Susannah Walker
LightNews LightNews
banner
susannahwalker.bsky.social
Susannah Walker
@susannahwalker.bsky.social
4.2K followers 2.3K following 1.7K posts
Author + campaigner for gender equality and safety in public space + post-war graphics + other stuff.

Rants about stately homes here:
https://susannahwalker.substack.com

Co-founder of @makespaceforgirls and formerly @QuadRoyal
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Susannah Walker
ingemarknows.bsky.social
Denmark
January 13, 2026 at 10:12 PM
susannahwalker.bsky.social
In Tokyo, you cannot have a car unless you have an off-road place to park it. Their streets are lovely.
January 13, 2026 at 6:12 PM
susannahwalker.bsky.social
Candlesnuffers. Next...
January 13, 2026 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by Susannah Walker
susannahwalker.bsky.social
This one is so excellent it is getting a post all of its own...
A drawing of Dick whittington and his cat travelling to London on the roof of a modern coach, by Harry Stevens. It advertises express coaches and To London is written on the long black tail of the cat
January 13, 2026 at 6:04 PM
susannahwalker.bsky.social
I cannot tell you how much more there is of this...
January 13, 2026 at 6:04 PM
susannahwalker.bsky.social
This one is so excellent it is getting a post all of its own...
A drawing of Dick whittington and his cat travelling to London on the roof of a modern coach, by Harry Stevens. It advertises express coaches and To London is written on the long black tail of the cat
January 13, 2026 at 6:04 PM
susannahwalker.bsky.social
I could spam you with pictures of Harry Stevens posters if you want
A black picture with a modern outline design of passengers on a coach saying Hire a coach for Party Travel designed by Harry Stevens A long thin coach poster with a drawing of a girl handing over change to the driver and the caption, correct fares please and Speed Your Bus by harry stevens A harry Stevens design of a cherub driving a bus full of packages with the caption Send Your Parcels by Bus
January 13, 2026 at 6:04 PM
susannahwalker.bsky.social
From the olden days, when i used to write a blog about vintage posters, and collect them...

vintageposterblog.com/2012/01/25/t...
Harry Stevens : Poster Designer
The poster designer Harry Stevens won awards in his day, but his work is not as well known today as it deserves to be
vintageposterblog.com
January 13, 2026 at 5:54 PM
susannahwalker.bsky.social
Before it all went wrong, I used to love Dilbert. This was mainly because I was working at the BBC and it was a very accurate description of my life.
January 13, 2026 at 5:43 PM
susannahwalker.bsky.social
Please RT and share as well as hassling your MP, and also paging @gideonamos.bsky.social @peterwalker99.bsky.social @jessphillipsmp.bsky.social @matthewpennycookmp.bsky.social @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com
January 13, 2026 at 5:25 PM
susannahwalker.bsky.social
Sorry could not fit all letter into alt text, tell me if you want a copy and I will send it
January 13, 2026 at 5:22 PM
susannahwalker.bsky.social
I am campaigning about this, along with many others and my excellent local MP Anna Sabine (sadly not on here yet) has written a letter to the relevant ministers.
Even if you don't feel able to talk about planning or respond to the NPPF, could your MP write something too?
Dear Matthew and Jess, I am writing to raise a serious and unresolved contradiction between the Government’s new Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and national planning policy. On 18 December 2025, the Government published its VAWG Strategy, rightly declaring violence against women and girls a national emergency and committing to a “whole-of-society” approach to prevention. Yet just two days earlier, the revised National Planning Policy Framework was published with no reference whatsoever to women, girls, gendered safety, or violence against women in the built environment. This omission matters. The places we design and build shape how safe women and girls feel when they travel, work, socialise and grow up. Planning policy is one of the most powerful structural tools the state has to prevent harm before it occurs. If the NPPF is silent on gendered safety, we embed risk and inequality into the fabric of every new development. The VAWG Strategy emphasises prevention, tackling root causes, and creating environments where abuse is never tolerated. However, the primary framework governing how physical environments are created contains no requirement to consider how women and girls experience public space. Chapter 8 of the NPPF (“Promoting Healthy and Safe Communities”) discusses safety, health and crime, but does so in entirely gender-blind terms, despite overwhelming evidence that safety is not experienced equally. This is not a theoretical concern. Women are four times more likely to experience sexual assault and more than twice as likely to experience stalking. Many girls’ loss of freedom in public space is directly linked to poor mental health. A place cannot credibly be described as “healthy” if half the population feels unable to use it safely after dark. “universal” safety requires specific consideration of women and girls. There is also a growing risk that nature recovery and biodiversity policies are being pursued without sufficient attention to human safety, particularly for girls, creating avoidable conflicts between good objectives. What makes this more concerning is that the Government explicitly raised this issue in the 2022 NPPF consultation, asking whether greater emphasis should be placed on making women and girls feel safe in public spaces, including through lighting. Responses were received, yet the December 2025 NPPF contains no resulting policy changes. We know what works. International best practice shows that gender-responsive planning improves safety for everyone: • clear sightlines and natural surveillance, • active street frontages and mixed-use development, • thoughtful lighting design, • safe, well-connected public transport routes. These principles are well established, but without explicit inclusion in national policy they remain optional. As a result, women’s safety in public space has become a postcode lottery. This represents a fundamental inconsistency. A “whole-of-society” approach cannot exclude the department responsible for shaping the physical environment. Planning policy cannot sit outside the VAWG prevention agenda. I therefore urge the Government to: 1. Amend the NPPF to explicitly require consideration of women’s and girls’ safety, particularly in Chapters 8 and 12. 2. Update the National Design Guide and National Model Design Code to include clear guidance on designing for women’s safety. 3. 4. 5. Require major developments to demonstrate how they contribute to SDG 5.2 and SDG 11.7. Introduce gender impact assessments for large-scale developments. Ensure MHCLG is fully integrated into cross-government delivery of the VAWG Strategy. The ambition to halve violence against women and girls in a decade is welcome. But ambition without structural delivery mechanisms will not achieve t…
January 13, 2026 at 5:22 PM
susannahwalker.bsky.social
Guess what is in the new draft NPPF? Exactly nothing. At the moment the document doesn't include the word woman, women or gender once. It is a prime example of default male thinking, but also of how government isn't even talking to itself when it makes these recommendations.
January 13, 2026 at 5:22 PM
susannahwalker.bsky.social
Just a couple of weeks earlier, and still in December, the second part of the Angiolini inquiry into the Sarah Everard case was published. This too recommended that national planning and design policy should consider VAWG and it even singled out the NPPF.
Text which says "Can you do me another quote graphic, in a different colour. Text: The Inquiry considers that there would be an opportunity to place a greater focus on preventing sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces if this priority were reflected in planning guidance and principles"
January 13, 2026 at 5:22 PM
susannahwalker.bsky.social
The NPPF was published in December 2025. Two days earlier, the government's shiny new guidance on Violence against Women and Girls, which said that public realm policy should include women's safety as a priority.
Text which says "Update national design guidance to reflect a VAWG perspective, ensuring that safety considerations inform how public spaces are designed."
January 13, 2026 at 5:22 PM
susannahwalker.bsky.social
Ta. Setting up a work account is - as you can probably tell - one of those admin tasks that I am not wild about starting because then I have to do more work to keep it going
January 13, 2026 at 2:14 PM
susannahwalker.bsky.social
*headdesk*
January 13, 2026 at 2:13 PM
susannahwalker.bsky.social
was this person by any chance male?
January 13, 2026 at 2:12 PM
susannahwalker.bsky.social
We are not allowed to be a pub.
January 13, 2026 at 12:48 PM
susannahwalker.bsky.social
All bundled up with a blinkered male privilege which fails to see what the problem is for other people.
January 13, 2026 at 9:28 AM
susannahwalker.bsky.social
They were certainly influenced by slightly later sculptures - John Piper spent a lot of time photographing Anglo Saxon fonts, for example.
January 13, 2026 at 9:27 AM
susannahwalker.bsky.social
Stratton on the Fosse is the town on the Roman road on the Roman Road
January 12, 2026 at 11:15 PM