Otto Saumarez Smith
@OSaumarezSmith
Historian of shopping precincts, leisure centres, power stations, derelict landscapes, inner cities, new towns, & city centre redevelopment. @c20Society trustee
My @OUPHistory book "Boom Cities, Architect Planners and the Politics of Radical Renewal in 1960s Britain", is out now in affordable paperback. It covers a constellation of ideas about the rebuilding of city centres for affluence and the car in the 1960s. global.oup.com/academic/produ…
Very sad to hear of Andrew Saint's death, pictured here giving huge architectural history energy with Gavin Stamp. His books all written with tremendous style across a terrific range of topics. Towards a Social Architecture, his superb history of post-war schools my favourite.
A recording of a lecture by me on "Basil Champneys & the Politics of Prettiness", slightly out of my depth, at a very enjoyable day @Newnham_College. youtube.com/watch?v=frHqZv…
My first peer-reviewed article, a history of policing, cinema and education, is out in one of the greatest ever film journals: @Screen_Journal academic.oup.com/screen/article…
This is a really superb thesis - and has transformed much of what I thought I knew about the period. Incredibly exciting to see it out in the world.
I wrote it so you don't have to
EVENT: Join C20 for a Modernist tour of Cambridge from the River, led by @OSaumarezSmith and Dr Holly Smith The tour by punt will take in buildings which can only be seen from the Cam, such as Spence’s Erasmus Building (1960) and Lutyens’ Benson Court (1932). Finishing at Powell…
Another William Mitchell pilgrimage, this time to the tremendous 40ft bronzed fibreglass mural on East Sussex County Hall, Lewes (1965-8). Stonking.
Wine cellar door, at Lutyens’ Munstead Wood, for Gertrude Jekyll. 🍇
This @C20Society book, out in September, is going to be absolutely stonking.
Antony Holloway and Oliver Cox Docklands tile mural in Poplar (c. 1958)
NEWS: C20 has supported an application by grassroots campaigners to list the former Central YMCA building on Great Russell Street, London – the site of the world’s first YMCA. Designed by Michael Mulchinet of the Elsworth Sykes Partnership and built between 1971-77, the…
My book is out on 28 October with @VersoBooks 💥 It’s available for pre-order at £20: waterstones.com/book/up-in-the…
📖The latest issue of our award winning C20 Magazine is out now! It includes a tale of two estates and two special covers (ft. @PhinHarper @OSaumarezSmith), Seifert's Space (House) Odyssey, Beside the Seaside with @SeasideFerry, Desert Island Objects with Kate Macintosh and…