june 2015 books

More book stuff:

The Borgias (Mary Hollingsworth): The front cover of Hollingsworth’s book describes the Borgias as “history’s most notorious dynasty” and it would be difficult to dispute this claim. The book outlines the family’s “progress” from the early years of the 13^th century to the mid-14th. Even before the election of the first Borgia pope in 1455 (77 year-old Alonso Borgia, choosing the papal name of Calixtus III), advancement and power was only secured through blatant corruption… and a second Borgia pope (Rodrigo, taking the name Alexander VI) followed in 1493. Once in power, other Borgia family members were promoted to ridiculous positions of power and influence… and massive wealth. Certainly, at that time, the idea of celebate popes was something of a joke – Alexander, for example, had a long affair with Vannozza dei Cattanei while still a priest, but before he became pope; and by her had his illegitimate children Cesare Borgia, Giovanni Borgia, Gioffre Borgia, and Lucrezia. A later mistress, Giulia Farnese, was the sister of Alessandro Farnese, and she gave birth to a daughter while Alexander was in his 60s and reigning as pope. Alexander fathered at least seven, and possibly as many as ten illegitimate children, and did much to promote his family's interests (like a 9 year-old being appointed an Archbishop!) - using his offspring to build alliances with a number of important dynasties. He appointed Giovanni Borgia as Captain General of the Church, and made Cesare a Cardinal of the Church - also creating independent duchies for each of them out of papal lands. Two descendants of pope Alexander VI also became queens of England, Scotland and Ireland (Catherine of Braganza married Charles II and Mary of Moderna married James II)! The Borgias even make FIFA look pretty tame by comparison!
Vintage Stuff (Tom Sharpe): Re-read another Tom Sharpe book (well, they make easy summer reading and are entertaining!). I apparently read this one shortly after it was published in 1982… but I couldn’t remember ANYTHING about it! It’s about a very minor public school with assault courses for over-active underachievers, cold showers and beatings – you get the general idea. Predictably farcical.
Vietnam! Vietnam! In Photographs and Text (Felix Greene): I was very much opposed to the Vietnam War in the 1960s. My copy of this book (published in 1966 – one year after large scale US troops were deployed) is an ex-library copy that I bought for 20p at a jumble sale some time ago… and which I’d only really “flicked through” until now. Greene was born+educated in the UK (he used to work for the BBC), but lived most of his life in the USA. The book combines more than 100 awful, stunning pictures by world-renown photographers together with Greene’s cogent comments. I think it’s one of the most shocking, saddening books I’ve ever read – and a powerful indictment of American aggressive intervention in Vietnam. It’s frightening to be reminded of how the US used its giant resources to argue the case for the “defence of freedom”. This is not the place for a history lesson(!), but I AM going to include just a few quotes from the book: “The facts are plain. This war was begun by armed American aggression aimed at perpetuating the unnatural and unintended division of Vietnam into North and South, in full violation of the Geneva Accords of 1954”… “It would probably come as a painful surprise to many Americans to realise how universally the war in Vietnam is viewed not as a ‘complex issue’ but as a simple and blatant act of aggression by the United States”… “morally, politically and militarily unjustifiable”… “We have used our power with great restraint” (President Johnson, May 1966)… “US Air Force flew no fewer than 26,858 sorties against Vietnam in a single week” (Newsweek, October 1965)… Believe me, I could go on and on! It’s a truly remarkable book and, even now, nearly 50 years on, one that you should read if you have an opportunity.
A Month In The Country (JL Carr): This is a rather lovely short novel (first published in 1980 and, apparently, also made into a film in 1987) about two men who meet in the quiet English countryside of a hot summer in 1920. They’re both survivors of the Great War. One (Tom Birkin) is temporarily living in a church uncovering and restoring a historical wall-painting and the other is camping in the next field in search of a lost grave. Birkin is the narrator – looking back in old age of his memories of his idyllic summer spent in Yorkshire (at the very end of the book, he dates his account as 1978), when he felt he’d glimpsed happiness and contentment. However, this is countered by his lack of money, his horrific wartime experiences, the painful break-up of his marriage and things that might have been.
It’s a gentle, tender and elegant book which I read during the course of a beautiful summer’s day.
Britain In The Sixties: The Other England (Geoffrey Moorhouse): The “Other England” is what Moorhouse calls everywhere else other than the “Golden Circle” around London. I was somewhat taken aback by the condition of my rather battered copy of this book… until I realised (rather like “Vietnam! Vietnam! above) that this might be due to the fact that it’s over 50 years’ old (first published in 1964)! How can that be?! Yes, this is definitely a book for ME – because it outlines the time of my youth (I started at university in 1967). Fascinating to be reminded that, at that time, Britain had not yet joined the Common Market (the EU if you’re too young!) and was about to swallow the implications for the nation’s railway network as a result of the Beeching cuts. It’s sobering to realise how communications have changed so dramatically over the past 50 years – at one point, Moorhouse talks glowingly about the huge telecommunication advances everyone had experienced thanks to the introduction of telex and STD! It was written less 20 years since the end of WW2 and the need for slum-clearance throughout the country is referred to constantly (and also the levels of appalling pollution). Moorhouse was also clearly very enthusiastic about what was going on in Birmingham (where I was born and stayed until 1967) in the 1960s – describing it as the “most go-ahead city in Europe”. Yes, much was happening but, in my view, the highway engineers were given far too much of a free hand and, sadly, the quality of much of the architecture (and the materials used) was desperately disappointing. Reading the book today also makes you realise just how many of the country’s key industries of that time have disappeared or changed beyond recognition – mining, textiles, heavy machinery, manufacturing, shipbuilding and steelworks, to name just a few. I was also struck by the following incidental comments: a) talking about age 50-something redundant millworkers in Lancashire having “a life expectation of anything up to 20 years” ahead of them (these days, we might anticipate a few more years!) and b) one person in eight was a car owner in 1964 (it’s now probably more like 1 in 2?).
An absolutely fascinating book - well, to read now at least!

biking

Perhaps I should start this post with a few admissions…

Firstly, I’ve only got back on my bike fairly recently (after a couple of years of virtual non-cycling), so my views might be a little naïve/fervent; secondly, we’ve just returned from a wonderful few days in the Netherlands, where biking is a completely different experience; and, lastly, I ride simply for pleasure and convenience… I’m not a commuter or a long-distance biker!
As many of you will know, I’ve lived in Bristol for the past 11 years or so. It’s a lovely vibrant city and, as far as biking is concerned, it seems we’re very fortunate. In 2008, it was named as the country’s first “cycling city” and, a couple of years later, a study in Cycling Plus magazine named Bristol the most bike-friendly big city in the UK. It’s true that that there are an increasingly number of cyclists, bike shops and traffic-free routes but, as a recent convert to the benefits of cycling, I think there’s an awful long way still to go.
The car is definitely still king here. A good number of motorists still seem to regard bikers as the scum of the earth/third-class citizens (drivers of lorries, buses and white vans seem to come to the fore on this!). Pedestrians actually aren’t much better – all too frequently completely ignoring bike lane markings and then getting irate when cyclists try to weave their way between them.
It’s all SO different in the Netherlands.
Yes, I know it’s pretty flat, but there’s also a completely different mentality when it comes to cycling. The hierarchy of vehicles, pedestrians and bikers is COMPLETELY different. Even in cities (ok, so I can only speak from experience of Amsterdam and Utrecht!), it seems that cyclists have PRIORITY. There are well-designed, designated cycle-lanes everywhere. Pedestrians are, crucially, “aware” of cyclists and take due account when crossing bike-lanes and the like. Motorists are bottom in the pecking order and seem to take due account of this (in terms of speed, manners etc) whenever bikes and vehicles have to share routes. This may sound like wishful thinking on my part but, having seen it in action, I’ve been very impressed. Significantly, there are also LOTS of bike-parking areas (including a massive 3-storey bike-park in Amsterdam!) and the bike-lanes are CLEARLY marked – usually in a different colour/material to roads and pavements.
While we were in the Netherlands, we also stayed a few days in Houten (a commuter town some 9km south-east of Utrecht, with a population of just under 50,000). It has a large number of child-friendly bike paths and, critically, the road network is NOT designed for through traffic. People are encouraged to travel by bike and train… and they DO (and all ages too!).
Cycling has always been a popular form of transport in the Netherlands (most people have bikes - there are apparently more bikes than people!) but, actually, much of the infrastructure has been built since the 1970s… and has continued to be improved.
Investment has been crucial.
I would certainly accept that Bristol has a few issues when it comes to cycling. For example: a) it’s not exactly flat, b) the transport network has to contend with lots of river crossings and c) it’s probably the worst city in the UK when it comes to getting around by car. But, I would suggest that, with some bold thinking, the city could be transformed when it comes to transportation. Afterall: a) you could always fit a small motor to your bike (as many people in Holland do to offset strong winds – a little expensive, yes, but small change compared with car travel)(and/or get the Council to install a bike-lift for getting up Park Street?), b) they have just a few stretches of water and bridges in Amsterdam and seem to cope(!), c) by making the Bristol ring road WORK and reducing car use drastically within/across the city as far as possible - by making it far more inconvenient to use the car, and d) encouraging more people to use bikes by creating LOTS of “bikes+pedestrians only” streets (car use would be tolerated for access only… and car drivers would have to accept that they’re bottom of the pecking order - SO many potential bikers are put off by the fact that they know they’d have to contend with rude, impatient car/lorry/bus drivers on the same street/thoroughfare as them).
Yes, I know I’m probably being far too optimistic/unrealistic and I also appreciate that such changes won’t happen overnight.
It’s a new MINDSET that’s required.  
Photo: this photograph was taken from our hotel window in Amsterdam – the busy street had two bike lanes (one in each direction!) plus pavements… and cars were tolerated for access only.
PS: Before you strike me down, I’d also be the first to admit that there are some pretty poor/intolerant cyclists too!

the man who saved bristol harbourside…

You almost certainly won’t have heard of Jerry Hicks.

He died, aged 86, earlier this month but, if you live in Bristol (or are just enthusiastic about the city’s many charms), I thought you might like to know that this man, along with his wife Anne, effectively saved the city’s floating harbour in 1969.
The docks were no longer economically viable and the City Docks Parliamentary Act proposed taking up of large areas by roads crossing the harbour (including an extension of the M32 into the city and, ultimately, linking with the M5), the construction of three bridges to carry motorways and the decking or filling in of parts of the docks themselves so that these could be given over to other uses.
When this became public knowledge, there was an outcry and the Bristol City Docks Group, of which Jerry Hicks was a leading member (he was also an executive member of Bristol Civic Society), was formed to fight the ratification of the Parliamentary act in order to maintain the use of the docks both by smaller vessels – yachts, dinghies and launches – and by tall ships coming up the river and tying-up in the centre of the city.
Strangely, I became aware of the motorway proposals during my last year as an architectural student in 1972/73 – when I was using Bristol as the geographical focus for my final-year thesis. I came across initial plans showing the proposed new motorway routes through the city centre and remember feeling absolutely horrified by what I saw. It was only a week or so later that I realised that these plans had in fact been rejected – thanks to a passionate and vociferous fight by a local campaign group (which obviously included Jerry Hicks).
To many people at the time, the road scheme no doubt made sense – an opportunity to purchase substantial tracks of land at relatively low prices. It was, after all, largely run-down industrial properties and land associated with the docks plus the large sections covered by water (which, of course no one would ever want again!).
I’m afraid it was another case of a city being re-planned by highway engineers (my own home city of Birmingham was another case in point in the 1960s).
These days, I occasionally take sixth form groups of budding urban designers/planners/architects/geographers around the city and highlight how the city has evolved during the course of its history and, particularly, since the final demise of the docks in the early 1970s. Needless to say, as we wander along the vibrant harbourside and try to imagine what MIGHT have been, it seems almost unreal that people could have been so short-sighted.
Thank goodness for visionaries like Jerry Hicks.
Photo: Jerry Hicks on Bristol Harbourside (acknowledgement: The Bristol Post).

more supermarket stuff...

As some of you will be aware, I’ve previously expressed my strong concerns about the big-six supermarkets and the implications for our High Streets (frankly, it may already be too late). Yesterday, lovely friend Lal made reference to this wickedly amusing blog post on the subject following this week’s riots.
Back in May (to his credit?), Cameron commissioned a review into the future of the high street (led by Mary Porta, broadcaster and retail guru). It’s due to report back in October.
In the meantime, Labour has launched a stinging attack on Tesco – calling it an “almighty conglomerate” (no doubt, Asda and Sainsbury’s will support Labour’s stand – just because it’s anti-Tesco!).
Last weekend’s Guardian magazine contained a powerful (and demoralising) article by John Harris. Examples from Stokes Croft (inevitably!), Sheringham, Frome, and Dorridge are cited in demonstrating the power (and effectiveness) of the supermarkets in gaining planning approval – and how they are constantly able to “win” consents due to the lack of funds available for Local Authorities to fight planning appeals (when compared with the supermarkets’ treasure chests) and the supermarkets’ ready ability to agree Section 106 conditions to enable surgeries, libraries and the like to be funded (or land provided)…. patronising blood money to all intents and purposes. The all-too-familiar stories of how Councils end up capitulating (eventually) to pressure by the supermarket fraternity are worrying (as we well know with our recently-approved, massive Sainsbury’s in Bedminster).
Frighteningly, one planning consent doesn’t mean that the other supermarkets simply go away. Oh no. This situation, as outlined in Harris’s article, is pretty typical, I suspect (note: Eorica Mildmay is an anti-supermarket campaigner from Norfolk): “Back in Sheringham, I mention the campaign in Frome, but Mildmay is not in the mood to make me feel better. ‘These people will not take no for an answer,’ she says. Her face darkens. ‘We have it on good authority that since Tesco won, there's a possibility of Asda and Waitrose coming to Holt. There might be a Lidl in Cromer. People who read the trade magazines were watching us. The worry is that now we've got zapped, it'll become a free-for-all. And heaven help us."
Just a look at the following figures will surely convince you that “things just aren’t right” when it comes to supermarkets. Again, from Harris’s article:
“There are just over 8,000 supermarkets in the UK, and they account for 97% of total grocery sales. Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons take 76% of that market. Their share of non-food retailing currently stands at 14%, a figure up by 75% since 2003. In the two years up to November 2010, planning permission was granted to 480 stores run by the Big Four, which works out at one supermarket every other day. Since 2008, they have accounted for 87% of the retail floor space given planning permission. In May, Channel 4 News reported that by 2014 retail space operated by the Big Four was set to increase by 20%: as its report put it, ‘an expansion drive on a scale never seen before’….
“Once planning permission has been granted and another supermarket goes up, the inevitable happens: local traders suffer, and many go out of business – whether the supermarket is out of town or, in line with modern trends, closer to the centre. I have a stack of personal testimony that makes this point, but the words I usually reach for are those of Gerard Jones, the owner of a window blinds and dry-cleaning business in Ystrad Mynach, south Wales, who has watched as Tesco has done its worst on a site 400 yards from his town centre. ‘Tesco have muscled in and destroyed our community as we know it,’ he told a local planning hearing in late 2010. ‘Every venture we have tried in the town centre has been shanghaied by this organisation. Footfall has fallen and nobody can truthfully say Tesco has brought shoppers into the town centre. It has taken 100 years to build our community. It doesn't take long to throw that all away.’”
The Tory Government, who clearly sees any criticism of its retail policies as a threat to “healthy competition”, has responded with: "Town centre planning policy is not pro- or anti-supermarkets. Planning cannot seek to restrict lawful competition between retailers; in fact, planning policy is blind to whether the operator of a retail proposal is a supermarket or an independent."
Well, actually, I think there's a very strong case to say it SHOULD!

more big six supermarket stuff

It was depressing to see and read recent news of the “Bristol Riot” over a new Tesco Express store. According to reports in The Guardian: “Police were left guarding a severely-damaged Tesco Express store in Stokes Croft as local residents complained that heavy-handed tactics had provoked a night of violent rioting. It seems that police were responding to reports that petrol bombs were being assembled in a squat opposite the new store and were acting because of the “real threat posed to the local community”. I obviously don’t know if this was true or not and I don’t condone violence in any circumstances but, in some ways, I’m not at that surprised by the turn of events (note: local campaigners have made it perfectly clear that they are against any form of violence and I’ve read a categorical denial from the four squatters who were occupying the building at the time). People feel completely powerless against the financial might of the big-six supermarket.
The sad fact is that it’s REALLY easy for ANYONE to get a change of use for such stores (Tesco’s agents made the original change of use application without having to mention Tesco’s name). Indeed, under current planning legislation, you don’t even need planning permission these days to obtain any change of use to A1 shop classification (or post offices, funeral directors, dry cleaners, travel agents for that matter!) from any other “A class” establishment (eg. banks, building societies, betting offices, restaurants, cafes, public houses, wine bars, hot food takeaways etc). The only planning application that a supermarket might need to submit (depending on the store’s location) would be for a new shopfront and/or signage – by which time the deal is already done. In Bristol, Tesco alone already has SIX stores within half-a-mile of the city centre and FIFTEEN within a two-mile radius of the city. We’re about to have a Co-op Express (or whatever it calls itself) open here on North Street in Southville/Bedminster – approximately 70m from a Tesco Express. Apparently, the Co-op is promising us that it will have its own in-house bakery. Just brilliant – don’t they know we already have FOUR bakers within 350m? Absolutely ludicrous.
Of course, this is all set alongside the “support” for local communities from our beloved national politicians. Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, has stated:
“For far too long local people have had too little say over a planning system that has imposed bureaucratic decisions by distant officials in Whitehall and the town hall. We need to change things so there is more people-planning and less politician-planning, so there is more direct democracy and less bureaucracy in the system. These reforms will become the building blocks of the Big Society.”
Greg Clark, Minister for Planning and Decentralisation, clearly agrees:
“Most people love where they live, yet the planning system has given them almost no say on how their neighbourhood develops. The Coalition Government will revolutionise the planning process by taking power away from officials and putting it into the hands of those who know most about their neighbourhood - local people themselves. This will be a huge opportunity for communities to exercise genuine influence over what their home town should look like in the future. It will create the freedom and the incentives for those places that want to grow, to do so, and to reap the benefits.“
I’ve previously expressed my frustrations and fears about the big-six supermarkets taking over our local communities but, frankly, they’ll continue to do so unless some form of planning legislation is introduced to limit their numbers – but, even now, you feel it’s too late.
Be afraid. Be very afraid!

the super marketplace

Following Bristol CC’s recent appalling decision to approve Sainsbury’s proposals for a new megastore at Ashton Gate, I’ve been reflecting just how much the big supermarkets appear to be taking over local communities (or perhaps the world?!).
In Bristol, according to BBC research, “at least 21 new supermarkets from the 'big four' chains were given the go-ahead” in and around the city in the past two years.
Outrageous.
The relatively small market town of Thame in Oxfordshire, where we lived for over 20 years, is now facing the threat of another supermarket (Sainsbury’s) – it already has a Waitrose, Co-op and Sainsbury’s Express (plus ASDA and Tesco’s within 5 miles). A number of our friends have mounted a campaign to fight the proposals.
Yes, most of us use supermarkets for a proportion of our shopping but, worryingly in my opinion, they also have the financial muscle in both retail and town planning terms to transform communities for the worse (eg. they’re more than happy to throw big money at lawyers in the knowledge that Local Planning Authorities won’t be able to compete). It’s now all about market share – with one supermarket competing against another for prime (and not-so-prime) sites. It’s about profits for shareholders and the bigger you are, the more “successful” you will become.
To me, this just seems fundamentally wrong.
But the even more worrying thing is that people don’t seem to be “alive” to what is happening. It’s so easy for the big supermarkets to offer hard-pressed Local Authorities “town planning incentives”. Before we know it, supermarkets (both big+small) will become the ONLY source of food shopping for any of us.
I’m afraid today’s budget hasn’t done anything to help. According the BBC website:
“There will also be sweeping changes to the planning system - to make it more difficult for local people to block ‘sustainable development’” (note: it'll be very straightforward to tick such a sustainable box).
As a former architect, I am well aware of the frustrations of the town planning process but, even as the BBC’s Robert Peston acknowledged on tonight’s PM programme, some of the principal beneficiaries of this change will be… the supermarkets!

Unsurprisingly, a spokesman from Morrison's on tonight's Channel 4 News also welcomed the changes to the planning system and the 2% cut in Corporation Tax - acknowledging that it would "aid Company growth".

Oh good!