Otto Saumarez Smith
@osaumarezsmith.bsky.social
Historian of shopping precincts, derelict landscapes, leisure centres, power stations, inner cities, housing, the Potteries, Telford new town, & city centre redevelopment. @c20society casework & trustee.
Pinned
A thread to introduce myself to this app.
I'm an architectural & urban historian, & my work views many of the profound changes that happened to the state and society in modern Britain through the lens of the built environment. I'm lucky it's both my job & hobby to explore buildings & places.
I'm an architectural & urban historian, & my work views many of the profound changes that happened to the state and society in modern Britain through the lens of the built environment. I'm lucky it's both my job & hobby to explore buildings & places.
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
🚨#History #envhist Job Alert: My Department is hiring an Assistant Professor in Environmental History.
🗃️
Come work with us at Warwick. You'll get both excellent colleagues and great students!
See details below... And do not hesitate to spread the word...
👇👇👇
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPK289/a...
🗃️
Come work with us at Warwick. You'll get both excellent colleagues and great students!
See details below... And do not hesitate to spread the word...
👇👇👇
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPK289/a...
Assistant Professor in Environmental History (111009-1125) at University of Warwick
Explore an exciting academic career as a Assistant Professor in Environmental History (111009-1125). Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities.
www.jobs.ac.uk
November 12, 2025 at 12:15 PM
🚨#History #envhist Job Alert: My Department is hiring an Assistant Professor in Environmental History.
🗃️
Come work with us at Warwick. You'll get both excellent colleagues and great students!
See details below... And do not hesitate to spread the word...
👇👇👇
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPK289/a...
🗃️
Come work with us at Warwick. You'll get both excellent colleagues and great students!
See details below... And do not hesitate to spread the word...
👇👇👇
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPK289/a...
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
I’m in this week’s @newstatesman1913.bsky.social with a review of Holly Smith’s brilliant history of house rise council housing in Britain, Up in the Air
www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...
www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...
Repopulating the high-rises
A new history of Britain’s tower blocks reveals the ways architecture and ideology have combined to ensure residents are always forgotten
www.newstatesman.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:07 AM
I’m in this week’s @newstatesman1913.bsky.social with a review of Holly Smith’s brilliant history of house rise council housing in Britain, Up in the Air
www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...
www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
COMING SOON!
The Modern British City 1945-2000 brings together architectural, urban and social historians, to chart the extraordinary changes that took place in British cities between the end of the Second World War and the early 21st century...
Pre-order now! www.lundhumphries.com
The Modern British City 1945-2000 brings together architectural, urban and social historians, to chart the extraordinary changes that took place in British cities between the end of the Second World War and the early 21st century...
Pre-order now! www.lundhumphries.com
November 4, 2025 at 4:40 PM
COMING SOON!
The Modern British City 1945-2000 brings together architectural, urban and social historians, to chart the extraordinary changes that took place in British cities between the end of the Second World War and the early 21st century...
Pre-order now! www.lundhumphries.com
The Modern British City 1945-2000 brings together architectural, urban and social historians, to chart the extraordinary changes that took place in British cities between the end of the Second World War and the early 21st century...
Pre-order now! www.lundhumphries.com
A day teaching in Carlo Scarpa’s Castelvecchio. Magic.
November 4, 2025 at 6:37 PM
A day teaching in Carlo Scarpa’s Castelvecchio. Magic.
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
Took my new Hawksmoor-inspired jumper up to Christ Church Spitalfields today 🪦
All credit goes to the wonderful Hebe who spent countless hours knitting it!
All credit goes to the wonderful Hebe who spent countless hours knitting it!
November 2, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Took my new Hawksmoor-inspired jumper up to Christ Church Spitalfields today 🪦
All credit goes to the wonderful Hebe who spent countless hours knitting it!
All credit goes to the wonderful Hebe who spent countless hours knitting it!
Holly Smith launches Up in the Air at the LRB Bookshop. @holsmith.bsky.social
October 30, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Holly Smith launches Up in the Air at the LRB Bookshop. @holsmith.bsky.social
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
My book UP IN THE AIR: A HISTORY OF HIGH-RISE BRITAIN is out today!
October 28, 2025 at 9:41 AM
My book UP IN THE AIR: A HISTORY OF HIGH-RISE BRITAIN is out today!
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
Was Manchester really as segregated as Engels said? What kept the rich and poor apart.... if anything? My first article is out today in @historicaljnl.bsky.social and I'm so pleased to share it with you all! doi:10.1017/S0018246X25101246
@stjohnscollege.bsky.social @camunicampop.bsky.social
@stjohnscollege.bsky.social @camunicampop.bsky.social
October 21, 2025 at 7:17 AM
Was Manchester really as segregated as Engels said? What kept the rich and poor apart.... if anything? My first article is out today in @historicaljnl.bsky.social and I'm so pleased to share it with you all! doi:10.1017/S0018246X25101246
@stjohnscollege.bsky.social @camunicampop.bsky.social
@stjohnscollege.bsky.social @camunicampop.bsky.social
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
There's just a day to go until @manchesterup.bsky.social publish my latest book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London.
I thought I should explain a bit about where the book came from.
1/15
I thought I should explain a bit about where the book came from.
1/15
October 20, 2025 at 9:37 AM
There's just a day to go until @manchesterup.bsky.social publish my latest book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London.
I thought I should explain a bit about where the book came from.
1/15
I thought I should explain a bit about where the book came from.
1/15
The deeply creepy island of Poveglia in the Venetian Lagoon, originally a nunnery, then a quarantine station, and an asylum from 1922 till 1968 - & now all eerily derelict - it’s reported that underfoot are plague pits for over 100,000 people.
October 20, 2025 at 9:45 AM
The deeply creepy island of Poveglia in the Venetian Lagoon, originally a nunnery, then a quarantine station, and an asylum from 1922 till 1968 - & now all eerily derelict - it’s reported that underfoot are plague pits for over 100,000 people.
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
Join us for a roundtable on 'The Modern British City' in January at Senate House, London, with Simon Gunn, Erika Hanna, Owen Hatherley, Peter Mandler, Otto Saumarez Smith and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, followed by wine! www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Roundtable: 'The Modern British City'
www.history.ac.uk
October 10, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Join us for a roundtable on 'The Modern British City' in January at Senate House, London, with Simon Gunn, Erika Hanna, Owen Hatherley, Peter Mandler, Otto Saumarez Smith and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, followed by wine! www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
A pair of ludicrously high-heeled Venetian clogs, or Calcagnetti, c. 1400.
October 9, 2025 at 6:18 PM
A pair of ludicrously high-heeled Venetian clogs, or Calcagnetti, c. 1400.
Letter in the Times:
October 2, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Letter in the Times:
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
To celebate the launch of 'Up in the Air: A History of High-Rise Britain', join author Holly Smith and C20 in conversation with architectural historian Neal Shasore on the future of public housing.
🗓️ Fri 14 Nov 2025, 6.30pm
📍 Cowcross St Gallery + Online
🎟️ secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...
🗓️ Fri 14 Nov 2025, 6.30pm
📍 Cowcross St Gallery + Online
🎟️ secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...
![Image © Keystone Press
Photo shows Mrs. Ingeboug Paine with her daughter 7 year old Diane, standing on their 19th story balcony overlooking the collapsed block of flats Ronan Point, taking a last look before leaving for their new home in another block of flats in Canning Town [Jan 20 1969].](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:kptp7dp2g5dmhmf6dlal55jn/bafkreidsf4mazmm6fcqgpdie6przfivj64e72syljzffmhboa52hrep7de@jpeg)
October 1, 2025 at 9:40 AM
To celebate the launch of 'Up in the Air: A History of High-Rise Britain', join author Holly Smith and C20 in conversation with architectural historian Neal Shasore on the future of public housing.
🗓️ Fri 14 Nov 2025, 6.30pm
📍 Cowcross St Gallery + Online
🎟️ secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...
🗓️ Fri 14 Nov 2025, 6.30pm
📍 Cowcross St Gallery + Online
🎟️ secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
I for one can’t wait but I do have skin in the game - a piece on the post-war history of the idea of the working class community - but there’s so much more - it’s a BIG book
A short post about the Modern British City, out in November: www.lundhumphries.com/blogs/featur...
September 23, 2025 at 3:05 PM
I for one can’t wait but I do have skin in the game - a piece on the post-war history of the idea of the working class community - but there’s so much more - it’s a BIG book
A short post about the Modern British City, out in November: www.lundhumphries.com/blogs/featur...
September 23, 2025 at 1:43 PM
A short post about the Modern British City, out in November: www.lundhumphries.com/blogs/featur...
Pleased with this small Gustavsberg dish, showing Eskil Sundahl's Kooperativa Förbundet headquarters in Södermalm (1935).
August 29, 2025 at 10:48 AM
Pleased with this small Gustavsberg dish, showing Eskil Sundahl's Kooperativa Förbundet headquarters in Södermalm (1935).
Managed to re-buy this Ironbridge B Power Station commemorative plate.
August 26, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Managed to re-buy this Ironbridge B Power Station commemorative plate.
Here is Spångavägen 49, the “Lamellahus” Oliver Cox, Michael Ventris & Graeme Shankland rented in 1947. They were later dubbed “Swedophiles”, and I’ve been exploring many of the places they visited, all of it so beautifully maintained it is easy to recapture there excitement & why 🇸🇪 so influential.
August 20, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Here is Spångavägen 49, the “Lamellahus” Oliver Cox, Michael Ventris & Graeme Shankland rented in 1947. They were later dubbed “Swedophiles”, and I’ve been exploring many of the places they visited, all of it so beautifully maintained it is easy to recapture there excitement & why 🇸🇪 so influential.
Paul Hedqvist‘s functionalist collective terrace at Ålstensgatan (1932-3). Per Albin Hansson, who was the prime minister of Sweden from 1923 to 1946 lived here, which seems just right.
August 16, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Paul Hedqvist‘s functionalist collective terrace at Ålstensgatan (1932-3). Per Albin Hansson, who was the prime minister of Sweden from 1923 to 1946 lived here, which seems just right.
Léonie & Charles-Eduoard Geisendorf’s S’s Görans gymnasium, Stockholm (1960). A masterpiece.
August 15, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Léonie & Charles-Eduoard Geisendorf’s S’s Görans gymnasium, Stockholm (1960). A masterpiece.
Kenneth Rowntree's 'Holiday in Sweden', 1938.
Off to Stockholm tomorrow, mostly need to look at housing, but recommendations welcome. 🇸🇪
Off to Stockholm tomorrow, mostly need to look at housing, but recommendations welcome. 🇸🇪
August 12, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Kenneth Rowntree's 'Holiday in Sweden', 1938.
Off to Stockholm tomorrow, mostly need to look at housing, but recommendations welcome. 🇸🇪
Off to Stockholm tomorrow, mostly need to look at housing, but recommendations welcome. 🇸🇪
A piece by me in this terrific, wide-ranging, & open access celebration of @petermandler.bsky.social, about Mass Observation, the Architectural Association, and attempts to think about housing sociologically in late-1930s Britain: read.uolpress.co.uk/read/democra...
August 10, 2025 at 2:48 PM
A piece by me in this terrific, wide-ranging, & open access celebration of @petermandler.bsky.social, about Mass Observation, the Architectural Association, and attempts to think about housing sociologically in late-1930s Britain: read.uolpress.co.uk/read/democra...
Richard Gilbert Scott’s swooping Vatican II Our Lady Help of Christians, Birmingham (1966-7)
August 3, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Richard Gilbert Scott’s swooping Vatican II Our Lady Help of Christians, Birmingham (1966-7)
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
You can get 25% off my book UP IN THE AIR: A HISTORY OF HIGH-RISE BRITAIN at Waterstones, with the code SUMMER25 until Thursday 31 #WPreorder
July 28, 2025 at 3:41 PM
You can get 25% off my book UP IN THE AIR: A HISTORY OF HIGH-RISE BRITAIN at Waterstones, with the code SUMMER25 until Thursday 31 #WPreorder