Shows
Monstrosities Mon AmourMonstrosities Mon Amour: The National Theatre with Rebecca LambertArchaeologist Rebecca Lambert is used to investigating stone circles and prehistoric sites, but when she first visited the National Theatre she found a modern henge on the south bank of the Thames.In the year of its 50th Anniversary, we visit the original ‘concrete monstrosity’, Denys Lasdun’s National Theatre, which opened in 1976. Seen through the eyes of an archaeologist it is a very different place, a vast modern henge and a place of ceremony where rituals, stone and water come together to create somewhere of great power and presence. Is the National Theatre like Stoneh...
2026-01-2830 min
Monstrosities Mon AmourMonstrosities Mon Amour: The Fens with Tom CoxWriter Tom Cox has long been fascinated by the eerie flatlands of the Fens, those drained marshlands on the edge of East Anglia. On our way around we discuss the folk horror of scarecrows, the romance of agribusiness and the weird agoraphobia - or is it claustrophobia? - of somewhere so flat and relatively uninhabited. And we marvel too at the odd midcentury modern villages that have cropped up in this landscape of ancient and modern. As well as that, Tom dazzles me with his love for the Rolling Stones’s psychedelic experiment, their 1967 album Th...
2025-12-2632 min
Monstrosities Mon AmourMonstrosities Mon Amour: Blackwall Tunnel with Rosamund Lily WestGet ready for an underwater adventure as we go beneath the Thames with curator and architectural historian Dr Rosamund Lily West.Have you ever been told you’ve got a mouth as big as the Blackwall Tunnel? Or been stuck in a conversation about the traffic? Or worse still, been actually stuck in the traffic there? It’s easy to overlook what an engineering marvel the Blackwall Tunnel is, the first tunnel built in the late Victorian era, and a second opened in 1967 as part of a second age of engineering ingenuity. But why does art and arch...
2025-11-2731 min
Monstrosities Mon AmourMonstrosities Mon Amour: Thetford with John BoughtonLet’s visit an ancient Norfolk town, and instead focus on its postwar estates with one of Britain’s best loved housing historians, John Boughton of Municipal Dreams.Thetford gets a bad rap. It isn’t particularly well known outside of Norfolk, and in many ways feels like a lot of towns expanded in the 1960s and 70s. With a variety of housing estates demonstrating the fashions and philosophies of the day, Thetford is a town of great history, from Roman to medieval and Georgian, and also of modernity. Discover where Dad’s Army’s Warmington on Sea was fi...
2025-10-3027 min
50 Shades of PlanningThe Amazing Technicolour Green BeltCharles Goode hosted an event in Birmingham in September 2025 to mark the launch of his book, “The Green Belt, Housing Crises and Planning Systems” (link below). Charles invited Catriona Riddell, Mike Best and James Corbet Burcher to join him at that event and Sam Stafford invited the four of them to record a conversation about the Green Belt beforehand.
In a conversation recorded at Birmingham Podcast Studios during the afternoon before Charles’ book launch, the four of them dived as deep into the Green Belt as it might be possible to do.
They talked about the ro...
2025-10-111h 28
More Jam TomorrowMilton KeynesIt's built for cars. The buses are baffling. But it's got the most energy efficient housing in Britain. What did it take to build a city from almost nothing? And a university where there are no students on campus? With architectural historian John Grindrod, Ros Taylor tells the story of Milton Keynes and the Open University. With thanks to John Grindrod, the author of Iconicon, Concretopia and Outskirts and the presenter of Monstrosities Mon Amour. His forthcoming book, Tales of the Suburbs, on LGBTQ people in suburbia, is out in February 2026. Seth Thévo...
2025-10-0229 min
Monstrosities Mon AmourMonstrosities Mon Amour: The Golden Mile, Blackpool, with Kathryn FerryLet’s visit a wonder of Britain’s industrial heritage – the gaudy seafront excess of Blackpool, Britain’s most extraordinary seaside town.After a summer break Monstrosities Mon Amour is back with a seaside special! Blackpool isn’t just the Tower, the illuminations and Strictly. Where else could you get your bumps felt on the beach by a phrenologist, see a dead woman in a coffin just for fun, and experience Britain’s first carpeted amusement arcade? Kathryn Ferry has spent years researching seaside history, and here she shares her love for this, the ultimate holiday dest...
2025-09-2530 min
The Library of Impossible Things3.12 John Grindrod tells his storyIt's time for another trip into The Library of Impossible Things.This episode, I'm joined by the marvellous author John Grindrod.What object will John bring to The Library? What was John's one and only convention experience like? How many times did he borrow the Stones of Blood book from his local library?How did he reconnect with the show as an adult? Find out the answer to these questions and more in this episode of The Library of Impossible Things?
2025-08-2358 min
Monstrosities Mon AmourMonstrosities Mon Amour: The Drum, Margate, with Dan ThompsonTurner Contemporary was the first modern art gallery in Margate this century, right? Wrong. And why are so many studio pottery teapots languishing in charity shops?Margate, on the north Kent coast, is famous for its amusement palace, Dreamland, for the Chas and Dave song, and for its hipster reinvention this century thanks to David Chipperfield’s Turner Contemporary. But before that gallery opened, another modern seafront structure – the Drum – by a very different modern architect – Terry Farrell – was built here, also celebrating the work of Turner. How did the town end up with two amazing contemporary buildings...
2025-08-0131 min
One Large DuvetOne With Will Haswell as Simeon in JosephOne With Will Haswell as Simeon in JosephJoseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Returns to Milton KeynesThe sensational London Palladium production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's legendary musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, is set to return to the Milton Keynes Theatre from Wednesday, August 6th to Sunday, August 10th. Having played to packed audiences in 2022, this beloved show promises another week of unforgettable performances.Leading the cast as the Pharaoh is Joe McElderry, the much-loved winner of The X Factor in 2009. McElderry, who previously...
2025-07-3014 min
A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcastTarget Book Club - Recordings of the Day - Part Two: Robert Shearman, John Grindrod, Nev Fountain & Paul QuinnRobert Shearman reads from 'The Chimes of Midnight' John Grindrod 'Terror of the Blurboids' Nev Fountain 'The Policeman's Face Peeled Away...' Paul Quinn 'I see all the rumours about you are true...' - Trigger WarningPublished with kind permission of the contributors
2025-07-2347 min
Monstrosities Mon AmourMonstrosities Mon Amour: The Blue Bridge, with Catherine CroftWhat’s so special about this modest little bridge in a central London park? And why is twentieth century architecture’s saviour Catherine Croft a capybara superfan? St James’s Park in London is surrounded by spectacular acrhitecture: the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Buckingham Palace and Horseguards Parade. But in the middle, over the lake, is a polite little mid century bridge, that hides a few secrets. Designed in the mid-fifties in a Festival of Britain style by Eric Bedford, chief architect of the Ministry of Works – the man who also designed the Post Office Tower – the Blue Bridg...
2025-06-2627 min
Monstrosities Mon AmourMonstrosities Mon Amour: Grafton Car Park, Worthing, with Travis ElboroughHow and why was the chi-chi seafront in Regency Worthing modernised in the 1960s? And what is the appeal of a Swedish prog-rock album of Tolkien’s fantasy epic?Worthing in West Sussex, long associated with the subversive observational wit of Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde, has since been scandalised by the shadow of a late 1960s concrete car park on the sea front. Between the delightful lido and the pier, the car park represents a brave new Worthing, put up at the time when Harold Pinter is nearby writing his menacing play The Homecoming and social an...
2025-05-2831 min
Monstrosities Mon AmourMonstrosities Mon Amour: The Savoy Centre with Rose RuaneWhere in Glasgow can you go for your niche shopping interests as well as for a night out? And what crockery pattern is the very epitome of Thatcher-Major era Britain?Glasgow, city of thundering urban roads, handsome tenement blocks and a world famous art school that keep burning down. And also the Savoy Centre, a brutalist gem in the centre that combines shopping arcade, market stalls, tower block and nightclub. It’s one of novelist Rose Ruane’s favourite places, reminding her both of shopping expeditions with her grandparents in the eighties and art school pranks in the...
2025-05-0133 min
Monstrosities Mon AmourMonstrosities Mon Amour: Junction 3 of the M32 in Bristol with Gareth E ReesWhy is there a standing stone and a burgeoning counter culture to be found on a pedestrian junction of the M32? And why are good second hand cardigans just so goddam hard to come by? Join me and writer Gareth E Rees to discover the mysterious haunted side of midcentury modernity.Bristol, magnificent city of cathedrals, waterways and university cloisters. Also, home of Junction 3 of the M32, where a curious pedestrian crossing seems to feature any number of haunted objects and all sorts of human life. Gareth E Rees is the author of Car Park Life and...
2025-03-2729 min
IlluminatedThe Story of Solent CityAuthor Owen Hatherley goes in search of the lost future of Solent City – the extraordinary plan, devised in the mid-1960s at the height of the post-war modernisation of Britain, to join the historic city-ports of Southampton and Portsmouth with a vast, Los-Angeles style grid.
The plan was finally rejected, but why? - and what were the consequences of its defeat, not only for the region but for the future of urban planning in Britain? Travelling across south Hampshire from Fareham to Portsmouth, Chandler’s Ford to his native Southampton, Owen meets architects, planners and historians to tell...
2025-03-1629 min
Monstrosities Mon AmourMonstrosities Mon Amour: Brighton Marina with Angela BarnesHow did an out of town retail park end up being built on the beach in Britain’s sauciest seaside town? Join me and comedian Angela Barnes to discover a new side to the place that terrifies the tourists and horrifies the hen-parties.Brighton is home of some of the country’s finest pleasure palaces. The West Pier. The Pavillion. And Brighton Marina, of course, that 1970s Ballardian dream, filled in the 1980s with fibreglass sheds and fast food joints. On this episode I was delighted to be kidnapped by comedian and history geek Angela Barnes, who tell...
2025-02-2830 min
Monstrosities Mon AmourMonstrosities Mon Amour: Minster Court with Philip Downer‘Joyous, fun-coloured, and life-enchancing are very much the qualities we are not looking for at the moment.’ So says Philip Downer, occasional tour guide and the man behind a hugely popular Instagram account on London’s architecture, as he shows me the delights of one of the City of London’s most excessive 1980s landmarks, the crazy gothic fantastia of Minster Court. While trapped in the boot of his Austin Maxi I also hear the helium-fuelled hysteria of ‘Sugar Bay Love’, the 1974 falsetto-topped pop song that led to a craze for polyester berets, or possibly not. We talk...
2025-01-3131 min
Monstrosities Mon AmourMonstrosities Mon Amour: Swindon with Helen BarrettIn this episode design and feature journalist Helen Barrett kidnaps me in the boot of her Austin Maxi and takes me to the Wiltshire town of Swindon, where we explore the American-style relics of its optimstic twentieth century. Along the way we also find time to celebrate the hynotic rock edifice of Status Quo’s Down Down, and talk class, Norman Foster and Chelsea Girl. Monstrosities Mon Amour is a monthly podcast. Look out for the next episode in January. Theme tune by Lorna Rees and Rufus Rees Coshan. Logo by Richard de Pesando. You ca...
2024-12-2731 min
Monstrosities Mon AmourMonstrosities Mon Amour: Corby Bus Station with Mike AlthorpeMonstrosities Mon Amour is a new podcast celebrating places and cultural artefacts more usually slagged off or easily dismissed.In this first episode writer and geek John Grindrod (that’s me talking about myself in the third person, I must stop that) is ambushed by architectural historian and walking guide Mike Althorpe, otherwise known as The London Ambler. I find myself stowed away in the boot of an Austin Maxi, and driven back in time to the heyday of Corby Bus Station. Along the way Mike also shares his love of the 1987 sci-fi film *Batteries Not Included, an...
2024-12-2635 min
BacklistedMemento Mori by Muriel SparkJohn Grindrod, author of Concretopia, joins John Mitchinson and Andy Miller to discuss Memento Mori, the third novel by Muriel Spark. They also pay tribute to the author and agent David Miller, who passed away recently, and read a short story in his memory.Timings: (may differ due to adverts)3'00 - Food For All Seasons by Oliver Rowe9'30 - Good Evening, Mrs.Craven by Mollie Panter-Downes18'44 - A State of Denmark by Derek Raymond* To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit...
2024-05-281h 00
Made in EnglandAll of Us Strangers (2023) with John GrindrodAll of Us Strangers (2023) is written and directed by Andrew Haigh (Weekend, 45 Years) and stars Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell and Claire Foy. Jack McInroy is joined by John Grindrod, author of Iconicon, Outskirts and Concretopia, to discuss the film. Host: Jack McInroyGuest: John GrindrodTheme music: Harlow Family Group Films featured on upcoming episodes of Made in England: https://letterboxd.com/saintjackmc/list/made-in-england-upcoming-episodes/30 days free Mubi: https://mubi.com/en/t/web/global/qrb2jfqfhtt...
2024-04-021h 09
Conversations with ClubRightHard Work and Serving Your Members with John GrindrodThis week Wayne is joined by the Founder of FTC Gym, John Grindrod. John chats to us about his time in the RAF and what led him to build a wildly successful gym in Ipswich.
He shares everything he learned along the way, from retaining more than 60% of his members during the nationwide lockdowns to how you can strive for excellence in every aspect of your business.
Find John
FTC Gym: https://www.ftcgym.com/home
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ftcgymipswich/?hl=en
LinkedIn: https://uk...
2023-12-1959 min
We Are HistoryThe Green Belt: Contentious countrysideThis week on We Are History, Angela Barnes and John O'Farrell look at the origins of the Green Belt, what is it and why do we have it? Spoiler alert, it’s not for holding up your green trousers. The Green Belt is a phrase we’ve heard politicians talking about forever, so we wanted to find out whose idea it was, how it has evolved over the last 100 or so years and how it affects the relationship between town and country.Reading List:Outskirts by John GrindrodRepurposing the Green...
2023-11-0755 min
Lagrange PointEpisode 554 - Collaborating to solve Martian MysteriesWhat caused those large quakes on Mars? How can Mars have big Mars-quakes without plate tectonics? If an impact crater isn't too blame for the Mars quakes what may be the cause. An international collaboration pooled the instruments of many countries Mars Missions to solve a mystery. Even using many different countries space ships, no 'smoking crater' was found that caused a mysterious martian quake. How can we study the ancient martian rivers and oceans using data from old martian missions?
Jaroslav Klokočník, Gunther Kletetschka, Jan Kostelecký, Aleš Bezděk. Gravity aspects for Mars. Icarus, 2023; 406: 115729 DOI: 10.1016/j.ica...
2023-10-2114 min
Front RowEliza Carthy, Ruben Östlund, Brutalist ArchitectureEliza Carthy is celebrating 30 years as a professional musician with a new album, Queen of the Whirl. She talks about this, the legacy of her musical family – as the daughter of Norma Waterson and Martin Carthy – the way traditional music develops, and her own song-writing, and performs live in the Front Row studio.Double Palme d'Or winning Swedish director Ruben Östlund tells Samira about his first English language film, Triangle of Sadness - a satire on the fashion industry, influencer culture, and the world of the super-rich.Plus the threat to brutalist architecture. Last year the D...
2022-10-2542 min
Marketplace RoundtableValue Investor's Edge Live #50: Genco Shipping's New Dividend Policy In Full SwingJohn Wobbensmith, CEO of Genco Shipping (GNK), joined J Mintzmyer's Value Investor's Edge Live on June 14, 2022, to discuss the dry bulk markets and forward prospects and capital allocation. Genco Shipping is a major US-listed dry bulk company with 44 vessels on the water. We discussed overall dry bulk fundamentals, ranging from China's impact on markets to the impact of the Ukraine invasion on midsize trade routes in grain and coal. We also reviewed the economics of GNK's scrubber program and the updated shareholder returns program. Genco will pay out nearly 100% of free cash flow going forward and aims to be net debt fre...
2022-07-2642 min
Little AtomsLittle Atoms 747 - John Grindrod's IconiconJohn Grindrod takes us on a journey around the landmark buildings of contemporary Britain in his new book Iconicon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2022-05-1735 min
The Libreria PodcastIconicon - John GrindrodIn this episode Libreria welcomes John Grindrod, author of Concretopia and Outskirts. Together with Iconicon these books form a loose trilogy about how the British have planned, built, lived and worked over the last 80 years.
During the conversation John mentions the following books and authors:
The City and The City - China Miéville
Capital - John Lanchester
City of the Mind - Penelope Lively
2022-05-0640 min
The IntellectualEp 21: Exploring Post War & Contemporary Architecture ft. John Grindrod Podcast: The Sense of Place Podcast (LS 34 · TOP 3% what is this?)Episode: Ep 21: Exploring Post War & Contemporary Architecture ft. John GrindrodPub date: 2022-03-12Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn today’s episode, I chat with author John Grindrod. John’s work explores Britain’s post-war and contemporary architecture from a personal and sociohistorical perspective. John describes his books as being for those of us who are fascinated by the modern histories of our towns, cities, and suburbs - but also aren’t quite sure w...
2022-03-2358 min
Open CityOligarch mansions, the green belt, and Iconicon with John GrindrodThis week Rachel catches up with author of new book 'Iconicon: A Journey Around the Landmark Buildings of Contemporary Britain', John Grindrod. Join us for a discussion all about the squatters who tried to create a refugee centre inside an oligarch mansion, two London developments being hampered by cars, the plans to redevelop London's once iconic Euston Station, and much more... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2022-03-1734 min
The Sense of Place PodcastEp 21: Exploring Post War & Contemporary Architecture ft. John GrindrodIn today’s episode, I chat with author John Grindrod. John’s work explores Britain’s post-war and contemporary architecture from a personal and sociohistorical perspective. John describes his books as being for those of us who are fascinated by the modern histories of our towns, cities, and suburbs - but also aren’t quite sure what to make of them.
John has published four books: Concretopia: A Journey Around the Rebuilding of Postwar Britain (2013), Outskirts: Living Life on the Edge of the Green Belt (2017), How to Love Brutalism (2018), and Iconicon: A Journey Around the Landmark Buildings of Contem...
2022-03-1258 min
Relish The Full Audiobook That Keeps Book-Lovers Hooked.Iconicon by John GrindrodPlease visithttps://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/2/audible/415to listen full audiobooks.
Title: Iconicon
Author: John Grindrod
Narrator: John Grindrod
Format: mp3
Length: 17 hrs and 37 mins
Release date: 03-03-22
Ratings: Not rated yet
Genres: Architecture
Publisher's Summary:
The buildings designed in our lifetimes encapsulate the dreams and aspirations of our culture, while also revealing the sobering realities. Whether modest or monumental, they offer a living history of Britain, symbols of the forces that have shaped our modern landscape and icons in their own right. Iconicon is an enthralling journey around the Britain we have created since 1980: the horrors and delights, the...
2022-03-035h 37Marketplace RoundtableValue Investor's Edge Live #39: Dry Bulk Cash Machine - Genco Shipping UpdateJohn Wobbensmith, CEO of Genco Shipping (GNK), a dry bulk shipping company, joined J Mintzmyer's Value Investor's Edge Live on 25 June 2021 to discuss the strong market outlook and company specific plans for capital allocation and shareholder returns.GNK is benefiting from surging rates and is expected to report a strong Q2 earnings report followed by an even stronger showing in Q3. Although market conditions can change and dry bulk is notoriously volatile, the supply side is the most bullish we have seen in 20-plus years and the signals from demand are also encouraging, particularly in the midsize and smaller se...
2021-07-2739 min
50 Shades of PlanningGreen Belt. Sacred Cow?'I began to see what a sacred cow the Green Belt has become' said Minister for Housing & Local Government Richard Crossman in 1964.
The Green Belt is a political behemoth that has long loomed over the planning system. In this episode Sam Stafford asks Paul Miner, Strategic Planning & Devolution at CPRE, and Kathryn Ventham, Planning Partner at Barton Willmore, whether housing need is becoming a sufficiently irresistible force to shift hitherto immovable Green Belt boundaries?
Twitter handles: @samuel_stafford. @PaulMiner3 and @kateventham.
Some accompanying reading and viewing:
John Grindrod’s ‘Outskirts’
http...
2020-04-2255 min
The Pharmacists Are InThe Role of Pharmacists in Managing the Opioid CrisisIn this episode John is joined by Dr. Kelly Grindrod, who is an associate professor at the University of Waterloo’s School of Pharmacy and a clinical pharmacist in primary care. She has been working closely with public health and first responders on the roll-out of the take-home Naloxone program. She also led the development of several online resources including the https://www.Pharmacy5in5.ca educational platform.
John and Kelly discuss the scope and impact of the opioid overdose crisis and how pharmacists can drive the conversation on the use of Naloxone kits to help people with opioid use di...
2019-11-2835 min
BacklistedEdith's Diary by Patricia HighsmithPatricia Highsmith's novel Edith's Diary (1977) is the book under discussion. John and Andy are joined by writers Karen McLeod and John Grindrod. Plus Andy has been reading Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators in The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot and John talks about Daily Rituals: Women at Work by Mason Currey. This episode was recorded live at Bookseller Crow (https://booksellercrow.co.uk) in South London on Nov 13th 2019.Timings: (may differ due to variable advert length)4'19 - Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot by Alfred Hitchcock, 10'58 - Daily Rituals: Women At Work by Mason Currey, 16'54...
2019-11-251h 05
Podcast From The PastGEOFFREY MUNN & JOHN GRINDROD - Ghosts on PaperJoining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are antiques expert, broadcaster GEOFFREY MUNN (Antiques Roadshow) and writer JOHN GRINDROD. In this episode we discuss the fossils of Malta and relics of our pasts, the lost art of plane-spotting and tragedy foretold in carefree postcards from the start of the twentieth century. Plus sequins and petticoats. Wish you were here? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2019-03-2047 min
The Boring Talks#7 - Green Belt LandOnce called 'Green Girdles', today's Green belts are strange and relatively unknown places. Follow the writer John Grindrod on his guided tour through a world of naturists, cavemen and rancid pies.Presenter: James Ward
Contributor: John Grindrod
Producer: Luke Doran
Editor: Moy McGowan
2018-03-0513 min
Conway Hall: Where Ethics MatterOutskirts - Living Life on the Edge of the Green BeltJohn Grindrod tells of the vision behind green-belts, their creation, and discusses the fiery emotions they stir up and tells a story of growing up there, recounted in his poignant social history Outskirts. Hosted by Scott Wood of New Lands http://dirtymodernscoundrel.blogspot.co.uk/
2017-07-111h 02Conway Hall: Where Ethics MatterOutskirts - Living Life on the Edge of the Green BeltJohn Grindrod tells of the vision behind green-belts, their creation, and discusses the fiery emotions they stir up and tells a story of growing up there, recounted in his poignant social history Outskirts. Hosted by Scott Wood of New Lands http://dirtymodernscoundrel.blogspot.co.uk/
2017-07-111h 02
BacklistedHaunts of the Black Masseur by Charles SprawsonAuthor and critic Alex Preston and Rachael Kerr, Unbound's Editor at large, join John and Andy around the table to discuss Charles Sprawson's ground breaking 'Haunts Of The Black Masseur', together with all things aquatic. The subtitle of the book is 'The Swimmer As Hero' and Sprawson's book tells the tale of literary swimmers from Byron to Cheever. Also discussed; Outskirts by John Grindrod and Bleaker House by Nell Stevens.Timings: (may differ due to variable advert length)7'19 - Outskirts: Living Life on the Edge of The Greenbelt by John Grindrod
2017-07-091h 06
Little AtomsLittle Atoms 469: John Grindrod's OutskirtsJohn Grindrod grew up on 'the last road in London' on Croydon's New Addington housing estate, surrounded by the Green Belt. He is the author of Concretopia: A Journey Around the Rebuilding of Postwar Britain, described by the Independent on Sunday as 'a new way of looking at modern Britain'. He has written for the Guardian, Financial Times, Big Issue and The Modernist and has worked as a bookseller and publisher for over twenty-five years. He runs the popular website dirtymodernscoundrel.com and his latest book is Outskirts: Living Life on the Edge of the Green Belt. Hosted on...
2017-06-2756 min
Thought StartersArchitecture writers & critics John Grindrod and Tom DyckhoffTwo architecture writers: one looking at inner city marvels, the other at the Green Belt. Together in the Pod, they look at the similarities and differences in their work - and what it means to be creative in London today. Tom Dyckhoff is a historian, journalist and broadcaster. He wrote and presented the primetime documentary TV series The Secret Life of Buildings, and recently published The Age of Spectacle: Adventures in Architecture and the 21st-Century City – the story of how architecture became obsessed with the flashy, the monumental and the ostentatious. John Grindrod has also just published a book called Outskirt...
2017-06-0800 min
Royal Academy of ArtsArchitecture: Modernism in everyday lifeThink of postwar Modernism and images of monumental buildings inevitably come to mind. However, there were also figures working to introduce architectural modernity on a more approachable scale: the artists who illustrated Ladybird books, for instance, and the designers who created the first chain pubs.
By expanding our focus to incorporate these minor modernisms we can develop a more holistic understanding of the period and move beyond the canonisation of certain buildings as icons to picture a more vibrant, living modernity.
Speakers:
John Grindrod – Writer and author of 'Concretopia: A Journey Around the Rebuilding of Postwar Britain'
Ben Highmore – Writer, Prof...
2017-02-2300 min
Conway Hall: Where Ethics MatterLadybird Books and Constructing the Future Past of Modern BritainIn this lovingly illustrated evening, social and architectural historian and lover of postwar modernism John Grindrod (author of Concretopia) talks us through the dreams and the reality portrayed in the books over the decades. Social and cultural historian Helen Day documents the changing attitudes to gender race and class and Tim Dunn, transport historian, enthusiast and model village expert will discuss the social and design history revealed in the books From People At Work and Our Land In the Making and How It Works…to the changing reality around Peter and Jane.
https://conwayhall.org.uk/event/ladybird-books/
2016-10-171h 21Conway Hall: Where Ethics MatterLadybird Books and Constructing the Future Past of Modern BritainIn this lovingly illustrated evening, social and architectural historian and lover of postwar modernism John Grindrod (author of Concretopia) talks us through the dreams and the reality portrayed in the books over the decades. Social and cultural historian Helen Day documents the changing attitudes to gender race and class and Tim Dunn, transport historian, enthusiast and model village expert will discuss the social and design history revealed in the books From People At Work and Our Land In the Making and How It Works…to the changing reality around Peter and Jane.
https://conwayhall.org.uk/event/ladybird-books/
2016-10-171h 21
South London HardcoreEpisode 134: John GrindrodJohn Grindrod is author of Concretopia: A Journey around the Rebuilding of Postwar Britain is new in paperback. We talk to John about his book, the National Theatre, the Festival of Britain, the prefabs in Catford and New Addington where he grew up. We also address the Croydon question.
2014-09-2900 minLittle Finish PodcastEpisode 14 – Space RedcoatsA month with only three reviews but unlike last time, two of these involve Colin Baker! Hurray! The three we review are: Short Trips Volume 4 by Richard Dinnick, Foster Marks, Vin Marsden Hendrick,John Grindrod, Jason Arnopp, Cindy Garland, Charles Williams, and Avril Naude Recorded Time And Other Stories by Catherine Harvey, Richard Dinnick, Matt […]
2011-09-2148 min
Podularity » Podcast FeedSummer Reading Choices: John GrindrodJohn Grindrod was born in 1970 in Croydon and still lives in South London. Last year he published Shouting at the Telly, a book in which a host of comedians, actors and writers wrestle with such weighty issues as: Is Freddie from Scooby-Doo a colossal pervert? What does Howards’ Way tell us about the eighties? How do you win America’s Next Top Model? Which programmes do you only watch when you’re off sick? I spoke to John about the book for the Blackwell Online podcast when it came out. You can listen to it here. Here are John’s holiday re...
2010-08-1848 min
Blackwell Online PodcastsJohn GrindrodListen to John Grindrod discuss his hilarious new book 'Shouting at the Telly'. The book features funny and heartfelt rants and raves from a host of comedians, writers and viewers on everything the box has to offer: from soaps to sitcoms, sci-fi to reality shows, HBO to QVC.
2009-10-3000 min