Viewpoints – Placecloud

London, United Kingdom. The Barbican Redevelopment Scheme, comprising the Barbican Estate, Barbican Arts Centre and the office buildings around London Wall and Moorgate, is well known to people with an affection for twentieth-century architecture, and has become major cultural centre in its own right. Nevertheless, very few people are aware of how a type of plastic manufactured in rural Kent quiet...

London, United Kingdom. This viewpoint focusses on a futuristic vision for plastics in architecture and interior design: Alison and Peter Smithson‘s House of the Future, which was shown at the Daily Mail Ideal Home Show at the London Olympia Exhibition Centre in 1956. The exhibition structure, containing everything from chairs made of fibreglass to bedding fashioned out of Nylon, popularised an ae...

London, United Kingdom. The viewpoint deals with four Greater London Council housing blocks - two in Tower Hamlets and a second pair in Westminster, where the architects employed an experimental plastics building system in their design and construction. More latterly, the buildings were involved in the "Homes for Votes" scandal in the 1980s, which has received renewed attention in the light of the...

Headley, United Kingdom. This viewpoint deals with BedZED, the most notable mixed-use sustainable community to be developed in London over the last twenty years. Develped by Bioregional and the Peabody Trust to designs by Bill Dunster Architects, BedZED was subject to significant media attention upon its completion in 2002 and no shortage of controversy. In this viewpoint, I argue that rather than...

London, United Kingdom. In this viewpoint, I tell the story of the BBC's headquarters, its design by Val Myer and FJ Watson Hart and its magnificent recording studios. The story features angry local residents, neo-Art Deco facades, and a type of early plastic made of formaldehyde resin.

London, United Kingdom. The court performances of the early seventeenth century presented an image of perfect political harmony; but backstage the reality was very different.

London, United Kingdom. Step inside a sixteenth-century house in Smithfield.

London, United Kingdom. For more than 800 years, in frosty weather the frozen Thames played host to spectacular festivals.

London, United Kingdom. Join the crowds at a royal joust in honour of Elizabeth I.

London, United Kingdom. For Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway the clocks of Big Ben and St Margaret’s, Westminster do more than just tell the time.

London, United Kingdom. In Elizabethan London, Richard Walweyn’s trousers were a literal crime of fashion.

London, United Kingdom. Flames are racing towards your house: what do you save? In 1666, Samuel Pepys prioritised his cheese.

London, United Kingdom. Polymath and rogue Thomas Gemini peddles his wares in Tudor Blackfriars.

London, United Kingdom. Scholars fleeing the burgeoning Nazi Party find a safe haven in 1930s Bloomsbury.

London, United Kingdom. From a mechanical garden to an automatic tea-table, in the late eighteenth century you were bound to find something extraordinary at Merlin’s Museum of Mechanical Amusements.

London, United Kingdom. The parish and burial grounds of St Giles, Cripplegate now the Barbican.

London, United Kingdom. The unique Tudor House on 23 West Heath Road - known as Sarum Chase - was beloved by director Andy Milligan who used it in his 1970s cult horror films. Listen to hear about the different horrific families he placed here and how his films impacted London's occult history.

London, United Kingdom. Lewisham Art House was once the Deptford Library, home to a brooding vampire in 1992 romantic horror "Tale of a Vampire"

Ealing Broadway, United Kingdom. Hammersmith Bridge appears in a handful of horror films, but truly stands out in Roman Polansky's 1965 "Repulsion" and the unusual 1967 horror "It!" or "Curse of the Golem".

London, United Kingdom. The beautiful suburban home is overtaken by living nightmares in 1988 horror "Dream Demon". Listen to hear more about the punk-inspired film starring Timothy Spall (Harry Potter FIlms, Turner) and Kathleen Wilhoite (Gilmore Girls)

London, United Kingdom. The elegant flats off Regents Park are home to a sinister nanny and maid played by Bette Davis in "The Nanny". Listen to this viewpoint to hear about this lesser-known of Davis' horror films which inspired a generation of evil babysitters, nannies and caretakers.

Ealing Broadway, United Kingdom. One of the big seven cemeteries, Kensal Green Cemetery has been an inspiration to horror directors. The gothic and historic location is the backdrop to brutal murder in "Theatre of Blood" (1972), a solemn memorial in "Secret Ceremony" (1968) and the power of a Mummy in "The Awakening" (1980)

London, United Kingdom. This stunning church is visited by Elisabeth Taylor and Mia Farrow in the surreal horror "Secret Ceremony".

Ealing Broadway, United Kingdom. This suburban house in Cricklewood was home to interdimensional demons including Pinhead in the 1987 cult horror Hellraiser. Listen for more details on why this was the perfect spot for a very political horror film.

London, United Kingdom. The former Dolphin Square Baths, now simply the entrance to Dolphin Square, makes an appearance in the 1967 psychological horror "The Sorcerers" starring Boris Karloff, Ian Ogilvy and Catherine Lacey.