Town Centres & High Streets

Tucked away, only a few minutes walk from the busy Sloane Square lies Pavilion Road, home to London’s longest mews which has been reimagined as a modern high street.The London Society hosted a tour of the street with Cadogan and architects Stiff & Trevillion who...

Earlier this month we headed to Coventry to attend the ReStitch Conference. Having launched in 2022 when the conference took place in London and Halifax, this year it was hosted in one location only, being Coventry.This year’s conference was billed as collaborative effort (in an...

Recently, our director, Diane had the opportunity to embark on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Baitul Futuh Mosque in London, also known as the Morden Mosque with The London Society and has shared details of her visit.This magnificent complex, hailed as one of the 'Top...

In Europe we're used to seeing people strolling down the prom (‘promenading’) and likely do so on holiday ourselves.However, when we are out and about sometimes see public realm schemes that look good but there's nobody using them so it was great to see a...

In November, we headed to Sheffield for a tour with Place Collective UK to learn more about the changes taking place across the city.We started at Park Hill with a tour from developer Urban Splash. It’s been nearly 20 years since Urban Splash got involved...

Contesting Public Spaces: Social Lives of Urban Redevelopment in London. Ed Wall, Routledge (2022)Contesting Public Spaces considers public spaces in London - how it evolved, how it's used and how its context changes when large scale regeneration happen, often under a masterplan. Using three key...

Recently, we headed out to Thamesmead, London’s New Town. The part visited on the tour was in the borough of Bexley and the new Abbey Wood Elizabeth Line station has brought it much closer to central London. Billed as the ‘Town of Tomorrow’ when it was...

During the summer as meetings reduced we decided to use the quieter weeks to get out and about. Calling it meeting-free Fridays we managed to keep to it over five weeks during the summer, moving existing meetings to phone calls or keeping the day clear....

We met John Macaulay and Sophie Macaulay, the team behind GRIT Studios in Stockport and founders of Art Battle Manchester.They shared what has made Art Battle successful and how they have worked with local authorities and developers to take over empty spaces in town centres...

Street Food: Hawkers and the History of London (Oxford University Press) by Charlie Taverner. Street Food traces the history of London’s street traders starting from the sixteenth century and bringing things bang up to date with the impact of the Covid-19 lockdowns. It takes us through...