One of the best buildings of the 1950s/60s in Britain, and definitely one of my favourites too. Spence's drawings really show how much he was thinking in terms of light and atmosphere.

Best 'locally distinctive bus shelter' = the Isle of Lewis' concrete structures, not conventionally beautiful but practically designed to allow passengers always to find a spot out of the wind.

Perhaps they should have the original RMJM elevations intact! I was always astonished by the amount of waterstaining on the 'new' stone facades, which suggested poor materials or workmanship, or an issue with the water run-off detailing ('elevational plumbing' as the late John Partridge called it)

How much of this was a conversion - i.e., was the frame from the LRC building re-used and re-clad? Or was the hotel all new when it opened?

@c20society.bsky.social and here it is looking good in 1988, in that year's brochure for the Austin Maestro!

I will look forward to seeing that!

I can imagine an interesting volume of urban/social history organised around bus routes. Birmingham's 11A/11C route could be the basis of a good chapter. A colleague here a few years ago supervised an excellent dissertation which looked at Edinburgh through the prism of Lothian's service 35

brilliant title! Looking forward to this

Aged 9/10 (!) I wrote to the local councillor to say that the street name signs on our road were damaged. Prompt reply to say they'd be dealt with. Within weeks new ones appeared.

I'd certainly give them a try if you're over that way.

I'd try one of the BHF furniture shops

My copy of this issue of the AR came via a colleague who had various things that had once belonged to Percy Johnson-Marshall, one of the Coventry planners in the 1940s. Given that the cover says 'Johnson' in biro I do wonder if this issue once was his.

experience: the Barbican Arts Centre's men's with the very long trough urinals and foot-operated sinks.

I've long wanted to see the theatre: an important influence on the Festival Hall as well as post-war British theatres.

to my great delight, I've just discovered a version of that clock online: aj-computing.co.uk/network-sout...

I like this though the numbers don't seem to sit entirely happily in the circle - as you say, analogue would be good. (All that said, they could and maybe should just have reinstated the Network SouthEast clackety 24 hour clocks)

essay prompt: 'discuss the "wide variety of retail and cultural experiences" imagined by Ebenezer Howard'