Open City

This week Merlin speaks to award winning architectural journalist, and author of 'Monumental Lies: Culture Wars and the Truth about the Past', Robert Bevan. The Grenfell inquiry concludes and the long road to memorialising 72 deaths begins | London mayor holds emergency summit as more than a third of renters face defaulting | Working class people earning thousands less than middle class peers...

This week Merlin speaks to Alpa Depani, an architect and head of strategic planning and design the London Borough of Waltham Forest. Austerity restarts with £50 million pounds of cuts to London culture | World leaders talk climate change while sustainable rail transport falters at home | Essex’s newest new town shows one way to meet London’s housing need | And is built environment heritage becomin...

This week Merlin speaks to Russell Curtis, founder of RCKa Architects A global house price slump is coming – but what does it mean for London and those most in housing need | Mega housing association criticised for evicting tenants over safety concerns in new block | South London council hires one of London's trendiest rising star architects for a new wave of social housing | And Michael Gove prom...

This week Phin speaks to Aydin Dikerdem. Aydin is a Councillor for Shaftesbury & Queenstown in Wandsworth and Cabinet Member for Housing. Rishi Sunak – the wealthiest MP in history – becomes the new Prime Minister | Campaign group, Just Stop Oil under threat from new bill targeting peaceful protests | Battersea Power Station finally opens, with flats on sale for £7 million despite 11,000 perso...

In this first episode of Talking Landscape – a monthly series produced by the Landscape Institute and Open City – host Paul Lincoln discusses beauty in the planning system and beyond with two contributors to the summer edition of the Landscape Journal; Julie Waldron and Ruth Lin Wong Holmes. Julie – who is Senior Landscape and Water Planning Officer at Edinburgh City Council – embarked o...

This week Merlin catches up with Hettie O'Brien, assistant opinion director at the Guardian. Blackstone, one of Europe’s and the UK’s largest landlords under the spotlight | Historic England slams Liverpool Street Station high-rise redevelopment plans | Battersea Power Station’s grand opening boycotted over lack of affordable housing | And could the beleaguered Whitechapel Bell Foundry be about to...

This week Merlin speaks to Jonathan Morrison, architecture correspondent at The Times and author of a new report on the longevity of architectural firms called The Practice of Succession Campaigners hit out at ‘misleading’ data justifying Museum of London and Bastion House’s demolition | Government backtracks on tweet claiming stamp duty cut could help average-income London house buyers | Fulham c...

This week host Phin Harper is joined by the architectural historian and editor of the brilliant About Buildings and Cities podcast, Matthew Lloyd Roberts. Mini-budget crashes the pound | Westminster Council to seize oligarch mansions | London architects John McAslan and Partners to redesign New York's biggest architectural blunder | And plans brewing for Queen Elizabeth mini memorial gardens...

This week Merlin speaks to Julian Robinson. Julian is Director of Estates at the London School of Economics and winner of this year’s Open City Irene Barclay Prize Alton Estate spared demolition but more than 100 other London estates face regeneration | Speculation grows over the green belt's future under Liz Truss | Campaigners call for Queen Elizabeth Hall's listing as a mark of respect | And Op...

This week Rachel is joined by journalist and author, Jonathan Nunn, to discuss his new book London Feeds Itself. National mourning and mass cancellations in the wake of Queen Elizabeth II’s death | London’s pubs and restaurants in jeopardy as cost of living spirals | Sadiq Khan praises Scottish rent freeze as ‘exactly what Londonders need’ | London Feeds Itself, Jonathan Nunn’s new guide to London...

Greenwich Peninsula, located at a bend in the river Thames, East of historic Greenwich and opposite the mouth of the river Lea, has historically been a peripheral area of London. It was a farm and marshland until, in the 19th Century, it became home to Europe’s largest gas works. Until the extension of the Jubilee line and the construction of the Millennium Dome, this industrial legacy was a barri...

On the first day of the 30th Open House Festival, Merlin speaks to Chief Curator, Zoë Cave Open House – London’s biggest festival of architecture and community kicks off today | Questions over new prime minister Liz Truss' vision to tackle the energy crisis | More people than ever seeking warmth and shelter on London’s night buses | And urban parks left reeling after a summer of drought, wildfires...

This week Merlin is joined by the journalist and author of Red Metropolis, Owen Hatherley Wandsworth's new council vetoes a development for lacking affordable homes | Right to Buy takes its first bite out of Stirling Prize winning Goldsmith Street | 70 percent of pubs could be forced to close as energy costs spiral | And could Jacob Rees-Mogg be the next housing minister? The Londown is recorded a...

This week Rachel speaks to Helen Arvanitakis, Director of the Design District in North Greenwich. Average workers now spending just a day and a half in the office | Emerging small-scale London architects win huge commissions in the capital | Bill Bryson joins the chorus of names calling to save Oxford Street’s M&S from demolition | And could golf courses be taking more than their fai...

This week Merlin is joined by Joris Lechêne, the diversity and inclusion trainer and the man behind the Tiktok channel @Joris_explains Rishi Sunak caught in video celebrating the defunding of deprived areas | Muyiwa Oki wins the RIBA presidential election | Children of social housing tenants banned from playing in a new Thameside development | And could the new Transport Bill be waging an unf...

This week Merlin speaks to Ben Page, the global chief executive of market research firm Ipsos. Soaring inflation sees one-eighth of households facing no options to cut costs. A power shortage leaves West London with a new homes ban. How buy-to-let landlords fuelled the housing crisis. And the Grade I-listed Finsbury Health Centre is finally set for a refurb The Londown is recorded and produced at...

Leadership rivals Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak criticised for lack of housing policy. New London buildings dominate the RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist. The capital weighs up its Olympic legacy a decade on from the games. And is there a socialist case for traditional architecture? This week Merlin is joined by the architect and writer Douglas Murphy. The Londown is recorded and produced at the Open Cit...

This week host Rachel Copel is joined by Fran Williams, deputy architecture editor at the AJ On the menu: London burns as soaring temperatures highlight the inadequacy of our buildings to cope in extreme weather. Developers accused of bribing social housing residents to vote in favour of estate regenerations. A Southwark councillor is issued with a no fault eviction notice. And Canada Water's Prin...

A new covid wave has meant we are sadly unable to make an episode of The Londown this week. However, instead we're going to play you an episode of the Architecture Foundation's new podcast series Power and Public Space which was made in collaboration with Drawing Matter. In the episode Matthew Blunderfield speaks with the artists Mark Wallinger. Wallinger's art exists in public space. He’s made fi...

For this weeks Open City Stewardship Awards special host Phin Harper is joined by Director of Sustainability and Physics at the integrated consulting engineers and advisers practice Buro Happold - Smith Mordak, and Director of Sustainability at the housing association Peabody - Richard Ellis. Damning report warns the UK is already failing its own net zero targets. Census reveals London hollowing o...

The Royal Institute of British Architects names its three presidential contenders | A US property price slump casts doubts over London’s residential market | The City Corporation is urged not to demolish the old Museum of London | And the row over a prime ministerial treehouse at Chequers while thousands of homes lay vacant in the capital This week Merlin is joined by Muyiwa Oki, one of the t...

For this weeks Open City Stewardship Awards special Merlin is joined by the Executive Director for Thamesmead at Peabody - John Lewis. The Londown is recorded and produced at the Open City offices located in Bureau. Bureau is a co-working space for creatives offering a new approach to membership workspace. Bureau prioritises not just room to think and do, but also shared resources and space to col...

Five years on Grenfell survivors say they are still waiting for justice. A toxic culture spanning decades at London’s most famous architecture school. Campaigners warn Right to Buy’s revamp could worsen the housing crisis. And a new inquiry into American sweet shops flooding Oxford Street. This week Rachel is joined by Pooja Agrawal. Pooja is the co-founder and CEO of Public Practice and is also t...

Help to Buy scrapped amid a looming housing market slowdown, Marketisation of landmark buildings takes a twist with some questionable projections, Camden Highline’s submitted for planning as calls for a pedestrian first city grow, And the Platinum Jubilee in architecture – does the reality of Thomas Heatherwick’s ‘Tree of Trees’ live up to the renders? This week Merlin catches up with Will Jenning...

Crossrail finally opens with 10 new central London stations, public ownership takes centre stage in Old Oak Common’s redevelopment vision, City Hall sets out plans for a new user-friendly website to review major planning applications, and could a new Renters Reform Bill help out London’s most precarious private tenants? This week Merlin catches up with DSDHA co-founder Deborah Saunt. The Londown i...