Fré Cohen (1903-43) was a Jewish socialist graphic designer. Her design for the 1929 municipal calendar secured a post in the Amsterdam Municipal Printing Office. She also designed the banner of the Association of Social Democratic Women's Clubs. She took her own life when captured by the Nazis.

This young man grew up in this house in Butendorp, Amsterdam, where his father ran the greengrocers.

A plaque above the entrance to the municipal kindergarten, Ruysdaelkade 215, Amsterdam; designed by the Public Works Department, 1915. The figures are labelled 'Small, small toddler on the left and 'What are you doing in my garden?' on the right.

I'm in Amsterdam - a couple of pics of Amsterdam School doorways in Hendrik Petrus Berlage’s Plan Zuid worker's housing scheme of the 1920s.

'De Wolkenkrabber' (the Skyscraper), Victorieplein, Amsterdam: a functionalist twelve-storey residential block designed by Jan Frederik Staal for middle-class living featuring mod cons such as waste chutes, lift, central heating and hot water; completed 1932. Decorated for the recent Pride Parade.

'Nowadays the foreigners admire the new Amsterdam working-class neighbourhoods. The Social Democrats have achieved this. Vote 25 May.' Election poster for Floor Wibaut (1859–1936), the first social-democratic alderman of Amsterdam.

'Tear Down the Slums'; vote Miranda, List 3 (Social Democratic Workers Party). Jewish politician and social reformer Samuel Rodrigues ('Monne') de Miranda, alderman from 1919 to 1939, was murdered by the Nazis in 1942.

Housing and flats, Maasstraat, Amsterdam, designed by Lau Peters in 1927 in Amsterdam School style; part of the Rivierenburt area built by private contractors supervised by a municipal aesthetics commission. Part of the block at least belongs to the Stadgenoot housing corporation.

2/ The Plan was devised by by CH James, Rowland S Pierce (Consultants) and City Engineer HC Rowlett. The redesign of the Bonds department store (architect J Owen Bond, 1952) - now John Lewis - was one of its most striking features.

1/ With the former Debenhams building (designed by Wilfred Boning Scott, 1956) saved for the time being, it's interesting to view how the area (devastated in a 1942 bombing raid) was reimagined in the 1945 City of Norwich Plan; the building is seen right and left centre in images below.

Bertha Roake was a rare married and female architect in the London County Council in the late 1940s. These are some of the drawings that she did for the Council's flagship Woodberry Down scheme at that time.

3/ My thanks to her daughter Dinah Roake for showing me these early drawings which illustrate the modernist spirit and aspiration of the time and Bertha's own vision and technical expertise. Bertha died aged 97 in 2022.

2/ The maisonette designs were part of a larger imagined redevelopment of Somers Town. Note the inclusion of the Unity Theatre (as envisaged by her future husband John Roake), community centre and laundry facilities.

1/ Bertha Roake (née Press) graduated from the North London Polytechnic and worked for the Architect's Department of the London County Council from the late 1940s. Her diploma project (an imagined redevelopment of Somers Town) featured these marvellous drawings - note their detail and texture.

Building the Red Road Flats, Glasgow. (By the way, I know we're all supposed to admire these old-time photos of when 'men were men' and we didn't have all this 'elf and safety' but I'm just utterly shocked by past working conditions and the risks endured.)

2/ ... and there's Southend.

1/ Essex creeks, shores and skies along the England Coast Path near Rochford ...

Heysmoor Heights, Liverpool; built by Liverpool City Council in 1966; sold off in the early 2000s and 'transformed into a chic, modern apartment complex' - with Grenfell-style ACM cladding. Shown in 1987 Tower Block UK/Miles Glendinning) and 2026 with new safe cladding.

2/ Read what happened next (and the larger history of Bedford's postwar housing and planning) in my latest blog post. municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2026/06/23/b...

1/ In 2014, Ashburnham Court in Bedford - - designed by Max Lock for Bedford Borough Council, completed in 1955 - was @c20society.bsky.social's Building of the Month. c20society.org.uk/building-of-...

O brave new world ...

The Walks, Goldington, Bedford: designed by Max Lock for Bedford Borough Council - part of the innovative reimagining of the town in his town planning report 'Bedford by the River' (1952). Read more below ... municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2026/06/23/b...

Ashburnham Court, Bedford (1955), architect Max Lock - as imagined, built and recently renovated. A ‘well-conceived local authority high-density housing scheme [with a] pleasantly human scale’ according to JM Richards in the Architects' Journal. municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2026/06/23/b...

🚨 Brand new post: The Borough of Bedford with architect/planner Max Lock built some of the most innovative and attractive post-war housing in the country ... municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2026/06/23/b...

Sad news from Bedford. Coincidentally, the town is the subject of this week's blogpost which examines its interwar council housing history - a clash with Minister of Health and Housing Christopher Addison and a record of slow progress thereafer: municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2026/06/16/b...

Bloomfield Green, Sefton Park, Liverpool - flats for old people designed by City Architect Ronald Bradbury; winner of a Class I Civic Trust award in 1960 . Named after Edward Bloomfield, architect and former Deputy Director of Housing.

From the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, another reminder of the extraordinary reach of the 1951 Festival of Britain: 'Interior at Paddington' by Lucian Freud, commissioned as part of the Arts Council's '60 Paintings for '51' exhibition - Freud’s first large-scale painting.

2/ Norwich City Council built over 7603 homes between the wars. Some 5000 homes were destroyed during the Second World War and the city began to plan again ... municipaldreams.substack.com/p/council-ho...

1/ In Norwich, City Architect David Percival aimed 'not only to reflect the regional architectural tradition in housing schemes but to give individual character to each site' - a fine tradition upheld in the award-winning Goldsmith Street Scheme in 2019. municipaldreams.substack.com/p/norwich-co...

I'm staying just opposite here - Grade I-listed now.