Otto Saumarez Smith
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osaumarezsmith.bsky.social
Otto Saumarez Smith
@osaumarezsmith.bsky.social
910 followers 130 following 160 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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osaumarezsmith.bsky.social
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.
osaumarezsmith.bsky.social
Hooray!
February 10, 2026 at 10:22 AM
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
andrewseaton.bsky.social
CALL FOR PAPERS - Modern British History and the 'Environmental Turn'.

A two-day workshop organised by @maxlong.bsky.social and myself at Lincoln College, Oxford, 16-17 September. Deadline for abstracts is 15 May.

Details in poster below, please share.
This two-day workshop will explore several questions. How can environmental history complement or offer alternatives to existing historiographical narratives and periodisations in British history? What new actors, events, or phenomena might come to the fore? How should it foster engagements with places beyond its national borders or with other disciplines? Is environmental history different from longstanding traditions of ‘landscape’ or ‘urban’ histories of Britain? What contributions can historians make to environmental advocacy and policymaking? And how might a focus on the environment reshape teaching in British history? To take part, participants should submit a 300 word proposal for a short ‘position paper’ (approx. 2500 words) that will be pre-circulated at the workshop. These position papers will address the place of environmental approaches and themes within modern British history (1800 to the present) from the perspective of the participant’s own research. Participants will orally summarise their papers at the workshop. The event is free to attend and includes lunch and refreshments. Submissions are welcomed across a range of perspectives and topics, including but not limited to: energy, extraction, non-human actors, pollution, toxicity, rural and urban landscapes, everyday environmental histories (including how they are shaped by class, gender, and race), imperialism and decolonisation, ‘green’ policy, activism, and the political economy of the natural world. Please send proposals and a one-paragraph biography in a single PDF to andrew.seaton@manchester.ac.uk by 15 May 2026. Please also direct enquiries to this address. This event is organised by Dr. Max Long (Oxford) and Dr. Andrew Seaton (Manchester).
February 5, 2026 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
c20society.bsky.social
NEWS: C20 has written to Historic England requesting an urgent spot listing assessment for Grimsby Central Library (1966-68), after concerns that the 'civic masterpiece' is facing an imminent threat of being stripped-out, having been closed since March 2025.

➡️ c20society.org.uk/news/concern...
Grimsby Central Library - John Michael Milner (1966-68) Image © Chris Matthews Grimsby Central Library - John Michael Milner (1966-68) Image © Chris Matthews Grimsby Central Library - John Michael Milner (1966-68) Image © Modern Mooch
February 4, 2026 at 12:50 PM
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
historyworkshop.org.uk
The latest issue of History Workshop Journal is out now, and it marks two exciting milestones: 50 years and 100 issues of innovative radical history.

You can read the journal on the HWJ website through the link below!

academic.oup.com/hwj...
The cover of History Workshop Journal 100. The cover is a woodland green, and shows an abstract illustration of a coniferous tree based on Sadiah Qureshi's article on the Wollemi pine.
February 2, 2026 at 7:30 AM
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
ewangibbs.bsky.social
An Injury To All: The Unmaking of the British Working Class will be published by Verso in October!

Today I submitted responses to last comments from my editor and worked on the blurb. It's getting closer and closer!
January 28, 2026 at 8:53 PM
osaumarezsmith.bsky.social
Interview for @urbanhistory.bsky.social of Simon Gunn, @petermandler.bsky.social, & I about the recently published book The Modern British City.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wvE....
Krista Cowman interviews with editors of The Modern British City 1945-2000
YouTube video by Cambridge University Press
www.youtube.com
January 25, 2026 at 9:30 AM
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
benmechen.bsky.social
Brilliant new article by @malcolmrussell73.bsky.social on glue-sniffing panics, youth boredom and deindustrialising towns c. 1970s-80s, published in @mbhjournal.bsky.social

This began life as an exceptional MA dissertation at @uclhistory.bsky.social

Congrats Malcolm!

doi.org/10.1093/tcbh...
‘All the Kids Wanna Sniff Some Glue’: glue-sniffing, deindustrialization, and moral panic in 1980s Britain
Abstract. This article analyses anxieties surrounding glue-sniffing in 1980s Britain and their entanglement with the era’s accelerated deindustrialization.
doi.org
January 12, 2026 at 7:04 PM
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
emvchung.bsky.social
For anyone interested in geocoding historical census records, my new article in @socscihistory.bsky.social's journal explains how I've used ordnance surveys and trade directories to link British Victorian records! doi.org/10.1017/ssh....
Visualizing Victorian Manchester: Granular Geocoding for Demographic Analysis | Social Science History | Cambridge Core
Visualizing Victorian Manchester: Granular Geocoding for Demographic Analysis
doi.org
January 8, 2026 at 9:08 AM
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
Looking for an intellectual treat? @petermandler.bsky.social 's Ford Lectures on 'The Language of Social Science in Everyday Life' begin Thursday 22 January and continue weekly through 26 February in Oxford. #Skystorians
The James Ford Lectures in British History
The Language of Social Science in Everyday Life - Peter Mandler (Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge)
www.history.ox.ac.uk
January 6, 2026 at 8:54 AM
osaumarezsmith.bsky.social
Staffordshire Pearlware child’s mug with sign language decoration, c.1820
December 28, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
salawatson.bsky.social
Boxing Day morning coffee and new books. This edited by Simon Gunn @petermandler.bsky.social @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social is a real treat. Highly recommend.
Cover of book titled The Modern British City 1945-2000 Edited by Simon Gunn, Peter Mandler and Otto Saumarez Smith. Dark green background with photo of two red brick Victorian terraced houses in front of a medium rise block of concrete modernist flats with three children and a dog in front of the houses.
December 26, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
jonhistorian61.bsky.social
Lovely Christmas present left on my doorstep today - it really is as amazing as I’d hoped -all 29 chapters. The illustrations look fantastic - big thanks to Lund Humphries and the editors. Never seen an academic book looking happier on a coffee table 🙂
December 23, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
daveproudlove.bsky.social
#Booksof2025

8. The Modern British City 1945-2000 - Simon Gunn, Peter Mandler & Otto Saumarez Smith

An epic account of the rise and fall of British Modernism

www.lundhumphries.com/products/the...
December 17, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
ianhunt.bsky.social
Thanks to @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social for recommending Helen Ashton's novel Bricks and Mortar, 1932, republished by Persephone. One of the few novels about architects, written with sympathetic understanding of the profession and the ambitions of two overlapping generations in British architecture /
grey cover of Bricks and Mortar reprint with colourful bookmark 2 pages from the book about Westminster Cathedral (Bentley) Side view of Bentley's Westminster Cathedral from the side, red brick and white stripes against bright blue sky, camapanile furthest from camera
December 8, 2025 at 10:12 AM
osaumarezsmith.bsky.social
Piece on the revamp of the Barbican (www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...) displays a depressing negativity from the project team, nobody appears to want to work with the grain of these thrilling spaces, & accessibility issues are grossly exaggerated: I know it’s a brilliant place for a wheelchair.
Barbican revamp to give ‘bewildering’ arts centre a new lease of life
Project will make the famously confusing London landmark easier to navigate and more accessible
www.theguardian.com
December 6, 2025 at 8:43 AM
osaumarezsmith.bsky.social
Slightly surreal for the Modern British City to be co-reviewed in the Literary Review alongside @holsmith.bsky.social's wonderful Up in the Air, on the page after my father's new book on Vanbrugh. Three excellent books I think, & Jerry White concludes of MBC that 'Its richness is truly staggering'.
December 3, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
tomhulme.bsky.social
just delivered… looking forward to reading! @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social @petermandler.bsky.social
Reader, holding a copy of the book “the modern British city 1945-2000”
December 2, 2025 at 11:26 AM
osaumarezsmith.bsky.social
I'm very proud of this book: it has a wonderful array of work by many of my favourite historians, which cumulatively makes the pitch for understanding modern British History through the lens of the urban. Lund Humphries have done a wonderful production job, & it is a big beautiful book. Buy it now!
lhartbooks.bsky.social Lund Humphries @lhartbooks.bsky.social · Nov 28
OUT NOW!
The Modern British City 1945-2000, ed. by Simon Gunn, Peter Mandler and Otto Saumarez Smith, brings together architectural, urban and social historians, to chart the extraordinary changes that took place in British cities between the end of the Second World War and the early 21st century.
November 28, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
katrinanavickas.bsky.social
A reminder that my book on the history of protest is now published. It is superbly produced with a great cover. Buy it now from @reaktionbooks.bsky.social
Contested Commons Formidably erudite, compellingly argued, and dryly humorous, Contested Commons will change the way you think about the politics of space, the "myth of the commons", and the history of England since the eighteenth century: MATTHEW KELLy, author of The Women Who Saved the English Countryside "Starting with Kennington Common, and ranging from Steeple Bumpstead to Sheffield, Stonehenge and Brixton, and with a cast that includes ramblers, ranters, revolutionaries and ravers, this is a superb, sweeping but fine-grained history. It's also a highly necessary, politically urgent reminder of what public space is - places for everyone, owned by everyone, accessible to everyone, whether carefully tended or wild - and what it isn't, the tradition of pseudo-public space that runs from Victorian parks to privatised malls.' OWEN HATHERLEY, author of A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain
October 27, 2025 at 8:59 AM
osaumarezsmith.bsky.social
Camping Fusina, 1958-9, a rather unlikely Carlo Scarpa project, but full of characteristic moments despite the low budget.
November 26, 2025 at 8:44 AM
osaumarezsmith.bsky.social
Launch event for the Modern British City at
@c20society.bsky.social on 26th of January: secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...

Do come!

The book is out with @lhartbooks.bsky.social next week.
November 21, 2025 at 11:02 AM
osaumarezsmith.bsky.social
Sandbag protection of artworks in Venice in 1916, in anticipation of bombing.
November 18, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
purseigle.bsky.social
🚨#History #envhist Job Alert: My Department is hiring an Assistant Professor in Environmental History.
🗃️

Come work with us at Warwick. You'll get both excellent colleagues and great students!

See details below... And do not hesitate to spread the word...
👇👇👇

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPK289/a...
Assistant Professor in Environmental History (111009-1125) at University of Warwick
Explore an exciting academic career as a Assistant Professor in Environmental History (111009-1125). Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities.
www.jobs.ac.uk
November 12, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
johnmerrick.bsky.social
I’m in this week’s @newstatesman1913.bsky.social with a review of Holly Smith’s brilliant history of house rise council housing in Britain, Up in the Air
www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...
Repopulating the high-rises
A new history of Britain’s tower blocks reveals the ways architecture and ideology have combined to ensure residents are always forgotten
www.newstatesman.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Reposted by Otto Saumarez Smith
lhartbooks.bsky.social
COMING SOON!
The Modern British City 1945-2000 brings together architectural, urban and social historians, to chart the extraordinary changes that took place in British cities between the end of the Second World War and the early 21st century...
Pre-order now! www.lundhumphries.com
November 4, 2025 at 4:40 PM