holly smith @hol__smith Twitter profile | Pikagi

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holly smith

@hol__smith

2,346

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phd @ucl @wolfsonfdn 💥 researching high-rise architecture + community action in postwar britain // writing a book for @versobooks ! 🇵🇸🏳️‍⚧️

she/her

Joined June 2018

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@hol__smith

holly smith

1 year

My Duncan Tanner Prize article on the Ronan Point scandal is out in @TCBHJournal ! It uses archives to trace an unfinished battle for housing justice. This research has been so important to me - I hope it’s useful to others. Open access + free to read 📝

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@hol__smith

holly smith

8 months

SOME NEWS! 🚨📚 I just signed a book contract with @VersoBooks . Verso will be publishing my book on the history of high-rise Britain 💥☄️⚡️

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@hol__smith

holly smith

11 months

such sweet + lovely inter-war illustrations in Heath Robinson and KRG Browne’s How To Live In A Flat (1936) 🥺💛

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@hol__smith

holly smith

9 months

I started my PhD @ucl on this day three years ago. Today I submitted my thesis!! I’m soOooOooO happy 📇🫡🎊🥸💥🥳💫🥺☀️😭🛌

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

I’ve just handed in my mphil dissertation ! It’s on the Ronan Point scandal of 1968. I found some interesting archive materials that I’d like to share. The disaster gives us a lot to reflect on for welfare policy and building a better leftist future - esp re Grenfell. Thread: /1

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@hol__smith

holly smith

10 months

In the 1970s, a group of Bartlett students led a squatting campaign to save Tolmers Square, across the Euston Road, from demolition by property speculators - a cool snippet of UCL history!

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

don’t usually use twitter for this lol but have just been offered full funding to do a phd starting this autumn at UCL !!!! ☘️ if anyone needs me for the next 3/4 years I’ll be researching London’s high-rise tenant activism across 1960s-90s ! thank u world !

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@hol__smith

holly smith

2 years

I’m over the moon to have been awarded the Hawksmoor Medal for Architectural History 2022 last night! 🏛️ I’m very grateful to @TheSAHGB for nominating my work, which revises mythologies about ‘the architecture of community’ at the Park Hill estate during the 1950s-60s

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

bare bones of the british library - from back when it was being built

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holly smith

1 year

in SPAN-land, blackheath ☺️☺️☺️

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@hol__smith

holly smith

9 months

Carlo Scarpa’s beautiful sign for the Olivetti typewriter showroom (1958) 📇🔨🤍

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@hol__smith

holly smith

1 year

Chilling moment with an archival document today. Activists in the National Tower Blocks Network here warning of the grave fire risks of overcladding back in 1991 - three decades before Grenfell

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@hol__smith

holly smith

2 years

I am absolutely heartbroken to hear that my wonderful friend Sam Webb passed away yesterday. Sam was an architect who fought tooth and nail as a fierce advocate for tenants over the Ronan Point, Lakanal House and Grenfell disasters - for 50 years. A true hero 💚

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@hol__smith

holly smith

11 months

📍Isokon Building - nobody is doing it like her 🤍

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@hol__smith

holly smith

1 year

I’m absolutely thrilled to win @TCBHJournal ’s Duncan Tanner Prize for my work on Ronan Point - article to come soon! ☺️📰

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@TCBHJournal

TCBH Journal

1 year

We are delighted to announce the winner of the Duncan Tanner Prize for 2022: Holly Smith @hol__smith . Her article ‘The Ronan Point Scandal: Architecture, Crisis, and Possibility in British Social Democracy, 1968-93’ will appear in Twentieth Century British History later in 2023.

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@hol__smith

holly smith

1 year

whoever did the Community Action graphics in the 70s … fantastique

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@hol__smith

holly smith

11 months

lol

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 months

I’m really excited to be joining @StJohnsCam as a Research Fellow in the autumn! I’m going to be working on a new project on the Community Architecture movement in post-war Britain. Giving a taster of this research at Scroope’s @CitySeminar on 12 March!

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Community Architecture Between Left and Right in Post-War Britain

Planning participation across the political spectrum. Holly Smith leads the final City Seminar of the term.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

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@hol__smith

holly smith

8 months

My Hawksmoor Prize article is out now in Architectural History @TheSAHGB ! It tries to revise mythologies about the preservation of working-class community at the Park Hill estate in Sheffield 🧐

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@hol__smith

holly smith

2 years

jean-paul belmondo in 'that man from rio' 1961 :-)

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 months

can anyone tell me if Brian Anson (the radical anarchist who co-founded the Architects’ Revolutionary Council in the 1970s) is the same person who wrote these sweet 1970s children’s books following the lives of city mice about town? i hope so!

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

a scrapheap of discarded models from the planning stages for the National Theatre, in Denys Lasdun’s studio

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@hol__smith

holly smith

3 months

cool spot !!!! bauhaus dessau balcony !

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

The Ronan Point scandal teaches us what our visions of a leftist future need to look like in 21st century Britain - localist, consultative, and grassroots-based with an unflinching commitment to high-quality collective welfare provision./19

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

Danielle Gregory (w @LedburyAction ) says: ‘My worst fear is all these estates will eventually be demolished and replaced with mainly private apartments... If a massive safety problem ends up leading to a massive loss of social housing, then it’s a kind of double punishment.’ /18

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@hol__smith

holly smith

10 months

They cobbled together some pretty chic flats too 🔧

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

I’m doing this tomorrow! Open to all - do come along 🚨

@TheSAHGB

SAHGB

4 years

For our @ihr_history seminar next week, @hol__smith will be exploring the largely untold story of the negligence and corruption surrounding the Ronan Point disaster and its impact on post-war politics. Sign up on our website now-

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

sharing some wonderfully evocative photographs of London's post-war East End that I've come across during master's research, from Newham's Heritage Service records (a thread !) /1

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

Going forward from this? Ronan Point offers us lessons for the future of Labour politics. It demonstrates how social democracy can fail if state planning is too top-down, rigid, insufficiently democratic, and makes no efforts to consult or respond to grassroots actors. /15

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

When it was demolished, appalling structural defects were uncovered. Many joints had been filled with cigarette packets, tin cans, and newspaper during construction. One of the newspapers found was from 1972 - meaning it was packed DURING the apparent ‘re-strengthening’! /8

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

These issues were leveraged by the Thatcherite right to discredit social democracy/public ownership and to privatise council housing. Poorly built examples of high rise have been weaponised by the right ever since, as a way to stigmatise estates and the people who live there. /16

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

Thousands of people across Britain are still living in tower blocks with terrible structural defects which put them at risk of progressive collapse, wind damage, and fire. At least 575 blocks can be identified, housing 100,000 people. The government is still dithering! /12

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

brutalism in california - interior of the former berkeley art museum, by mario ciampi

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

I'm going to be leading the @ihr_history + @TheSAHGB Architectural History Seminar on 30 July. I'm discussing my new archival research on the Ronan Point disaster + its significance post-Grenfell. Open to everyone - do come along! Zoom sign-up below:

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holly smith

4 years

tearing up in the archive just found this on the back of a trade unionist’s official correspondence, which he seems to have left lying around at home before filing it 🥺

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@hol__smith

holly smith

1 year

mmmm MMMMMMM ‘wildly ambitious’ proposal for postwar birmingham from 1943 … but also wildly unpopular :( it does no exist :(

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@hol__smith

holly smith

2 years

My obituary of the remarkable Sam Webb has been published in the RIBA Journal today - an amazing man who was a champion for housing justice

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Obituary: high-rise safety expert and campaigner Sam Webb, 1937-2022

Architect and activist whose expertise on high-rise safety – from panels to fire – famously began with a tenacious study of Ronan Point and a successful campaign to dismantle it

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

I’ve been appalled at the level of governmental negligence, evasion, and condescension displayed towards tenants by the British state - and damningly this is mainly under Harold Wilson’s LABOUR government. /14

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@hol__smith

holly smith

10 months

I'm using this funny Louis Hellman cartoon from 1971 - does anybody recognise the tall block in the centre? 🧐 I'd be keen to know what it is!

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

Thanks so much to everyone who came along to my @TheSAHGB seminar today! Really appreciated hearing the interesting questions posed, and special thanks to Neal @IntrWr for being such a great chair!

@OSaumarezSmith

Otto Saumarez Smith

@OSaumarezSmith

4 years

Bravo @hol__smith for her superb @TheSAHGB talk on Ronan Point, in what @IntrWr rightly says is a model of critically engaged architectural history. She tells us at least 575 large-panel-system tower blocks remain in Britain, housing approx. 100,000 people in 41,000 dwellings.

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@hol__smith

holly smith

6 years

i'm so obsessed with this beautiful image from an original LGSM welfare dance in Dulais, South Wales, which inspired Pride (2014) - jonathan blake looking radiantly happy in the centre, & sian james in the dress to the left

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

@TowerBlocksUK and @LedburyAction are doing amazing and tireless work today to lobby the government to evacuate these blocks - see their great film with @TRCdocumentary on identical issues in the Ledbury Estate which have been left unrepaired for decades

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‘Cracks In The System’ Ledbury Estate documentary

Short preview version of the not-for-profit Ledbury Estate documentary ‘Cracks In The System’ which tells the story of serious fire and gas safety issues aff...

www.youtube.com

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@hol__smith

holly smith

10 months

Here’s the student ringleader Nick Wates on Gower Street - he wrote about the campaign in his book The Battle for Tolmers Square (1976)

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@hol__smith

holly smith

5 years

this dissertation baby is done ! arrivederci mate ! with loads and loads of thanks to @OSaumarezSmith for invaluable advice as a supervisor and the archival staff at @SheffLibraries who provide such a brilliant service for everyone to use :)

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@hol__smith

holly smith

2 months

I reviewed Neal Shasore's fantastic book 'Designs on Democracy: Architecture and the Public in Interwar London' for @UrbanHistoryCUP . It provides a rich and expansive revision of a period which has been over-dominated by the story of the rise of modernism

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Neal Shasore, Designs on Democracy: Architecture and the Public in Interwar London. Oxford: Oxford...

Neal Shasore, Designs on Democracy: Architecture and the Public in Interwar London. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. xxvii + 432pp. 142 illustrations. Bibliography. £71.00 hbk.

www.cambridge.org

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

It exposed scandalous levels of negligence over building standards in high-rise council housing. An Inquiry found that it (and thousands of other buildings nationwide) was built so badly that when one wall was damaged the whole block fell like a ‘house of cards’ -to cut costs. /3

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holly smith

4 years

In spite of public outrage and the Inquiry’s recommendation that all these blocks be re-appraised and strengthened, the government consistently sought to evade accountability for the disaster, telling people that they were safe in their homes. /4

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

Here’s some great photos of a tenants’ conference to discuss the defects

@TowerBlocksUK

Tower Blocks UK

5 years

Today we celebrate 36 years of Tower Blocks UK. On this day in 1983, we held our first National Tower Blocks Conference. Two tenants of the refurbished #RonanPoint block came to talk to us about concerns they had with gaps in their flats. This is where our campaign began.

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holly smith

4 years

Ronan Point was a tower block in Newham. Just 2 months after opening, an entire corner column of the block collapsed. 5 people died, 17 were injured - luckily most residents were asleep in their bedrooms in the central section away from the collapse. /2

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holly smith

10 months

@kate__litman I am so, so sorry Kate for your family’s unfathomable loss, and for the utter inhumanity of these people - they are a vocal minority, and so many more of us are behind you 💗

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holly smith

4 years

On the left, we need to forcefully respond to this, especially as it becomes clearer than ever that we desperately need more social housing, and at higher quality. /17

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holly smith

1 year

very endearing reading about grumbly Nikolaus Pevsner’s early expeditions to Italy (1928) and England (1930) - sweaty, trousers falling down, tummy ache, no sponge 🥺

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holly smith

4 years

See here: /13

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Hundreds of tower blocks across UK at risk of collapse, say experts

Exclusive: Government urged to investigate ‘bigger issue than Grenfell’ as defects identified in more than 41,000 flats

www.independent.co.uk

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

Here are some fragments from the demolition showing the terrible building quality

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holly smith

4 years

The government admitted in 1984 that it did not have records of whether any other blocks nationwide had been reassessed or strengthened after Ronan Point - something that it has still failed to clarify today. /10

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

original model of the brunswick centre in camden at the RIBA - looking hot !

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holly smith

1 year

Walter Segal in the Ghost Dance Times (the Architectural Association’s cheeky student tabloid) in 1975: ‘When you are short, fat, and love food, there isn’t much scope for drama’ 🥰

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@hol__smith

holly smith

2 years

I’m sooooooo sad jean-luc godard has died also I’m a 32B sometimes 32C depends on the shop

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@hol__smith

holly smith

11 months

I am preparing the introductory seminar for my undergrads next year 💋

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holly smith

5 months

new project!!!!!!

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holly smith

4 years

In 1984, tenants in Ronan Point reported cracks, grinding noises, and gaps between wall panels where fire could travel through. After lobbying from the Newham Tower Block Tenant Campaign, the building was at last evacuated. /6

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McDOWELL, Sue._x000D_Thames hews. 4.5.84. RONAN POINT TOWER BLOCK, VISIT BY SIR _x000D_LUNCH. 84/

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

I like this cover of the Architectural Review from 1956 - a collage of Chandigarh. Nehru envisioned this city as iconic of India’s independence from the oppression of colonial rule, using radically modernist architectural forms to emphasise egalitarianism and liberation

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

Tenants were moved back in to RP & told it had been ‘re-strengthened’. 1,080 people due to be moved onto other identical blocks on the same estate signed a petition to plead the council not to move them see sample photos from the 28 page petition). Their requests were refused. /5

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

really like this interview with kate macintosh, the architect who designed southwark's brilliant @DawsonsHeights finished in 1972. particularly her final response to the question 'what were you like back then?': 'oh.... dead sexy'

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@hol__smith

holly smith

1 year

They’re playing Norman Fucking Rockwell at the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Cafe

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

my £93 midnight impulse AbeBooks order has been shipped ! 💄

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holly smith

4 years

i love this shot of children playing in glasgow from 1958, from the university of glasgow's great project on post-war housing and everyday life

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holly smith

10 months

re-building Birmingham in 1951 🔨

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holly smith

1 year

I wish someone would do this to me

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

Here are some photos of the scene /3

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The collapse of Ronan Point, May 1968 - in pictures

On 16 May 1968, a gas explosion in the kitchen of an 18th floor flat resulted in the collapse of the entire south-east corner of Ronan Point, a 22-storey east London tower block, killing four people...

www.theguardian.com

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@hol__smith

holly smith

1 year

@samwetherell We’re getting evicted from our damp mould-ridden 3 bedroom so the landlord can put up the rent from £1800 to £3000 :(

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holly smith

1 year

brief moment of cute to lighten up a very boring afternoon going through microfilm of archived issues of the Sheffield Telegraph 💗

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@hol__smith

holly smith

3 years

this celestial woman ..... her range

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holly smith

1 year

back for the new year and my lacanian psychoanalyst has changed his computer screensaver to this exact anteater image

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holly smith

2 years

granny tower block activists in liverpool c.1990s ❤️

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holly smith

9 months

I read the Golden Notebook this week. I don’t think I’ve ever had a reading experience like it - this book bore right inside me and burned me up ❤️‍🔥

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holly smith

4 years

small me hugging small lamb

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holly smith

2 years

colour my life with the chaos of trouble 🎵 :(

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@hol__smith

holly smith

5 years

OMG C’EST FINI !!!!! BA HUNS

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@hol__smith

holly smith

9 months

hi guys I’m looking for a room in London from January onwards! I’m clean + nice!! DM me if we’re mutuals I’d be super grateful for leads!

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@hol__smith

holly smith

5 years

very into these great images of Denys Lasdun’s redesigned Royal College of Physicians (1964) with motifs that were precursors to what he’d later explore with the National Theatre in the 1970s

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holly smith

1 year

Louis Hellman Archigram-esque cartoon from 1968 very cool !

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holly smith

4 years

oh yes she did !

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@hol__smith

holly smith

4 years

I’m going to be giving a paper on grassroots tenant activism + late social democracy at this conference - register below for a really exciting line up of talks !

A one-day virtual conference exploring housing as a locus of social and political power

housingandpower.wordpress.com

@HousingPower

Housing and Power in the Modern World

4 years

📢Registration now open!📢 We're looking forward to sharing some fascinating papers on 11 November, from grassroots activism and planning to access to housing during Covid-19. Abstracts and schedule: Register here:

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holly smith

6 years

read my report on what could be the biggest schism within christendom since 1054 in today’s edition of the Sunday Times !

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holly smith

4 months

This is tonight in Cambridge! 🔔 Community Architecture between Left and Right: I’m talking about the curious history of participatory architecture in Britain

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Community Architecture Between Left and Right in Post-War Britain

Planning participation across the political spectrum. Holly Smith leads the final City Seminar of the term.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

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holly smith

1 year

lots of honkers going through the archive of Malcolm MacEwen - the die-hard communist editor of the RIBA journal from 1964-71

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holly smith

6 years

back in cambridge :) had to pay a £52 fine to the UL :) honey I’m home :) £52 :)

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holly smith

10 months

if anybody needs me I’m at the hairdressers reading Raphael Samuel’s Lost World of British Communism (rollers in)

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holly smith

4 years

watched & re-read normal people, has brought me back to this great discussion by sally rooney about novels and their position as capital/commodities which has made me think about literature with more freshness than i have in years

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holly smith

1 year

the latest paris review is good

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holly smith

2 years

reading about the digital history of the tamagotchi today :)

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holly smith

5 years

check out my joint report on the anti-right protests in Bolivia today, in print tomoro !

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holly smith

1 year

excited to be presenting alongside a fantastic line-up on Monday at the Garden Museum on women and the welfare state - tickets still available! 🔔

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Conference | Visions of Welfare 2023 - Garden Museum

gardenmuseum.org.uk

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@hol__smith

holly smith

1 year

Funding from @pembroke1347 during my Masters and @wolfsonfdn during my PhD made this possible - for which I am immensely grateful!

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holly smith

3 years

took out the bins listening to phantom thread soundtrack

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@hol__smith

holly smith

10 months

check out ! 📸

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holly smith

1 year

the Yorkshire Development Tenants’ Action Group had reached the end of their rope by 1984

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holly smith

2 years

remember will self ?

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holly smith

4 years

great shot of outdoor pool in Newham from 1991, part of a mobile outdoor play scheme run by Community Links to entertain children living in high-rise blocks, from the archive of @TowerBlocksUK

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