Open City

InterCities is a brand new podcast from the team at Open City. In this six-part series, we travel to a number of cities and boroughs around the world that have transformed over time to discover what we can learn from these places’ achievements, struggles, successes and mistakes.

In our second episode, our host Owen Hatherley is joined by the broadcaster, writer and photographer Johny Pitts. Johny is a Sheffield-native and has witnessed first-hand the huge social and architectural change the city has undergone since the early 1990s. Today, we use photographs from "After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 – 2024" a roving exhibition Johny has curated, to track the cities shifting identity from the so-called Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire to a city where leisure and comfort are the new guiding principles.

Subscribe to the Open City Podcast on Spotify, Soundcloud or iTunes

The Open City Podcast is supported by Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app and produced in association with the Architects’ Journal, London Society, C20 Society and Save Britain's Heritage.

The Open City Podcast is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau. Bureau is a co-working space for creatives offering a new approach to membership workspace. Bureau prioritises not just room to think and do, but also shared resources and space to collaborate.

To help support excellent and accessible, independent journalism about the buildings and the urban environment, please become an Open City Friend.

Photo credit: Owen Hatherley portrait © Antonio Olmos

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On The Brief this week, host Fran Williams is joined by Robin Nicholson, fellow of Cullanan Studios, to discuss:

Plans for new 100 thousand-seat Manchester United stadium // Top architecture firms announce redundancies // Labour's new planning and infrastructure bill // And the winner of the 2025 Pritzker Prize

To help support excellent and accessible, independent journalism about the buildings and the urban environment, please become an Open City friend by clicking here.

The Brief is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau. Bureau is a co-working space for creatives offering a new approach to membership workspace. Bureau prioritises not just room to think and do, but also shared resources and space to collaborate. To book a free day pass follow this link.

The Brief is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal, and the C20 Society.

The Brief is also supported by Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Deconstructed, Matthew Lloyd Roberts is joined by Petra Cox – heritage educator, Open City tour guide and Golden Key Academy graduate. They discuss Crossness Pumping Station, constructed from 1859–65 by William Webster to designs by Charles Henry Driver to serve the entire southern half of Joseph Bazalgette's London sewer system. Commissioned by the Metropolitan Board of Works, it transformed London's public health and sanitation, and large parts of the sewer system are still in use today.

Petra Cox will lead a new Open City tour of Crossness and its sewage system on 4 May and 31 May. Tickets via our website https://open-city.org.uk/events

The Crossness Pumping Station will be celebrating its 160th Anniversary by running its steam engines on the 5th and 6th April, for more information visit: https://crossness.org.uk/visit/

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The Open City Podcast is supported by Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app and is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal, London Society, C20 Society and Save Britain's Heritage. 

The Open City Podcast is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau. Bureau is a co-working space for creatives offering a new approach to membership workspace. 

To help support excellent and accessible, independent journalism about the buildings and the urban environment, please become an Open City Friend. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On The Brief this week, host Sahiba Chadha is joined by the editor of London Centric Jim Waterson, to discuss:

The man behind Criterion Capital, Asif Aziz // Safety concerns around London Lime bikes // Demonstrations in Peckham against high-rise regeneration // And what this year's winner of the Jane Drew Prize says about architecture in 2025.

To help support excellent and accessible, independent journalism about the buildings and the urban environment, please become an Open City friend by clicking here.

The Brief is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau. Bureau is a co-working space for creatives offering a new approach to membership workspace. Bureau prioritises not just room to think and do, but also shared resources and space to collaborate. To book a free day pass follow this link.

The Brief is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal, and the C20 Society.

The Brief is also supported by Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

InterCities is a brand new podcast from the team at Open City. In this six-part series, we travel to a number of cities and boroughs around the world that have transformed over time to discover what we can learn from these places’ achievements, struggles, successes and mistakes.

In our first episode, our host Owen Hatherly is joined by the architect Ana Francisco Sutherland, the director of Francisco Sutherland Architects. Through the lens of Ana’s latest book Modern Buildings in Blackheath and Greenwich, the pair discuss the changing face of the London borough of Greenwich. In a place where architects often designed for themselves they analyse different models of public space, the Blackheath style wars of the 1950s and 1960s and the vision of modernist property development company Span.

Subscribe to the Open City Podcast on Spotify, Soundcloud or iTunes

The Open City Podcast is supported by Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app and produced in association with the Architects’ Journal, London Society, C20 Society and Save Britain's Heritage.

The Open City Podcast is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau. Bureau is a co-working space for creatives offering a new approach to membership workspace. Bureau prioritises not just room to think and do, but also shared resources and space to collaborate.

To help support excellent and accessible, independent journalism about the buildings and the urban environment, please become an Open City Friend.

Photo credit: Owen Hatherley portrait © Antonio Olmos

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, host Merlin Fulcher is joined by the CEO of Open City, Manijeh Verghese to discuss:

UK government unveils plans for dozens of new towns across England // The proposed dismantling of Grenfell Tower is met with strong opposition // Japanese architecture duo SANAA win the 2025 RIBA Royal Gold Medal // And the spiritual leader and champion of Islamic architecture, the Aga Khan, has died at the age of 88

To help support excellent and accessible, independent journalism about the buildings and the urban environment, please become an Open City friend by clicking here.

The Brief is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau. Bureau is a co-working space for creatives offering a new approach to membership workspace. Bureau prioritises not just room to think and do, but also shared resources and space to collaborate. To book a free day pass follow this link.

The Brief is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal, and the C20 Society.

The Brief is also supported by Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Deconstructed, Matthew Lloyd Roberts is joined by George Saumarez Smith, Design Director at ADAM Architecture. They discuss the church of St Anne's Limehouse, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and consecrated in 1730 as one of the 'Queen Anne Churches' built by the New Church Commission. 

St Anne's Limehouse is currently campaigning to raise funds for repairs ahead of their tercentenary, with a programme of public events ongoing: https://www.hawksmoor300limehouse.com/.

To help support excellent and accessible, independent journalism about the buildings and the urban environment, please become an Open City friend by clicking here.

Deconstructed is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau.

Bureau is a co-working space for creatives offering a new approach to membership workspace. Bureau prioritises not just room to think and do, but also shared resources and space to collaborate.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, host Merlin Fulcher is joined by Jon Wright, an historian and 20 Century lead at Purcell to discuss:

Plans to revamp London’s Brutalist Barbican Centre // A redevelopment bid for Denys Lasdun’s ‘glass castle’ // Tributes for legendary Archigram member Dennis Crompton // And a campaign to save Soho’s Prince Charles cinema.

To help support excellent and accessible, independent journalism about the buildings and the urban environment, please become an Open City friend by clicking here.

The Brief is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau. Bureau is a co-working space for creatives offering a new approach to membership workspace. Bureau prioritises not just room to think and do, but also shared resources and space to collaborate. To book a free day pass follow this link.

The Brief is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal, and the C20 Society.

The Brief is also supported by Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Sahiba Chadha is joined by Julian Maynard, industrial designer and the managing director of Maynard Design Group. 

The Elizabeth Line spurs on new development, but across England, planning approvals for housing have seen record lows // A transformative redesign of London’s Regent Street area is won by Allies and Morrison // The first-ever winner of the RIBA Stirling prize is set to be demolished in Salford // And the devastating fires in Los Angeles destroy Modernist landmarks

To help support excellent and accessible, independent journalism about the buildings and the urban environment, please become an Open City friend by clicking here.

The Brief is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau. Bureau is a co-working space for creatives offering a new approach to membership workspace. Bureau prioritises not just room to think and do, but also shared resources and space to collaborate. To book a free day pass follow this link.

The Brief is produced in association with the Architects’ Journal, and the C20 Society.

The Brief is also supported by Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the first episode of Deconstructed, Matthew Lloyd Roberts is joined by Eleanor Marshall, an architectural designer and civil servant at the Department for Transport who runs Open City’s London Public Health Architecture Walking Tour. They discuss Finsbury Health Centre, an iconic modernist building in Clerkenwell, designed by the architect Berthold Lubetkin’s practice Tecton and built for Finsbury Borough Council from 1935–8.

Eleanor appeared in a video discussing Lubetkin’s legacy, especially his housing at Bevin Court, which you can watch here: https://open-city.org.uk/films/marxism-and-london-ep1 

Deconstructed is a new monthly show from Open City produced by Hunter Charlton dedicated to in-depth explorations of the past, present and future of the built environment in London and beyond.

To help support excellent and accessible, independent journalism about the buildings and the urban environment, please become an Open City friend by clicking here.

Deconstructed is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau.

Bureau is a co-working space for creatives offering a new approach to membership workspace. Bureau prioritises not just room to think and do, but also shared resources and space to collaborate.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.