I'll take any excuse to repost Chris Killip. This is what the area looked like a year later.
10.03.2026 08:43
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I'll take any excuse to repost Chris Killip. This is what the area looked like a year later.
Terraced housing, Wallsend, Tyneside, mid-1970s, photo by Chris Killip (1946-2020).
Very sorry to hear this. She’s beautiful!
This is all worth a read, but I especially liked this extra example:
“in Youngstown, during the summer months from 2016 to 2018, violent crime fell at twice the rate on streets surrounding vacant lots transformed into gardens and play spaces by community residents“
Doorstep play space matters!
Two key conclusions:
1) “allocation is shaped not by the intensity of need, but by constituency boundaries and political calculations”
2) reflecting political pressure, neighbourhoods facing significant challenges “must undertake deep, inclusive, community engagement work in less than a year”
Some thoughts on what the Gorton and Denton byelection means for pursuing climate action in the contemporary UK political landscape. www.just.ac.uk/news/2026/03...
It's not difficult to see many of these are the same places funded by area-based initiatives 20, 30, 50 years ago. I've been involved a bit in Jarrow; it's 100 years since the Jarrow March. These are persistent, structural challenges. As Doreen Massey might have said "in what sense a local problem"?
These look like some really important reflections on Pride in Place funding - will be reading carefully later (link to full article in thread)
The Colonel Linskill today is a mock tudor reminder of North Shields' endless boozing past, operating three quarters of a century and celebrating one of the town's most esteemed sons.
The front cover of The Routledge Handbook of Cultural Geographies, edited by Peter Merriman, Anna Secor and Shanti Sumartojo
Great to see this new Handbook of Cultural Geographies out, with chapters by Newcastle Geography’s @peterhopkins.bsky.social on Intersection, @anoop79.bsky.social &
Daniel Barwick on Black Lives, @alisonstenning.bsky.social on Playing, and @bagelwoman.bsky.social (& Noam Leshem) on Witness.
A piece of Prefab77’s Fish Quay mural on the big screen in North Shields’ town centre
Prefab77’s Fish Quay mural “Net Worth” promoting North Shields’ #townofculture campaign -
Specifically:
"Offline infrastructure: safe outdoor and play space; affordable sport, arts and enrichment; rebuilt youth services and supervised spaces; child friendly neighbourhood design (traffic reduction, safe routes); school policies that protect play and social development."
I’m still very undecided about the wisdom of an under 16s social media ban, but I do like the idea of “a Play and Recreation Levy on social media companies, to fund investment in alternative spaces for children and young people, both offline and online”.
“Urban Flora of Newcastle and North Tyneside” available here:
commonbynature.com/urban-flora-...
Country Diary focuses in on the Lower Ouseburn with @commonbynature.bsky.social
“a history of the city written in plants”
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Another piece of blue and white pottery, on a table.
Just after I posted, I found another piece, on the other side of my allotment.
A small piece of blue and white pottery, that I dug up in my allotment while planting rhubarb.
As a child playing in gardens, our, those of friends and family, I’d always get so excited when we found “treasure” in the form of small bits of colourful pottery. Fifty-ish years later i still enjoy it, and my enjoyment today is layered with memories of that childhood excitement.
Sound on 🔊
Bird life in the hedges and trees in a small bunch of allotments in North Shields
Making all cities (and towns) child-friendly - and play-friendly - supports so many Green priorities (social and environmental justice, community and connection, climate mitigation, etc.), and is evidenced by Green councillors doing amazing work with pro-play policies.
Very odd 🤷🏻♀️
Also just before 8.30am so very likely the kid was on his way to school.
Sounds like he may actually have been walking his bike across a crossing. Or maybe The Chron/the police are just confused.
(My daughter did suggest we dig the tree up and take it with us, but not sure that’s fair on anyone, least of all the tree)
We planted this in October 2014, and each year the blossom makes my heart soar. We have a much smaller front garden at the new house, but I’m researching flowering cherries I can grow in a pot.
Our flowering cherry starting to think about blossoming (pic from yesterday)
Our flowering cherry in full blossom on April 1st 2025.
One silver lining to my house move being delayed (by a last-minute and
unexpected elongation of the chain) is that I’ll get to see my beautiful flowering cherry blossom one more time.
A lot of frogspawn in an allotment pond
A lot of frogspawn in an allotment pond
Frogspawn!
I'm starting some tentative research around this, so trying to trace bits of info. I'll probably pull together a blog post or similar, before making plans for more systematic work.
Even though you can't actually bet on this, the Online Betting Guide is tracking odds on winners of the UK Town of Culture competition, with Huddersfield frontrunners, and my home town - North Shields - coming in joint third.
www.olbg.com/news/uk-town...
That would be great - thank you! You should be able to easily find me Newcastle email address, but let me know if now. Thanks!
Just seen this, after our parallel conversation!
