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Otto Saumarez Smith

@osaumarezsmith.bsky.social

820 followers 120 following 120 posts

Historian of shopping precincts, derelict landscapes, leisure centres, power stations, inner cities, housing, the Potteries, Telford new town, & city centre redevelopment. @c20society casework & trustee.

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Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · Nov 30

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.

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Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · 12h

A pair of ludicrously high-heeled Venetian clogs, or Calcagnetti, c. 1400.

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Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · 6d

I’ve heard this before - and it makes me confused about the plate! What is going on?

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Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · 7d

Letter in the Times:

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Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith

C20 Society @c20society.bsky.social · 8d

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...

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].

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Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · 16d

It’s literally this

Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · 16d

They are celebrating the dates without an accident!

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Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · 16d

Thanks Jon, we love your chapter

Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith

Jon Lawrence @jonhistorian61.bsky.social · 16d

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

Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · 16d

A short post about the Modern British City, out in November: www.lundhumphries.com/blogs/featur...

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Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · 16d

A short post about the Modern British City, out in November: www.lundhumphries.com/blogs/featur...

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Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · 16d

I have a chapter covering Glass in the 1950s, not published but I’d be happy to share.

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Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · 16d

Presumably what became London: Aspects of Change?

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Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · Aug 29

Pleased with this small Gustavsberg dish, showing Eskil Sundahl's Kooperativa Förbundet headquarters in Södermalm (1935).

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Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · Aug 26

I miss the authorial voice - in part because I think the recent series so much a retread of the brilliant episode on Thatcherism & WWII. I suppose the style became a cliche - but I’d like enough grasp to at least argue with it. Although thought segments beautiful. & provocative.

Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · Aug 26

Managed to re-buy this Ironbridge B Power Station commemorative plate.

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Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · Aug 25

Lovely review

Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · Aug 25

Beautiful

Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · Aug 20

Söderledskyrkan:

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Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · Aug 20

Your map was invaluable. Thank you.

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Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · Aug 20

Also visited later suburbs Rinkeby & Tensta, built with large panel systems as part of the Million Programme, they have a bad reputation as ghettos, and the racial segregation is shockingly stark, but they are walkable, medium rise, well connected, & beautifully landscaped & maintained. A surprise.

Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · Aug 20

Farsta point blocks.

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Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · Aug 20

Farsta Centrum the southern equivalent of Vällingby, more like an American mall, but full of the type of detailing Ventris described as ‘“SKOJ” (fun, sharawaggi &c)’

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Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · Aug 20

Backström & Reinius’s Vällingby was the major influence behind Oliver Cox & Graeme Shankland’s aborted LCC New Town at Hook, with a raised central deck surrounded by point blocks, everything cheerfully detailed. Central Coventry could be as good if it were properly maintained.

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Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · Aug 20

The centre of Hökarängen by David Helldén (completed 1950) Abercrombie’s London Plan had made it through the blockade during the war and had influenced Swedish planners, and this reminds me very much of one of Gibberd’s precincts, although painful to see how better preserved than UK equivalents.

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Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · Aug 20

More Årsta centrum.

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Otto Saumarez Smith @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social · Aug 20

Årsta centrum by Erik & Tore Ahlsén, under construction when the three architects visited, although Oliver was shown the plans for the painted facades, which were described as “moderne kunst”, although he was equally struck by the architect’s socks, sandals & hairy legs.

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