @zackpolanski.bsky.social addresses the National Education Union - calling for a renewed approach to an underfunded, broken schooling system that fails to put young people’s futures first.

🛒 Laurie Wheatley was a South Shields-born, self-taught artist. His influence was significant, shaping Amber's understanding of working-class expression. When Wheatley died, he willed his negatives and prints, along with a number of sculptures and paintings, to Amber co-founder, Murray Martin.

Fair play from the Mail. I said what I said.

A somehow out-of-place door into a back lane, with both a modern Fire Hydrant sign, and what I think is an old “Fire Plug/Pipe” sign.

For Holman, play for adults is about sustaining our wellbeing (rather than primarily about development as it is often for children*), and can be seen in tinkering, pottering, meandering, when we embrace possibility and release judgement.

That’s me set for the afternoon -

This is a powerful document and the argument a no-brainer if we want good urban journeys and good urban spaces - and if we want to take our responsibilities to children seriously. As well as practitioners, urban, children’s and transport geographers could all learn a lot.

Half a million strong. Together. The biggest march against the far-right in British history.

Taste-testing (blind) local hot cross buns with all the rigour of a family deep in GCSE science revision. Too close to call and would definitely recommend both 😋

This is the situation we find ourselves in

Spent the evening yesterday at Theatre Royal Newcastle watching two groups of teens perform original plays, as part of @nationaltheatre.org.uk’s NT Connections. All the actors were all awesome and it’s fantastic that they get the chance to do this. www.theatreroyal.co.uk/whats-on/nt-...

A nice little sticker on a lamppost on our street -

Oh, but that must mean it was just a racist talking point.

This one roundabout will cost ~40% of what the UK government spent on supporting local bus services outside London in 2025.

I’ve just shared a bit of a lengthy post about @playingout.bsky.social and the new Play Streets Network that Lucy Colbeck (former PO play streets manager) and I are going to be working on to keep supporting play streets across the country.

Every time I make the (correct) statement that social media use is not universally bad for teenagers, or state that the best consensus is that it's beneficial-to-neutral for many and any negative effects are a small subset of teenagers, people demand citations (and then refuse to believe them, sigh)

We are one week in and have reached 26%! We're incredibly grateful for all the support so far. But we've still got a long way to go to bring a radical bookshop back to Newcastle. So please do send our crowdfunder to anyone you think might want to support! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/booksfromb...

Thoughtful podcast with Cas Holman thinking about play as protest, possibility, being human, and more - podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/p...

“We are pretty chipper. We feel like we have a real chance this May to get more Green councillors elected than we have ever had before in the [North East] region, by a large margin.” www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-e...

Walked back to the station which was picturesque, but I got caught in an unexpected hailstorm.

Interested to see North Tyneside formally start its process of becoming a Marmot Place to reduce health inequalities. Am very curious to see how this unfolds.

Spending the day in Durham at Journal of Youth Studies conference on marginalised youth. Lots about the complexity, and at times failure, of the spaces & infrastructures that young people engage with, but also recognising quite how intractable the structural challenges that shape young lives are.

It’s windy and sunny 🌞 Right now renewables are producing 71% of UK electricity. Fossil fuels only 6%. grid.iamkate.com

Pictures that explain things ‘Understanding Maps’ 1966 Artist: Ronald Lampitt

New piece in Progress in Human Geography, 'Crisis-thinking and critical urbanism'. What might crisis-thinking be doing to how the urban is conceived, researched, and politicised? How might it impact how we see urban possibility? Open access here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Good HE is really simple: quality time spent with subject experts who know and care about their students. My university and many others are deliberately abandoning this truth in favour of financial and organisational efficiency.

Punk masks, Walkmans and Choppers: Museum of Youth Culture to open in London

Todays post is on the Scotch Church turned Sally Citadel on Howard Street - one of, if not the first, commission for John Dobson after finishing his studies down in London. May I say this is my favourite building in North Shields? Bit long, so free for everyone on Patreon!

We can be sceptical about schemes like Town of Culture (and I am) but I love seeing my home town, North Shields, and its stories in the media.

Also on my North Tyneside travels - On another bit of waggonway, often flagged by concerns of “anti-social behaviour”, I spotted two goals and a swing, young people claiming this space, it seems positively. I only hope their play is tolerated (or indeed supported).