Viewpoints – Placecloud

London, United Kingdom. The viewpoint deals with four Greater London Council housing blocks - two in Tower Hamlets and a second pair in Westminster, where the architects employed an experimental plastics building system in their design and construction. More latterly, the buildings were involved in the "Homes for Votes" scandal in the 1980s, which has received renewed attention in the light of the Grenfell Tower disaster.

Headley, United Kingdom. This viewpoint deals with BedZED, the most notable mixed-use sustainable community to be developed in London over the last twenty years. Develped by Bioregional and the Peabody Trust to designs by Bill Dunster Architects, BedZED was subject to significant media attention upon its completion in 2002 and no shortage of controversy. In this viewpoint, I argue that rather than being seen as good or bad, the scheme should be seen as an indication of how much our expectations regarding sustainabilty have changed over the last two decades.

London, United Kingdom. In this viewpoint, I tell the story of the BBC's headquarters, its design by Val Myer and FJ Watson Hart and its magnificent recording studios. The story features angry local residents, neo-Art Deco facades, and a type of early plastic made of formaldehyde resin.

London, United Kingdom. The court performances of the early seventeenth century presented an image of perfect political harmony; but backstage the reality was very different.

London, United Kingdom. Step inside a sixteenth-century house in Smithfield.

London, United Kingdom. For more than 800 years, in frosty weather the frozen Thames played host to spectacular festivals.

London, United Kingdom. Join the crowds at a royal joust in honour of Elizabeth I.

London, United Kingdom. For Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway the clocks of Big Ben and St Margaret’s, Westminster do more than just tell the time.

London, United Kingdom. In Elizabethan London, Richard Walweyn’s trousers were a literal crime of fashion.

London, United Kingdom. Flames are racing towards your house: what do you save? In 1666, Samuel Pepys prioritised his cheese.