Cultural Geography Blog

The Prince Charles Cinema is an important institution in London's cultural life. Sitting just off Leicester Square it is a very popular independent cinema which has far more interesting programming than the other usual cinema chains. A 38 degrees petition has been started to save it , and at the time of posting it is approaching 150 000 signatures. Details here from the PCC themselves. The Prince Charles Cinema is not only a popular and successful local independent business with a large, loyal community of fans, but culturally important as perhaps the UK’s most famous cinema. We are renowned throughout the industry for our programme of over 850 films a year, spanning the history of cinema, across just two screens.We are one of the last remaining independent cinemas in central London, receiving no public funding and attracting over 250,000 customers a year at a time when the industry is struggling. As a significant local landmark, we act as an anchor institution for the Leicester S...

There's a lot of geography in this news item from the BBC News on the controversies surrounding beach cabanas on Australian beaches. Cabanas are small gazebo like structures, which offer some shade from the strong sun without blocking out any breeze, and allow people to stay on the beach for longer, and more safely, during the Australian summer. However, the number of these structures is causing some problems and there are contrasting views on them. They are also known as beach tents. The beach is of tremendous cultural significance to Australians, so this is being taken seriously. There is the notion of turning a public space into a series of private enclaves, preventing easy access and egress to the sea, and potentially preventing lifeguards from operating effectively. The Prime Minister is against them. This ABC Australia piece gives a local perspective, and also has a lovely drone shot of a beach covered with cabanas, along with this image from Grace Nakamura. Image: Grace Na...

  A tip-off via BlueSky. Tree.FM will play the sound of a random forest. Good for escaping or relaxing. Click to be taken to another forest if you fancy a change. People around the world recorded the sounds of their forests, so you can escape into nature, and unwind wherever you are. Take a breath and soak in the forest sounds as they breathe with life and beauty! And while you are here, why not help to grow what keeps us alive? Climate change and governments are destroying our forests. Let’s leave some trees for our grandchildren to climb and make the steps to restore our planet.

Thanks so much for coming along to read this blog, which I started back in 2007, when I was teaching the Cultural Geography unit of the groundbreaking and much missed OCR Pilot GCSE Geography. This blog has now reached a rather nice milestone. It's taken a while.

It's 35 years since I started listening to Bob... and he's a powerhouse live...

Thanks to Rafael De Miguel González , President of EuroGeo for the tipoff to a newish AI tool to explore how 'ready' a particular area is for becoming a 15 minute city.  He recently met the architect of the idea: Carlos Moreño. 15 min city AI is a nice free AI tool. It explores a range of amenities including transportation connections, healthcare and entertainment, and how accessible these are from each part of the area within 15 minutes travel time.  It would perhaps be a good basis for starting to look at '15 minute cities' and students could then carry out local fieldwork to 'ground truth' the accuracy of the tool. Ely scores 75% , which is quite a good score.  You can see its rating below and the reasons why it scored as it did. How well does your local place score? 

Nosferatu was my first film seen at the cinema this year: the latest from Robert Eggers. I've seeen all his previous films, and he set the tone for his output with 'The Lighthouse'. Nosferatu was an atmospheric retelling of the Dracula story, particularly the unofficial silent film made in 1922. There are a few maps, including one of Transylvania , which is never named, but shown.  The lighting, costumes etc are excellent at providing the atmosphere, particularly Count Orlok. The film particularly comes to life when Willem Dafoe arrives, as an alchemist.  There is also an excellent scene on the ship carrying Orlok to his new home, and crashing into the dock with thousands of live rats carrying the plague. The film is described as being "fuelled by folklore". Willem Dafoe is interviewed here. The Independent gave it five stars. Source:  https://jacobin.com/2024/12/nosferatu-robert-eggers-film-review The trailer is here:

A Christmas Day  TV highlight was the first new Wallace and Gromit film for many years. At their fastest rate, the 200-person production team for "Vengeance Most Fowl" produced two minutes of film per week. Vengeance most Fowl brought back Feathers McGraw, and managed to fit in a great many film references and nods to other programs and earlier scenarios. It was a wonderful achievement. There were some comments on AI as well. Norbot is described as an AI villain. "I love the fact that we have technology.  We have to just sometimes ask: is it always enhancing our lives and our relationships, or is it somehow diminishing them in some way?" Nick Park

  2025 is a time to take stock. We are a quarter of the way through the century, and the last few years have been a bit of a roller coaster ride for the planet, and not in a good way. Whatever you are up to, don't forget to sign up to my new Substack, which is now available for you to read. For years, this blog had an option to subscribe using Feedburner. This sent an email digest of posts to anyone who subscribed. Blogger removed that option, and there hasn't been anything to replace it, so I'm hoping that my new Substack will fill that gap. I've started my new Substack account, and you can visit it now. Wednesday will be the day that I publish each new weekly update. This will include a number of features: blog digest update on projects some nice images And other elements as the year progresses...