Leigh Stanford
@leighstanford.bsky.social
London addict, architecture, history, art, transport, gardening and craft
Good morning Normandy!
December 27, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Good morning Normandy!
I always seek out arcades they are wonderful. There is a lovely coffee shop halfway along Burlington arcade which allows for top notch people watching if you sit outside
Might sound an odd Christmas piece but here’s me on why arcades are the essence of London at Christmas, and of urbanity itself. www.ft.com/content/e6cd... When the shopping arcade sparkles back to enchanted life
When the shopping arcade sparkles back to enchanted life
These remarkable remnants of early modernism find their true calling at Christmas
www.ft.com
December 24, 2025 at 10:23 AM
I always seek out arcades they are wonderful. There is a lovely coffee shop halfway along Burlington arcade which allows for top notch people watching if you sit outside
Reposted by Leigh Stanford
Concrete churches of the year so far. Looking forward to seeing more in Milan this weekend.
1. Notre Dame du Raincy, outskirts of Paris
2. Santuário de Nossa Senhora da Piedade, Loulé, Portugal
1. Notre Dame du Raincy, outskirts of Paris
2. Santuário de Nossa Senhora da Piedade, Loulé, Portugal
December 8, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Concrete churches of the year so far. Looking forward to seeing more in Milan this weekend.
1. Notre Dame du Raincy, outskirts of Paris
2. Santuário de Nossa Senhora da Piedade, Loulé, Portugal
1. Notre Dame du Raincy, outskirts of Paris
2. Santuário de Nossa Senhora da Piedade, Loulé, Portugal
Reposted by Leigh Stanford
Explore the best of the West End’s #ChristmasLights and shop windows on one of my popular Foodie themed Christmas Lights walks. Walking dates on Tue 2nd, Thu 4th & Mon 15th all at 7pm and virtually on Monday 29th at 6 www.eventbrite.co.uk/cc/foodie-th...
November 25, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Explore the best of the West End’s #ChristmasLights and shop windows on one of my popular Foodie themed Christmas Lights walks. Walking dates on Tue 2nd, Thu 4th & Mon 15th all at 7pm and virtually on Monday 29th at 6 www.eventbrite.co.uk/cc/foodie-th...
They were going so quickly but we bagged 2 in the front stalls 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
🔔 ON SALE NOW: Royal Festival Hall London.
Tickets: www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/the...
The Divine Comedy will be playing The Royal Festival Hall on Sunday 12th July 2026. We'd love to see you there!
#TheDivineComedy #London
Tickets: www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/the...
The Divine Comedy will be playing The Royal Festival Hall on Sunday 12th July 2026. We'd love to see you there!
#TheDivineComedy #London
November 21, 2025 at 10:38 AM
They were going so quickly but we bagged 2 in the front stalls 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Reposted by Leigh Stanford
At the beautiful Walthamstow Library for some business training...such a stunner! Built between 1907 and 1909 by J W Dunford. As the first images states, the building is 'dedicated to knowledge'.
November 11, 2025 at 1:00 PM
At the beautiful Walthamstow Library for some business training...such a stunner! Built between 1907 and 1909 by J W Dunford. As the first images states, the building is 'dedicated to knowledge'.
Reposted by Leigh Stanford
This is niche, but if you find you're at a loose end in Bristol this coming Friday lunchtime... secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...
November 2, 2025 at 10:04 AM
This is niche, but if you find you're at a loose end in Bristol this coming Friday lunchtime... secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...
Reposted by Leigh Stanford
Fabulous 1972 documentary about 77yo Dorothea Woodward Fisher. Cheltenham Ladies College. Married a lighterman. Built a Thames barge business. Lived as a man from the waist up. The definition of formidable. Amazing slice of social history. youtu.be/hf1FUQUJx1U?...
1972: Mother Thames - Lady of the London docks | Look Stranger | Weird and Wonderful | BBC Archive
YouTube video by BBC Archive
youtu.be
October 30, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Fabulous 1972 documentary about 77yo Dorothea Woodward Fisher. Cheltenham Ladies College. Married a lighterman. Built a Thames barge business. Lived as a man from the waist up. The definition of formidable. Amazing slice of social history. youtu.be/hf1FUQUJx1U?...
Reposted by Leigh Stanford
New VIDEO! Britain's newest station is open ...
Neeeeeew VIDEO! for a Neeeeeew Station!
Beaulieu Park in Essex is now open, and I popped along yesterday for the official opening event ...
youtu.be/GgTiAYQIMNE
Beaulieu Park in Essex is now open, and I popped along yesterday for the official opening event ...
youtu.be/GgTiAYQIMNE
Beaulieu Park Station IS NOW OPEN!
YouTube video by Geoff Marshall
youtu.be
October 28, 2025 at 5:57 PM
New VIDEO! Britain's newest station is open ...
Reposted by Leigh Stanford
‘In the 1960s, most British architects worked for councils, and although they seldom lived in the council housing they designed, when they built for themselves they tended to create something similar.’
Owen Hatherley on the origins of Mid-Century Modern.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Owen Hatherley on the origins of Mid-Century Modern.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Owen Hatherley · South London Modern
In the late 1960s, the critic Bevis Hillier invented the term ‘Art Deco’ for the commercial architecture of the...
www.lrb.co.uk
October 28, 2025 at 4:15 PM
‘In the 1960s, most British architects worked for councils, and although they seldom lived in the council housing they designed, when they built for themselves they tended to create something similar.’
Owen Hatherley on the origins of Mid-Century Modern.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Owen Hatherley on the origins of Mid-Century Modern.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Leigh Stanford
London’s sewer system. A product of heroic Victorian endeavour and spectacularly over-specified engineering (which is why it’s lasted so well…!)
The 'Great Stink' of 1858, when MPs could no longer work in Parliament due to the stench from the Thames, finally spurred action to clean up the polluted river. Read here about the creation of the Victorian sewer system, still in operation today www.thehistoryoflondon.co.uk/the-great-st...
October 2, 2025 at 8:04 AM
London’s sewer system. A product of heroic Victorian endeavour and spectacularly over-specified engineering (which is why it’s lasted so well…!)
Reposted by Leigh Stanford
First public library for Lewes, Sussex: rightmove.co.uk/properties/1... #LibrariesOnRightmove
September 13, 2025 at 9:47 AM
First public library for Lewes, Sussex: rightmove.co.uk/properties/1... #LibrariesOnRightmove
Reposted by Leigh Stanford
More gold from the BBC Archive: a 1974 doc on the RNLI at 150. Features a moment of Hergest Ridge, great knitwear and, incredibly moving, the Penlee lifeboat and crew that would be lost with all hands not many years later:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g_C...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g_C...
1974: 150 Years of the RNLI | We Never Turn Back | BBC Archive
YouTube video by BBC Archive
www.youtube.com
September 16, 2025 at 7:31 PM
More gold from the BBC Archive: a 1974 doc on the RNLI at 150. Features a moment of Hergest Ridge, great knitwear and, incredibly moving, the Penlee lifeboat and crew that would be lost with all hands not many years later:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g_C...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g_C...
Reposted by Leigh Stanford
Rather gorgeous bookshop, for @leighstanford.bsky.social
September 15, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Rather gorgeous bookshop, for @leighstanford.bsky.social
A gorgeous lunch at Gina restaurant in Chingford today.
August 29, 2025 at 1:59 PM
A gorgeous lunch at Gina restaurant in Chingford today.
Reposted by Leigh Stanford
Really enjoyed doing this Q&A about my reading habits, including why I don’t believe in the concept of guilty pleasures, Derek Jarman, separating the art from the artist re. Roald Dahl & why Patrick O’Brian is the writer I will go back to again and again
New on the Writer’s Bookshelf: eight questions about writers, books, and reading with the great @luketurner.bsky.social.
The writer's bookshelf: Luke Turner
Eight questions about writers, books, and reading…
open.substack.com
August 25, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Really enjoyed doing this Q&A about my reading habits, including why I don’t believe in the concept of guilty pleasures, Derek Jarman, separating the art from the artist re. Roald Dahl & why Patrick O’Brian is the writer I will go back to again and again
Reposted by Leigh Stanford
Art of Laundry. By Caroline Johnson, fine artist and Manchester’s “official Urban Sketcher”… via Richard Elsen
August 19, 2025 at 7:22 AM
Art of Laundry. By Caroline Johnson, fine artist and Manchester’s “official Urban Sketcher”… via Richard Elsen
Reposted by Leigh Stanford
A bonus post for the weekend: the deep joys of watching birds for a week in the Normandy bocage. Birds are good to think with, as Jeremy Mynott wrote. open.substack.com/pub/mathewly...
Fledgling joys: a week in the country
The unlooked-for delights and wisdoms of bird-watching in the Normandy bocage
open.substack.com
June 28, 2025 at 9:33 AM
A bonus post for the weekend: the deep joys of watching birds for a week in the Normandy bocage. Birds are good to think with, as Jeremy Mynott wrote. open.substack.com/pub/mathewly...
Reposted by Leigh Stanford
Rav from Junior Bake Off has opened a new restaurant near us with her chef husband Matty. We went last night. It was heavenly. Martinis. Monkfish. The tenderest pork. Rich dark chocolate cake. Are you in east London? Go check it out! www.ginarestaurant.co.uk
June 28, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Rav from Junior Bake Off has opened a new restaurant near us with her chef husband Matty. We went last night. It was heavenly. Martinis. Monkfish. The tenderest pork. Rich dark chocolate cake. Are you in east London? Go check it out! www.ginarestaurant.co.uk
Reposted by Leigh Stanford
🗞️"It is hard to appreciate now, but SAVE’s early activities fundamentally transformed the perception of heritage, & expanded the scope of what was deemed worth keeping"
🎂SAVE's 50th celebrated in the @theguardian.com @ollywainwright.bsky.social
Read the story: shorturl.at/8gnse
🎂SAVE's 50th celebrated in the @theguardian.com @ollywainwright.bsky.social
Read the story: shorturl.at/8gnse
From Tate Modern to Grimsby docks: the team saving Britain’s cherished buildings from the wrecking ball
Can you imagine Liverpool without its Welsh Streets or London without Battersea Power Station? For 50 years, one small band of activists have been finding creative alternative uses for great buildings...
shorturl.at
June 24, 2025 at 2:38 PM
🗞️"It is hard to appreciate now, but SAVE’s early activities fundamentally transformed the perception of heritage, & expanded the scope of what was deemed worth keeping"
🎂SAVE's 50th celebrated in the @theguardian.com @ollywainwright.bsky.social
Read the story: shorturl.at/8gnse
🎂SAVE's 50th celebrated in the @theguardian.com @ollywainwright.bsky.social
Read the story: shorturl.at/8gnse
Reposted by Leigh Stanford
Here's an exciting opportunity to gain in-depth heritage sector experience with our members SAVE Britain's Heritage.
They are looking for two interns to join their team for six months.
Find our more on our website:
heritagetrustnetwork.org.uk/jobs/
#HeritageJobs #HeritageInternship
They are looking for two interns to join their team for six months.
Find our more on our website:
heritagetrustnetwork.org.uk/jobs/
#HeritageJobs #HeritageInternship
June 2, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Here's an exciting opportunity to gain in-depth heritage sector experience with our members SAVE Britain's Heritage.
They are looking for two interns to join their team for six months.
Find our more on our website:
heritagetrustnetwork.org.uk/jobs/
#HeritageJobs #HeritageInternship
They are looking for two interns to join their team for six months.
Find our more on our website:
heritagetrustnetwork.org.uk/jobs/
#HeritageJobs #HeritageInternship
Reposted by Leigh Stanford
Calling Epping Forest enthusiasts! There's currently a great exhibition of the photography of James A Brimble up at the visitor centre in Chingford. Dad just gave me his copy of Brimble's book (an essential EF text) & I recommend going up to see some of the photos printed out in a larger size (1/3)
May 21, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Calling Epping Forest enthusiasts! There's currently a great exhibition of the photography of James A Brimble up at the visitor centre in Chingford. Dad just gave me his copy of Brimble's book (an essential EF text) & I recommend going up to see some of the photos printed out in a larger size (1/3)
Reposted by Leigh Stanford
Four Anglo-Saxon churches to visit.
History in plain sight: four Anglo-Saxon churches to visit
Remarkable survivals in Kent and Essex dating from as far back as the sixth century
open.substack.com
May 23, 2025 at 6:37 AM
Four Anglo-Saxon churches to visit.
Reposted by Leigh Stanford
The Flash Lane aqueduct hidden deep in the woods on the old Whitewebbs loop of the New River near Enfield. Cast iron trough on brick supports, constructed 1820 over the Cuffley Brook; redundant by 1850 when the New River was shortened by cutting off the loop completely…
April 19, 2025 at 9:42 PM
The Flash Lane aqueduct hidden deep in the woods on the old Whitewebbs loop of the New River near Enfield. Cast iron trough on brick supports, constructed 1820 over the Cuffley Brook; redundant by 1850 when the New River was shortened by cutting off the loop completely…
Looking forward to seeing the new exhibition at the William Morris Gallery which starts on 5th April. My cast will come off that week 🤞and hopefully a few weeks later I can visit
March 23, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Looking forward to seeing the new exhibition at the William Morris Gallery which starts on 5th April. My cast will come off that week 🤞and hopefully a few weeks later I can visit