In 2020, writer Owen Hatherley published two books about London. One, Red Metropolis was a polemical history of municipal socialism in Britain's capital. The other, was an alternative guide to London's boroughs featuring 33 activists, historians, architects and politicians exploring stories and neighbourhoods from across each of the city's 33 boroughs.
The alternative guide attempts to unpick the social and political dimensions of London's built fabric while taking the reader on an adventurous journey encompassing everything from Brutalist Polish community centres to suburban garden cities, from pioneering modernist estates to ornate Victorian greenhouses.
In this special event, Owen is joined by Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty, who wrote the alternative guide's chapter on the London borough of Haringey, and graphic designer Rosa Nussbaum to discuss contemporary London following the mayoral election, property development in Haringey and beyond, and wider themes of both books.
The Alternative Guide to the London Boroughs is available from the Open City online shop. The event will be introduced by Phineas Harper, architecture writer and director of Open City who commissioned the Alternative Guide to the London Boroughs and compered by Sam Swann from The World Transformed.
Tickets
Tickets are free and can be booked through The World Transformed’s website.
Speakers
Owen Hatherley
Owen Hatherley is the culture editor of Tribune and the author of several books, most recently Red Metropolis – Socialism and the Government of London, published by Repeater Books. Since 2015 he has been working on a gazetteer, Modernist Buildings in Britain, to be published by Penguin Books in 2021.
Aditya Chakrabortty
Aditya Chakrabortty is senior economics commentator for the Guardian, where he writes a regular column. In December 2017, he won the British Journalism Award for Comment Journalist of the year. His work has also won a Social Policy Association award, a Harold Wincott prize for Business Journalism and he was also a finalist for an Orwell Prize for journalism in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. He is a regular broadcaster on radio and television, appearing on Newsnight and Question Time, and tweets @chakrabortty. Aditya is now working on his first book, to be published in 2021 by Penguin / Allen Lane.
Rosa Nussbaum
Rosa Nussbaum is founder of Studio Christopher Victor, a London based graphic design practice. With particular experience in book design and production, the studio works closely with clients to develop thoughtful and articulate responses to design briefs. Clients include the Architecture Foundation, Circa Press, Drawing Matter, Laurence King Publishing, Lund Humphries, The MIT Press, Open City, Oslo Architecture Triennale, Quart Verlag and Thames & Hudson.