Reid Allen
LightNews LightNews
banner
reidallen.bsky.social
Reid Allen
@reidallen.bsky.social
60 followers 84 following 55 posts
PhD student @ City University of London researching unauthorised 'wild' swimming in London.
Interests in space & place, (polluted) leisure and ethnography.
(He/him)
Posts Replies Media Videos
reidallen.bsky.social
Great piece by the London Centric on a disturbing new funding model for City of London green spaces to 'increase income generation'. Another saga in the hyper-commodification of any and every commons in the city.

substack.com/inbox/post/1...
Hampstead Heath and the battle over London's green spaces
Plus: We speak to the restaurant owner berating locals for not eating at his restaurant, go litter picking with Ed Davey, and explain how we accidentally inspired a crime fighting tool.
substack.com
October 27, 2025 at 11:20 PM
reidallen.bsky.social
Yes!
thesociologicalreview.org The Sociological Review Foundation @thesociologicalreview.org · Sep 17
Key takeaways: “Morley’s functions as an essential ‘third space’: an informal, community-driven place existing between home and work, offering a kind of urban intimacy.”

In our new issue, Safia Banharally looks beyond a London chicken shop’s menu to its underexamined social role.

buff.ly/u7edt4y
Photograph of North London branch of Morley’s fried chicken, with its brightly lit, bold red interior and groups of customers chatting and ordering, illustrating research on fast-food outlets as social third spaces beyond home and work.
September 17, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Reid Allen
alisonstenning.bsky.social
Children are ***82%*** more likely to be killed when hit by an SUV than by a regular passenger car.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
"We did a review of all of the studies globally, which included half a million road traffic injuries, and that found that if you are hit by an SUV compared to being hit by a passenger car you are 44% more likely to be killed. "Among kids it's higher - it's 82%. And that makes sense when we think about it. The taller, blunter bonnets mean kids are more likely to be hit in the head or the torso. The real summary is they are much more dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists."
August 29, 2025 at 7:56 AM
Reposted by Reid Allen
desfitzgerald.bsky.social
Re-sharing this piece I wrote yesterday evening for the evening standard, on those 'tree on its way' signs in the square mile, and the problems of nature as superhero: www.standard.co.uk/comment/lond...
London commuters, a tree is 'on its way'. Can it save you?
‘Tree on its way.’ Commuters between London Bridge and the Monument may have seen this rather startling message, stencilled on the pavement in stark black and white, at regular intervals in recent wee...
www.standard.co.uk
August 6, 2025 at 9:18 AM
reidallen.bsky.social
An interesting take with an important warning to heed as we continue the push towards swimmable cities

outdoorswimmer.com/featured/is-...
Is urban swimming a threat to swimming freedom? - Outdoor Swimmer Magazine
There's a growing movement to make our cities more swimmable - but this usually means created controlled swimming spots rather than allowing unrestricted swimming.
outdoorswimmer.com
July 28, 2025 at 3:34 PM
reidallen.bsky.social
Pleased to say that I completed my RLSS Open Water Lifeguard training at Beckenham lake earlier this week (including an additional Automated External Defibrillator training qualification) learning crucial first aid, CPR and water-based rescue skills.
July 18, 2025 at 10:46 AM
reidallen.bsky.social
An excellent few days at my second (and the 50th anniversary of!) @leisure-studies.bsky.social conference in York.

The interdisciplinary nature of LSA always makes for great presentations and discussions around the borderlands.

And thanks to all that came to Tom and I’s workshop and engaged!
July 11, 2025 at 9:53 AM
reidallen.bsky.social
Arrived in York on a gorgeous day for the @leisure-studies.bsky.social conference
July 8, 2025 at 10:17 AM
reidallen.bsky.social
‘Researching the leisure we practice: unpacking and understanding embodied ethnographic methods’

Tom Critchley and I are running a workshop at LSA 2025 next week in York. If you’re there come along and talk participatory, entangled methods!
July 2, 2025 at 12:00 PM
reidallen.bsky.social
Inspiring few days at the first ever Swimmable Cities summit in Rotterdam. More conferences with morning and evening swims in the programming please!
June 24, 2025 at 3:40 PM
reidallen.bsky.social
Big news! Temporary...but a step in the right direction regardless

www.timeout.com/london/news/...
A new free lido will open in east London this summer
It’ll be at the Royal Docks for one month only.
www.timeout.com
June 17, 2025 at 2:12 PM
reidallen.bsky.social
June 12, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Reposted by Reid Allen
leisurestudies.bsky.social
New Research Article 📚

The leisure of grey spaces, urban play and the chromatic turn.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

#Leisure #GreySpaces #Environment
June 10, 2025 at 11:02 AM
reidallen.bsky.social
New developments in the Thames Water saga this morning www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Thames Water preferred bidder KKR pulls out of rescue deal
Future of troubled supplier in doubt as US private equity group says it cannot proceed with acquiring £4bn stake
www.theguardian.com
June 3, 2025 at 8:33 AM
Reposted by Reid Allen
thesociologicalreview.org
OUT NOW #OnlineFirst: Live Methods Revisited

Eight new papers focus on @academicdiary.bsky.social‬ and Nirmal Puwar’s Live Methods and its clarion call for more “artful and crafty” sociological methodologies. Edited by @emmakjackson.bsky.social‬ ‪& @kirsteen-paton.bsky.social‬

buff.ly/sM4Uta3
May 27, 2025 at 10:09 AM
reidallen.bsky.social
A Shadwell story: the swan and the turtle (/terrapin?)
May 13, 2025 at 3:03 PM
reidallen.bsky.social
Bathing by Tower Bridge, 2018 by fine art photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten. Found in the Guardian this morning
May 13, 2025 at 8:26 AM
reidallen.bsky.social
Excellent new piece by Isaac Rangaswami, a highly reflexive discussion of pub lists, Instagram and TikTok and how they intersect with gentrification and class in relation to 'local' pubs. 'How long do you have to live there to become local?'

open.substack.com/pub/woodenci...
Who exactly ruins local pubs?
And who decides if those people are bad?
open.substack.com
May 2, 2025 at 10:00 AM
reidallen.bsky.social
Brilliant article on a BMX event in Wuhan, China where riders launch themselves into a lake. Expanding how we conceptualise polluted leisure and the symbolic 'greyness' of the struggle between leisure and commercialisation. Great stuff.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
‘Everybody’s East Lake’: polluted leisure and BMX in grey spaces
This paper focuses on the annual youth event Tiaodongwho (跳东湖，literally meaning ‘Jump East Lake’) in Wuhan and examines BMX as a paradigmatic example of ‘polluted leisure’. It elucidates the critic...
www.tandfonline.com
March 31, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Reposted by Reid Allen
mrmjprice.bsky.social
No fun
A sign next to a park that sets out rules including no ball games, skate boards, cycling or roller blades. There is graffiti drawn over it that reads: “No fun”.
March 30, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Reid Allen
newseye.bsky.social
🚨NEW: This is the CRAZIEST breach of national security you’ll ever read.

The Trump administration accidentally texted Editor of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, its war plans.

Vance/Hegseth/Waltz & others included Goldberg in a group chat on Yemen military strikes.

Read this, you won’t regret it.
The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans
U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.
www.theatlantic.com
March 24, 2025 at 4:38 PM
reidallen.bsky.social
I've been excitedly awaiting this article from Abi on rooftop exploration in St Petersburg since we did a panel at LSA last year!
abikaras.bsky.social abi karas @abikaras.bsky.social · Mar 21
wrote about grey spaces, russia and the capitalocene. hope this enriches the chromatic leisure paradigm in some way ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
I believe that the use of the term ‘Capitalocene’, which locates climate change and ecological breakdown within the history of capitalism and colonialism is particularly relevant in the contemporary Russian context. This is not only due to the high levels of inequality experienced within the country but in particular because of Russia’s status as a petrostate and in light of its war against Ukraine, an explicitly imperial endeavour with wide-reaching environmental consequences
March 21, 2025 at 10:31 AM
reidallen.bsky.social
Finally got my hands on a copy of the 10foot-edited special issue. A great read so far
March 20, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Reposted by Reid Allen
thames21.bsky.social
Excellent to see our very own Dr. Claire Robertson featured in the @theipaper.com yesterday. Traces of human, cow and sheep faeces have been recorded at two of England’s most popular river bathing sites, an internal investigation seen by the i found.🧵⬇️
inews.co.uk/news/human-a...
Human and animal waste detected in England's iconic river bathing spots
Internal testing by the Environment Agency has provided insight into pollution at two sites that were the first to be designated official bathing spots in England
inews.co.uk
March 18, 2025 at 8:55 AM