Ellie Brown
@elliebrown.bsky.social
Researcher, writer. Looking at twentieth-century architecture and design (shopping centres, public art, urban space, interior design).
emadeleinebrown.com
emadeleinebrown.com
Reposted by Ellie Brown
Putting it out there since it is books-as-gifts time: I have two books in print and in paperback that answer many burning questions about why cities look the way they do geni.us/designofchil...
November 25, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Putting it out there since it is books-as-gifts time: I have two books in print and in paperback that answer many burning questions about why cities look the way they do geni.us/designofchil...
Last month I passed my viva, bringing to an end 4 yrs research into the shopping centre in 70s Britain. My thesis looked at how the shopping centre shaped, and was shaped by, changing attitudes towards the urban experience and consuming, as well as key debates about design, architecture and space.
November 8, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Last month I passed my viva, bringing to an end 4 yrs research into the shopping centre in 70s Britain. My thesis looked at how the shopping centre shaped, and was shaped by, changing attitudes towards the urban experience and consuming, as well as key debates about design, architecture and space.
So great to see a few of Peter Hand's much loved play sculptures are back! They were commissioned for shopping centres across Britain but have all but disappeared...
My favourite picture of Poole's wooden animals: temporarily reinstalled in the Dolphin Centre in 2020 with face masks 😷
My favourite picture of Poole's wooden animals: temporarily reinstalled in the Dolphin Centre in 2020 with face masks 😷
November 7, 2025 at 11:06 AM
So great to see a few of Peter Hand's much loved play sculptures are back! They were commissioned for shopping centres across Britain but have all but disappeared...
My favourite picture of Poole's wooden animals: temporarily reinstalled in the Dolphin Centre in 2020 with face masks 😷
My favourite picture of Poole's wooden animals: temporarily reinstalled in the Dolphin Centre in 2020 with face masks 😷
Reposted by Ellie Brown
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 Ellie Brown
#Design is facing an existential crisis, as @edwinheathcote.bsky.social explains so eloquently. 🔻🔻
Design thinking could transform lives for the better (eg in #NHS systems; or wayfinding; or products for older people), but many designers' work just fuels excessive consumption...
on.ft.com/46M9mXI
Design thinking could transform lives for the better (eg in #NHS systems; or wayfinding; or products for older people), but many designers' work just fuels excessive consumption...
on.ft.com/46M9mXI
Why designers abandoned their dreams of changing the world
Design was once seen as a tool to improve lives — but as modernism has become marketing, that sense of social purpose has drifted away
on.ft.com
October 4, 2025 at 8:54 AM
#Design is facing an existential crisis, as @edwinheathcote.bsky.social explains so eloquently. 🔻🔻
Design thinking could transform lives for the better (eg in #NHS systems; or wayfinding; or products for older people), but many designers' work just fuels excessive consumption...
on.ft.com/46M9mXI
Design thinking could transform lives for the better (eg in #NHS systems; or wayfinding; or products for older people), but many designers' work just fuels excessive consumption...
on.ft.com/46M9mXI
Reposted by Ellie Brown
Letter in the Times:
October 2, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Letter in the Times:
Reposted by Ellie Brown
Catch me in the @theguardian.com today, on the history of high-rise housing. We need to remove the distorting goggles of prejudice in order to understand Britain’s extraordinary high-rise heritage. Consider looking up afresh! www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Thumping ambition – and demolition: 10 high-rises that changed modern Britain
Eyesores and scandalously unsafe? Or utopian housing for the working classes? Here are the stories and scandals behind some of the UK’s most revolutionary homes
www.theguardian.com
October 1, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Catch me in the @theguardian.com today, on the history of high-rise housing. We need to remove the distorting goggles of prejudice in order to understand Britain’s extraordinary high-rise heritage. Consider looking up afresh! www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Reposted by Ellie Brown
A 100% very totally normal and real question.
September 29, 2025 at 4:00 PM
A 100% very totally normal and real question.
Not quite a desk view at my new role, but from the roof of MK Gallery there is a pretty luscious view of Milton Keynes shopping centre
September 24, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Not quite a desk view at my new role, but from the roof of MK Gallery there is a pretty luscious view of Milton Keynes shopping centre
Obligatory photo of the late Brian Clarke’s stained glass (1988-90) in the Victoria Quarter when in Leeds
September 8, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Obligatory photo of the late Brian Clarke’s stained glass (1988-90) in the Victoria Quarter when in Leeds
Reposted by Ellie Brown
Grateful to Az for coming to us to write this piece. As a V&A/RCA alum and design student myself, reflecting on the process of learning what is 'good' design/history through working with Az helped clarify some of the complex emotions I had visiting the Storehouse!
The V&A East Storehouse opened earlier this year to great fanfare, heralding a state-of-the-art 'working museum' providing 'radical access' to design and the archive.
Az Crawford considers the history and politics behind 'all of this for all of you':
www.historyworkshop....↗
Az Crawford considers the history and politics behind 'all of this for all of you':
www.historyworkshop....↗
All of this for all of you
Az Crawford contemplates the historical narratives and aesthetic politics behind the new V&A East Storehouse.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
August 14, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Grateful to Az for coming to us to write this piece. As a V&A/RCA alum and design student myself, reflecting on the process of learning what is 'good' design/history through working with Az helped clarify some of the complex emotions I had visiting the Storehouse!
Reposted by Ellie Brown
Some quintessential 1950s public architecture: shops at North Parade and the entrance lobby to Beckett Court, Greyfriars - both built as part of Bedford Borough Council's postwar Central Redevelopment Area.
August 8, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Some quintessential 1950s public architecture: shops at North Parade and the entrance lobby to Beckett Court, Greyfriars - both built as part of Bedford Borough Council's postwar Central Redevelopment Area.
Reposted by Ellie Brown
Mark Leckey & Arthur Jafa summon ghosts into an ever-shifting shopping centre
by @elliebrown.bsky.social
recessed.space/00286-Mark-L...
by @elliebrown.bsky.social
recessed.space/00286-Mark-L...
00286 - Mark Leckey Arthur Jafa Whitgift Croydon — recessed.space
Mark Leckey & Arthur Jafa summon ghosts into an ever-shifting shopping centre Two seminal moving image...
recessed.space
July 30, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Mark Leckey & Arthur Jafa summon ghosts into an ever-shifting shopping centre
by @elliebrown.bsky.social
recessed.space/00286-Mark-L...
by @elliebrown.bsky.social
recessed.space/00286-Mark-L...
Of course there is a Schröder House adjacent bird house tucked away in Central Milton Keynes! 🐦
July 5, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Of course there is a Schröder House adjacent bird house tucked away in Central Milton Keynes! 🐦
Reposted by Ellie Brown
C20 is saddened to hear of the death of architectural artist Sir Brian Clarke, a longtime friend and benefactor of the Society. His joyous, technicolour stained glass enlivened so many buildings worldwide.
As David Bailey has said: "The only man who could argue with God, then design his windows"
As David Bailey has said: "The only man who could argue with God, then design his windows"
July 4, 2025 at 10:12 AM
C20 is saddened to hear of the death of architectural artist Sir Brian Clarke, a longtime friend and benefactor of the Society. His joyous, technicolour stained glass enlivened so many buildings worldwide.
As David Bailey has said: "The only man who could argue with God, then design his windows"
As David Bailey has said: "The only man who could argue with God, then design his windows"
Reposted by Ellie Brown
Excellent piece on the fate of the Prince Charles cinema and central YMCA (two places I happen to love) by @willcoldwell.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
‘The city is being hollowed out’: the billionaire landlord locked in a David v Goliath battle for London’s West End
Dubbed ‘Britain’s meanest landlord’, Asif Aziz is fighting it out with a tiny cinema that counts Christopher Nolan, Paul Mescal and other Hollywood heroes as fans. How did the capital’s cultural landm...
www.theguardian.com
June 14, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Excellent piece on the fate of the Prince Charles cinema and central YMCA (two places I happen to love) by @willcoldwell.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Reposted by Ellie Brown
Chain Stores is here!
It's Publication Day - and my first copies arrived in the morning post! Here's a glimpse of the chapter on shoe shops.
Over the next weeks I'll post some of the material that I couldn't fit into the book, including extra pictures.
Thanks @livunipress.bsky.social.
It's Publication Day - and my first copies arrived in the morning post! Here's a glimpse of the chapter on shoe shops.
Over the next weeks I'll post some of the material that I couldn't fit into the book, including extra pictures.
Thanks @livunipress.bsky.social.
May 28, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Chain Stores is here!
It's Publication Day - and my first copies arrived in the morning post! Here's a glimpse of the chapter on shoe shops.
Over the next weeks I'll post some of the material that I couldn't fit into the book, including extra pictures.
Thanks @livunipress.bsky.social.
It's Publication Day - and my first copies arrived in the morning post! Here's a glimpse of the chapter on shoe shops.
Over the next weeks I'll post some of the material that I couldn't fit into the book, including extra pictures.
Thanks @livunipress.bsky.social.
Reposted by Ellie Brown
My book is out on 28 October with
@versobooks.bsky.social 💥 It’s available for pre-order at £20: www.waterstones.com/book/up-in-t...
@versobooks.bsky.social 💥 It’s available for pre-order at £20: www.waterstones.com/book/up-in-t...
May 24, 2025 at 9:51 AM
My book is out on 28 October with
@versobooks.bsky.social 💥 It’s available for pre-order at £20: www.waterstones.com/book/up-in-t...
@versobooks.bsky.social 💥 It’s available for pre-order at £20: www.waterstones.com/book/up-in-t...
Reposted by Ellie Brown
C20 Society has backed a local campiagn to save the Queen's Silver Jubilee Mosaic (1977), at Freshney Place shopping centre in Grimsby. The large tiled mural is under threat due to the proposed redevelopment of the shopping centre.
✍🏼 Sign the petition here: www.change.org/p/prevent-th...
✍🏼 Sign the petition here: www.change.org/p/prevent-th...
May 14, 2025 at 9:38 AM
C20 Society has backed a local campiagn to save the Queen's Silver Jubilee Mosaic (1977), at Freshney Place shopping centre in Grimsby. The large tiled mural is under threat due to the proposed redevelopment of the shopping centre.
✍🏼 Sign the petition here: www.change.org/p/prevent-th...
✍🏼 Sign the petition here: www.change.org/p/prevent-th...
Reposted by Ellie Brown
1/ Public art in Hemel Hempstead. Mosaic Map commissioned by the Development Corporation and placed on what is allegedly the first multi-storey car park in the UK, 1960. Designed by Rowland Emett and painted by Phyllis Butler of Carter Tiles Ltd.
May 11, 2025 at 11:31 AM
1/ Public art in Hemel Hempstead. Mosaic Map commissioned by the Development Corporation and placed on what is allegedly the first multi-storey car park in the UK, 1960. Designed by Rowland Emett and painted by Phyllis Butler of Carter Tiles Ltd.
Reposted by Ellie Brown
Heritage of the greasy spoon caff: Artist Jeremy Deller's recreation (L) of Valerie's Snack Bar (R) in Bury Market Hall, commissioned for the Manchester International Festival 2009.
May 6, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Heritage of the greasy spoon caff: Artist Jeremy Deller's recreation (L) of Valerie's Snack Bar (R) in Bury Market Hall, commissioned for the Manchester International Festival 2009.
Great to see two of Peter Hand's ducks from Friars Square in Aylesbury displayed at Bucks Museum over Easter.
Commissioned for the shopping centre in the late 60s, they were sold off in the 80s, disappearing from public view like
so many of Hand's play sculptures...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Commissioned for the shopping centre in the late 60s, they were sold off in the 80s, disappearing from public view like
so many of Hand's play sculptures...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
May 1, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Great to see two of Peter Hand's ducks from Friars Square in Aylesbury displayed at Bucks Museum over Easter.
Commissioned for the shopping centre in the late 60s, they were sold off in the 80s, disappearing from public view like
so many of Hand's play sculptures...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Commissioned for the shopping centre in the late 60s, they were sold off in the 80s, disappearing from public view like
so many of Hand's play sculptures...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Ellie Brown
6️⃣ The sixth case on our #C20RiskList 2025 is Bury Market Hall, by Fairhurst & Son, 1969-71
Bury's remarkable ‘gullwing’ roof has been compared to Eero Saarinen’s JFK airport terminal, and is one of a small number of virtuoso post-war market buildings in Britain.
c20society.org.uk/buildings-at...
Bury's remarkable ‘gullwing’ roof has been compared to Eero Saarinen’s JFK airport terminal, and is one of a small number of virtuoso post-war market buildings in Britain.
c20society.org.uk/buildings-at...
April 28, 2025 at 9:39 AM
6️⃣ The sixth case on our #C20RiskList 2025 is Bury Market Hall, by Fairhurst & Son, 1969-71
Bury's remarkable ‘gullwing’ roof has been compared to Eero Saarinen’s JFK airport terminal, and is one of a small number of virtuoso post-war market buildings in Britain.
c20society.org.uk/buildings-at...
Bury's remarkable ‘gullwing’ roof has been compared to Eero Saarinen’s JFK airport terminal, and is one of a small number of virtuoso post-war market buildings in Britain.
c20society.org.uk/buildings-at...
Liliane Lijn’s White Koan was originally installed in Plymouth as part of the nationwide open-air exhibition, City Sculpture Project 1971.
It was then purchased for Uni of Warwick’s public art collection, where it has been part of student life ever since…
warwickmrc.wordpress.com/2014/09/23/t...
It was then purchased for Uni of Warwick’s public art collection, where it has been part of student life ever since…
warwickmrc.wordpress.com/2014/09/23/t...
April 4, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Liliane Lijn’s White Koan was originally installed in Plymouth as part of the nationwide open-air exhibition, City Sculpture Project 1971.
It was then purchased for Uni of Warwick’s public art collection, where it has been part of student life ever since…
warwickmrc.wordpress.com/2014/09/23/t...
It was then purchased for Uni of Warwick’s public art collection, where it has been part of student life ever since…
warwickmrc.wordpress.com/2014/09/23/t...
'...the chain’s new owners have said that the entirely new name TGJones “feels like a worthy successor”. “Jones carries the same sense of family and reflects these stores being at the heart of everyone’s high street,” gushed a spokesperson.'
🤨
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March 28, 2025 at 3:21 PM
'...the chain’s new owners have said that the entirely new name TGJones “feels like a worthy successor”. “Jones carries the same sense of family and reflects these stores being at the heart of everyone’s high street,” gushed a spokesperson.'
🤨
🤨