Josh Bilton is a community artist -he explains what this means at the beginning of the podcast. He has been working in the Brunswick Centre where, until recently, I was living. The Brunswick Centre is a megabuilding -a complex of buildings that serve several functions- in central London. It is home to several thousand people, it is a shopping centre, and it offers workspace for designers and craftspeople. It is a building that people can either love or hate. To someone like me, interested in modernism and community it is a love affair. To many who live in the Brunswick, fighting the council and utility companies for basic rights and services, and to onlookers more at home with Georgian Bloomsbury, it feels like a struggle and/or looks like an eyesore.

I bumped into Josh at the exhibition of his work, and was so fascinated by what he had to say I recorded a podcast with him then and there.

Josh’s insights into life in The Brunswick are a metaphor for life in England. He talks about the need for repair. About acts of care. About recovery. To me, he is talking about the groundwork needed for England to mend the divisions that have set people apart over the last decade and a half.

Josh’s exhibition Repair was shown at the Brunswick Centre on the 12th and 13th of July 2025. It is the latest in a series of projects known as Passengers conceived and curated by Julie Hill, in partnership with Gauld Architecture.

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