Cultural Geography Blog

This is part of my summer reading list. As I was reading the first chapter, I thought I might make a Spotify playlist, but it turns out that has already been done. More on this book to come as I get to it... 🎧Go on a musical journey through the industrial cities of British pop with @karlwhitney 's #HitFactories Spotify playlist, featuring New Order, Bowie, Portishead & Teenage Fanclub: https://t.co/WC97YFQ91M 📖HIT FACTORIES is out tomorrow in hardback and ebook pic.twitter.com/htKruOfW5O — W&N (@wnbooks) June 26, 2019

I spent ten minutes today making a video for the coming weekend's open / celebration morning. This will involve lots of visitors to the Department, and we are going to set up lots of displays as well as putting out Year 7 and 8 projects and sharing some new resources we've had since last year. The video was made using Flex Clip, which is a very easy to use video making tool. It's also FREE of charge. A timeline along the bottom shows the scenes as they build up, and the film can be previewed. Make an account and the film is saved automatically as you work on it. Add videos or images from either your own library or a large library of stock scenes and videos. Music can also be added - there are some good choices of music to use - all free of charge as well. Export the video to different sizes right up to 1080p. I've then uploaded the video to VIMEO so that the quality is kept intact. Some features of the tool that I like. FlexClip is an all-in-one web tool...

There are many books already on the groaning shelves of the GeoLibrary about mountains: from the book that propelled Robert MacFarlane into the public eye: 'Mountains of the Mind', to Joe Simpson's daring adventures on, and below Siula Grande in Peru. There are the Appalachians, as walked by Bill Bryson, and the peaks conquered by Mark Beaumont as he cycled the Americas. These books have been joined by a new one, which is set purely within the confines of England and Wales. It has been written by James Forrest, who is a fellow Ordnance Survey GetOutside Champion , and describes a challenge that James set himself to conquer all 446 mountains in England and Wales. They are known as the Nuttalls, and are defined as 'peaks above 2000 feet (609.6m) in height'. James set himself a time challenge as well: six months to reach the summits of each of the peaks, and during one of the wettest periods in recent years this was not going to be easy. He had to fit the t...

Reading about the new Francis Pryor book on the Fens. I'm very much looking forward to reading this, and factoring it into some writing on the Fenland landscapes. As Francis writes: In the 20th century the historic medieval cores of towns like Kings Lynn, Wisbech and Spalding were severely damaged by development and insensitive road-building. The well thought-out railway network in the Fens was destroyed by Dr Beeching’s ‘rationalisation’ of the 1960s. Consequently many smaller market towns today boast empty high streets, poorly-attended markets and numerous charity shops. We are also beginning to appreciate the extent of irreversible change that the wholesale drainage of the 1850s and 1970s has caused. And with sea level rise a seemingly inexorable process… Need I say more? The floor of my study is about two metres above sea level; an average high tide would wet our bed, upstairs. And yet, people are still regularly granted planning permission by local authorities to build bun...

We have been using the warming stripes for some time in our department, and I also have a natty warming stripes tie. I shall be wearing it on Friday when we Show our Stripes It's time to #ShowYourStripes by visiting: https://t.co/xZmp3uP2OQ ! We have made warming stripes graphics available for virtually every country, and including US states and UK regions. These are free to use however you like! These are my #warmingstripes : England (1884-2018). pic.twitter.com/v5C6GD3koL — Ed Hawkins (@ed_hawkins) June 17, 2019 Ed Hawkins is behind the stripes. He has created a new website where you can download stripes for your own home region. We will all be wearing the Stripes on the 21st of June. Posters are up in the Geography Classroom. Stickers are printed for everyone to wear. Annual average temperatures for England from 1884-2018 using data from UK Met Office. Graphics and lead scientist: Ed Hawkins , National Centre for Atmospheric Science, University of Reading. Dat...

This is an excellent resource for those looking at resources and ideas on the intersection between cities and music. You can follow the blog at Musical Urbanism , or the TWITTER FEED here. The creator of the blog is Leonard Nevarez  and he is also well worth following. For example, this post gives me a lot of joy... looking for recommendations of books/interviews with Rush that emphasize their background and early years in suburban Toronto pic.twitter.com/lWtiTAvPoI — Musical Urbanism (@MusicalUrbanism) June 14, 2019

This film was made in 2018 for the Survey of London by Nurull Islam and Rehan Jamil.  It documents the changing South Asian restaurant trade in Whitechapel, and includes the restaurant located in this building. It's part of the Survey of London website. It documents the change in the area of Brick Lane from the Bengali restaurant trade to 'hipsters' who moved in, buying up the old premises. This film is based on a restaurant on Mark Street.   It's a lovely piece of work. It's an excellent little film, useful for GCSE - UK in 21st Century - food and culture, or perhaps Changing Places as well.