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Vote Restore to kill more people. Really?

Looks like it’s gonna be a very bad night for Matt Goodwin, James Orr and the Spiked crew….

BREAKING: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán concedes defeat to Peter Magyar after "painful" election result, ending 16 years in power.

Fun Killingworth fact for the day, when architects Ryder and Yates were designing the Engineering Research Station, they described the project as a “playpen for boffins”.

Back to see Stanley Bonnar’s hippos of Killingworth. They are so fabulous and joyful.

Even though we are left unscathed, the things that drivers do to cyclists are really unpleasant.

For the last couple of years, I've been researching "play and hanging out" in Jarrow (South Tyneside) with a bunch of fabulous colleagues. Our final report offers a detailed account of spaces for play in Jarrow, using a "play sufficiency" lens and qualitative, observational & participatory methods:

This week's opening of passenger stations on the Camp Hill line in south Birmingham has made possible a new and highly compact railway experience: the Pineapple Ring. Starting and ending at Pineapple Road station it involves making a complete circuit via the Camp Hill and the Cross City lines.

this is not the 3rd place we were hoping for.

Before (2014) / After (2026) the school street Rue de Louvois in Paris Centre. The school street was made in 2025.

“We appreciate that most young people are just out to have fun with their friends” So, maybe, perhaps, the response should be to make space for young people to do just that, rather than criminalising them when they try to? 900 kids and 4 arrested, doesn’t sound like many were causing trouble.

I've just written up a blog post about play and Pride in Place. There's so much more to say, and likely much more to come, but I wanted to try to make an early argument for play to figure centrally in Pride in Place programmes and reflect on what's already emerging: blogs.ncl.ac.uk/alisonstenni...

📊 Newcastle has 1051.8km of roads, 1416.8km of footway, but only 36km of cycleway. 🚲 The city's safe cycling infrastructure is 3.42% the length of the road network. 🗣️ When you speak to candidates standing in next month's elections ask them if they support safe cycling for the whole city.

Starting a signs of play thread. We’re always hearing about how children don’t play outside anymore, but that’s not the whole story. Cycling often takes you through neighbourhoods where there is no through traffic. This is where you’re most likely to see signs of play.

I've just written up a blog post about play and Pride in Place. There's so much more to say, and likely much more to come, but I wanted to try to make an early argument for play to figure centrally in Pride in Place programmes and reflect on what's already emerging: blogs.ncl.ac.uk/alisonstenni...

This kind of stuff can easily be written off as nostalgia, but it points to just how ordinary it was for even young children to routinely play out on their doorsteps, when the conditions were right (fewer cars/less thru-traffic, public acceptance, and a sense that the street was a social space).

“There is work to do as a society to reframe how we think about driving. Many drivers see speed limits, cameras and enforcement as personal inconveniences. We must communicate the concept that driving is a responsibility, not an entitlement.”

I always loved the ”neony” of Nowa Huta (built at the peak of Poland’s neonisation), from my first visit in 1990 onward, and I love that many are being restored and reinstalled (www.facebook.com/NeonyNowejHuty). Nice that Poland’s neon signs are getting some attention.

I have no connection to this except for being a fan and living in/loving North Shields, but fabulous photographer Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen currently has a Kickstarter for a new edition of her 1989 book Step by Step, which traces the lives of mothers & daughters from a dance school in North Shields.

Clydesdale Road, Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1971, photo by Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen.

okay the rules are you can EITHER complain about kids spending too much time online OR complain about too many kids hanging around outside, but you gotta choose

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.