Robert Proctor
@rproctor.bsky.social
Architectural historian of the twentieth century.
Pinned
Robert Proctor
@rproctor.bsky.social
· May 30
Percy Thomas | UWP
www.uwp.co.uk
My book is finally published! Percy Thomas: Modern Architecture as a National Service. www.uwp.co.uk/book/percy-t...
Just submitted my first ever planning objection to mark my shift into the meddling curmudgeon phase of life.
November 28, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Just submitted my first ever planning objection to mark my shift into the meddling curmudgeon phase of life.
PSA: Miles Glendinning has started posting about tower blocks!
This was Sui Wo Court (Sha Tin Area 42A HOS) back in April 2024 - and still today!
And this is what it should be like......
And this is what it should be like......
November 27, 2025 at 8:54 AM
PSA: Miles Glendinning has started posting about tower blocks!
😮 Fully intact 1959 Case Study house for sale.
November 25, 2025 at 3:05 PM
😮 Fully intact 1959 Case Study house for sale.
That's my weekend sorted. And the next one.
November 21, 2025 at 9:35 AM
That's my weekend sorted. And the next one.
Laughing grimly at the Routledge book getting 1* reviews on Amazon purely because the pages fall out when you read it.
November 21, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Laughing grimly at the Routledge book getting 1* reviews on Amazon purely because the pages fall out when you read it.
Looking forward to this.
'Sidney Colwyn Foulkes: The Architecture of a Reluctant Modernist' by Adam Voelcker is out now!
This is the first study of the work of architect Sidney Colwyn Foulkes (1884–1971), one of Britain’s most significant regional architects.
📚 www.uwp.co.uk/book/sidney-...
This is the first study of the work of architect Sidney Colwyn Foulkes (1884–1971), one of Britain’s most significant regional architects.
📚 www.uwp.co.uk/book/sidney-...
November 20, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Looking forward to this.
Stumbled on the best reddit thread in architectural history.
November 19, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Stumbled on the best reddit thread in architectural history.
Free online seminar alert - 'Down Under Webinar: Religion and Architecture in Australia' (via KADOC/KU Leuven), 8 Dec, 8am UK time. Registration link - kadoc.kuleuven.be/english/3_re...
November 19, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Free online seminar alert - 'Down Under Webinar: Religion and Architecture in Australia' (via KADOC/KU Leuven), 8 Dec, 8am UK time. Registration link - kadoc.kuleuven.be/english/3_re...
Chequerboards (flint, ashlar, brick), Winchester.
November 14, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Chequerboards (flint, ashlar, brick), Winchester.
Reposted by Robert Proctor
Georgian Bath? How about Brutalist Bath!
Sign the petition to save the fabulous little Church of the Good Shepherd in Batheaston (1966-67) from demolition, and allow the local community to buy it instead.
✍🏼 c.org/PdMGmFFhqZ
Sign the petition to save the fabulous little Church of the Good Shepherd in Batheaston (1966-67) from demolition, and allow the local community to buy it instead.
✍🏼 c.org/PdMGmFFhqZ
November 12, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Georgian Bath? How about Brutalist Bath!
Sign the petition to save the fabulous little Church of the Good Shepherd in Batheaston (1966-67) from demolition, and allow the local community to buy it instead.
✍🏼 c.org/PdMGmFFhqZ
Sign the petition to save the fabulous little Church of the Good Shepherd in Batheaston (1966-67) from demolition, and allow the local community to buy it instead.
✍🏼 c.org/PdMGmFFhqZ
Lutyens's Campion Hall, Oxford. Tinkling bell capitals similar to those at New Delhi, and a busy proliferation of horizontal lines.
November 7, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Lutyens's Campion Hall, Oxford. Tinkling bell capitals similar to those at New Delhi, and a busy proliferation of horizontal lines.
Delighted that the second review of my book on Percy Thomas is in Welsh, a comprehensive account over 3 pages by conservation architect Alwyn Harding Jones in 'Barn'. barn.cymru/en_gb/adeila...
Adeiladu cenedl: gwaddol Percy Thomas – Barn
barn.cymru
November 6, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Delighted that the second review of my book on Percy Thomas is in Welsh, a comprehensive account over 3 pages by conservation architect Alwyn Harding Jones in 'Barn'. barn.cymru/en_gb/adeila...
Joyfully distracted at work by finding a black redstart on my building for the second time in a fortnight.
November 4, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Joyfully distracted at work by finding a black redstart on my building for the second time in a fortnight.
Preparing a session on essay writing, testing things on AI to show students what it can't do, and wow, it is still as bad as it was a couple of years ago, isn't it? It reads like GCSE essays.
October 31, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Preparing a session on essay writing, testing things on AI to show students what it can't do, and wow, it is still as bad as it was a couple of years ago, isn't it? It reads like GCSE essays.
Reading about how Mies van der Rohe re-enrolled all Bauhaus students in 1930 so he could expel those with communist allegiances, and turned the student residence building into classrooms so they couldn't live together and coordinate on site. Lovely chap.
October 30, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reading about how Mies van der Rohe re-enrolled all Bauhaus students in 1930 so he could expel those with communist allegiances, and turned the student residence building into classrooms so they couldn't live together and coordinate on site. Lovely chap.
Finishing touches under way for my talk on Percy Thomas's interwar modern classicism at the Lutyens Trust conference on 1 November. #20s30s www.lutyenstrust.org.uk/portfolio-it...
October 17, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Finishing touches under way for my talk on Percy Thomas's interwar modern classicism at the Lutyens Trust conference on 1 November. #20s30s www.lutyenstrust.org.uk/portfolio-it...
This is very good, can they also reinstate mine, since they lost it in a cyber attack?
Happy Birthday to Oscar Wilde, whose British Library reader pass is being reinstated today.
British Library to reinstate Oscar Wilde’s reader card 130 years after it was revoked
Exclusive: Pass to be presented to playwright’s grandson after original cancelled over conviction for gross indecency
www.theguardian.com
October 16, 2025 at 11:01 AM
This is very good, can they also reinstate mine, since they lost it in a cyber attack?
I keep thinking there should be a biography of the prominent C20 classical architect everyone always ignores, Sir Edwin Cooper, but there's no way I'm going to write it myself. Anyone want to do it for a PhD, get in touch?
October 11, 2025 at 8:20 AM
I keep thinking there should be a biography of the prominent C20 classical architect everyone always ignores, Sir Edwin Cooper, but there's no way I'm going to write it myself. Anyone want to do it for a PhD, get in touch?
It's very difficult to get students to appreciate this when teaching modern architecture, but it is surely absolutely fundamental to understanding the appeal of modernism.
Reading this by m'learned colleague, and the nostalgia for 50s Britain is a crock. Much of the country was an exhausted dump. The Potteries were described as 'seven miles of concentrated ugliness and dirt'. Stoke was full of 'old clay working, old coal dumps, canal and industrial waste'. (1/2)
October 10, 2025 at 5:06 PM
It's very difficult to get students to appreciate this when teaching modern architecture, but it is surely absolutely fundamental to understanding the appeal of modernism.
Reposted by Robert Proctor
I’ve lots of photos to sort from today but here are a few to be going on with.
Broadmead Baptist Church, Bristol
(Ronald H Sims, 1968)
Access arranged by @themodernist.bsky.social
Broadmead Baptist Church, Bristol
(Ronald H Sims, 1968)
Access arranged by @themodernist.bsky.social
October 9, 2025 at 2:02 PM
I’ve lots of photos to sort from today but here are a few to be going on with.
Broadmead Baptist Church, Bristol
(Ronald H Sims, 1968)
Access arranged by @themodernist.bsky.social
Broadmead Baptist Church, Bristol
(Ronald H Sims, 1968)
Access arranged by @themodernist.bsky.social
I discovered Unzoomed and got Kyoto in one.
Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?
October 8, 2025 at 5:47 PM
I discovered Unzoomed and got Kyoto in one.
Le Corbusier: let us return to the platonic volumes, cubes, cylinders, what have you
Asplund: [builds Stockholm Public Library]
Le Corbusier: not like that
Asplund: [builds Stockholm Public Library]
Le Corbusier: not like that
October 8, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Le Corbusier: let us return to the platonic volumes, cubes, cylinders, what have you
Asplund: [builds Stockholm Public Library]
Le Corbusier: not like that
Asplund: [builds Stockholm Public Library]
Le Corbusier: not like that
Amazing facts. It's almost as if people like education for reasons other than cash. Apparently this is bad?
October 8, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Amazing facts. It's almost as if people like education for reasons other than cash. Apparently this is bad?
Bath architecture + October sunshine = 💥
October 6, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Bath architecture + October sunshine = 💥
Recommend.
We’ve added another tour of Broadmead Baptist Church. The last one sold out rapidly so be quick if you’d like to see inside this recently listed church above the shops.
the-modernist.org/products/bru...
the-modernist.org/products/bru...
Brutal Bristol : Broadmead Baptist Church Visit 11.30am 9/10/25
A visit to Broadmead Baptist Church
the-modernist.org
October 4, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Recommend.