My London Festival Of Architecture Lecture
The ruins of the London Fruit & Wool Exchange, Spitalfields, 2016
As part of London Festival of Architecture, I am participating in an event hosted by SAVE Britain’s Heritage on Wednesday 11th June at 6pm at 77 Cowcross St, EC1M 6EJ, entitled Beyond Carbon: How Embodied Memory Grounds Us In Place. I shall be speaking in response to Simon Henley of architects Henley Halebrown exploring the concept of embodied memory in the loss and reuse of buildings.
Publishing daily posts over the past sixteen years, amounting to over 5000 stories, I have written a vast archive of memory including more than eight hundred oral histories of Spitalfields and the East End. Naturally this has led to a recognition of the value and significance of buildings as receptacles of memory. In turn, this has given rise to the many heritage campaigns which you have read about in these pages over the years. I shall be reflecting upon some of these stories in my lecture.
The former Whitechapel Bell Foundry, 2025
I love the title! I agree wholeheartedly. I can’t be there, but you will be brilliant!
“Everything is held together with stories. That is all that is holding us together. Stories
and compassion.” — Barry Lopez
Thanks for everything you are doing — and the optimism you provide every day.
It’s fascinating that the familiar old buildings of London hold many a tale to be told & who better to tell them Gentle Author?
That’s ..right up your street! as they say.
Many thanks for your positive efforts in recognising these valuable histories contained therein.