The alarm is set but I wake up an hour before it rings. This gives more time for breakfast, double-checking that passport, tickets, euros, notebooks, pens, headphones, cameras are all in place. I might as well leave early rather than idle around at home. It will be interesting to see the port wake up; notContinue reading “Walking to France”
Tag Archives: travel
Empire of Corruption: A Radical Walk
Empire Latin: related to imperare, whence imperator, Emperor, 1. Supreme and extensive political domain2. Absolute sway, supreme control3. Emperorship – 1606 Corruption 1. The destruction or spoiling of anything, esp. by disintegration or decomposition, putreficatio – 17182. Infection, infected condition; also contagion, taint – 15983. Decomposition or putrid matter – 15264. A making or becomingContinue reading “Empire of Corruption: A Radical Walk”
Where are the Socialist Voices?
This is based on a Radical Walk that took place on Sunday 8 June 2025 as part of the London Festival of Architecture. It’s a longer than usual blog pieces because I get regular messages from people who say they would like to come along but for various reasons they can’t. So this is forContinue reading “Where are the Socialist Voices?”
The Gateway Flats, Dover
The Gateway Flats in Dover were completed in 1959. Over 200 council flats, with sea views and easy access to the sweeping, curving promenade by the harbour. There was some controversy at the time, and small echoes of that rumble on. Why should council tenants have such elegant and graceful housing? Why this intelligent andContinue reading “The Gateway Flats, Dover”
Cité-jardins de Champigny-sur-Marne
“In Paris in 1885, a judge declared that for a landlord to be compelled to lay on water in his houses for the use of the tenants was an interference with the liberty of the subject, and held that a water-supply was not an indispensable necessity for maintaining the healthiness of the a dwelling” CatherineContinue reading “Cité-jardins de Champigny-sur-Marne”
Ostheim, Stuttgart
Ostheim was discovered by chance, and perhaps the experience was more enjoyable for that. I was going to the REWE supermarket to buy a couple of bottles of beer. I walked along Landhausstrasse and slowly my senses started to pick up that there was something rather attractive here, rather unusual, in the local streets. I’mContinue reading “Ostheim, Stuttgart”
Paris Manuscripts
It was as if a scrap of paper was found in the street. One of those anonymous streets that lead through a time-space warp and into a fragment of the city that is both imagined and real. A door opens, tumble through, a dusty corridor, it’s airless and stale, there is someone in the cornerContinue reading “Paris Manuscripts”
Otto Prutscher
There are many routes to follow in tracing Red Vienna. Walking towards a planned destination; walking as a means of discovery, walking as an ambient experience within the envelopment of the city. Walking as both a journey and a destination. There is no need for rules or dogma. Chance, accident-ism, everything and anything. Walking inContinue reading “Otto Prutscher”
Karl Seitz Hof
The U-bahn train on line U3 came to a momentary stop outside Florisdorf station. It was a moment to catch up with myself. It’s like you suddenly become yourself again, remember who you are, waking up from a walking daydream through the city streets. An elderly woman walked past me pulling a shopping trolley. SheContinue reading “Karl Seitz Hof”
Red Vienna: A Radical Walk
Update: Thursday 31 July 2025I am organising a ‘Red Vienna Radical Walk’ on Sunday 28 September 2025. Meet outside the Rabenhof Theatre, Rabengasse 3, 1030 Wien at 14.00More details here:https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1548015378669?aff=oddtdtcreator If you want more details use the contact form, link on the top right corner of this page. * * * * * * *Continue reading “Red Vienna: A Radical Walk”
Commodity Fetishism 