Our article in The Conversation reveals substantial #play inequalities across #England Paul Brindley & I looked at England’s largest settlements & mapped patterns from +18,000 #playgrounds within them Serious #socialjustice issues for #children exist!! theconversation.com/we-mapped-18-0…

On social movements in the fight against unrestrained tourism growth and the long tail of its effects. theconversation.com/from-hotspot-t…

The eventification (i.e. event driven commodification) of public parks is not just an issue in London; it is affecting parks in Manchester, in Newcastle, in Bristol, in Liverpool, and in Sheffield.

Are you a #birdwatcher? Take part in a study on #BIRDWATCHING & #BIRDCONSERVATION Help understand birdwatchers & birdwatching better, use this opportunity for self-reflection about your own experience. Link/QR forms.office.com/e/wTCy8ghY9U Please RT BirdTrack BOU 👩🏻‍🏫👨🏿‍🏫🧕🏽👳🏽‍♂️ 🌈 BTO

*retweets*

And Cardiff ... theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/j…

My latest article, on the choice of design for the memorial landscape for the late Queen in The Conversation - theconversation.com/the-architectu…

First it was Brockwell Live, now it's Blackweir Live. Festivals are great. Councils are desperately short of money. I get it. But parks are precious and I think its time for stronger legal protection from over-exploitation. walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-new…

Meanwhile, in other park fence news ... (thanks to my friend Ru for sending me this, presuming picture is faked/AI ? but I suppose it makes the point )

Park Live(s) in '25 ... First it was Brockwell Live, then Blackweir Live, and - later this month - Blackheath Live. blackheathlive.com

As we gear up for the Oasis reunion, I have been trying to figure out how much they are paying Manchester City Council to use Heaton Park. The best guess from council budgets is £375,000 - which seems very low for an event hosting 80,000 people every night for 5 nights (<£1 pp).

The bronze statue of Fanny Wilkinson has been installed in a garden she laid out. bbc.in/45NeGet

Just been talking to Jason Mohammad on BBC Radio Wales about staging music events in public spaces. An honour to be squeezed in between great songs by LaRoux and Roxette 😆 bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/li…

The last event of our summer season! Come and celebrate with us tomorrow 12 July. 6 amazing bands, afternoon and eve! Humanities at Westminster University of Westminster The Fitzrovia News FitzWest

This is great - and really interesting that fencing off parks for events is now in the public consciousness as something that happens everywhere.

#Wimbledon is now the epicentre of lawn tennis in London, but in 1889 the highest concentration of public courts was in #FinsburyPark. When the Metropolitan Board of Works was dismantled that year, its 34 parks contained 36 grass tennis courts, 22 of which were in Finsbury Park.

A bit of news from me; I’ve been awarded a The Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship to work on a project entitled ‘Festivals and resistance: large-scale music events in London’s parks 1967-2027’. It's an 18month project that will provide a historical basis for my work on park events.

Andrew Smith 👏 Wishing you well .. ↘️ Adding an excerpt from today’s TfL email re: upcoming week-end travel .