Barbara Windsor and Murray Melvin talk about Sparrows Can't Sing

Joan Littlewood was a renowned theatre director but made only one feature film. Sparrows Can’t Sing was released in 1962.

Here two of the film's stars, Barbara Windsor and Murray Melvin, talk about the experience of making it.

Among the subjects they touch on are working with Littlewood, the Kray twins, Stephen Lewis (Blakey from On the Buses, who wrote the play on which the film was based) and Queenie Watts.

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MediaMasters has a cracking interview on Labour and political communication with Gordon Brown's former spin doctor Damian McBride.

"Recess is a lot more than just a free break for kids to play after lunch period. That free, unstructured play time allows kids to exercise and helps them focus better when they are in class. Now a school in Texas says it took a risk by giving students four recess periods a day, but the risk has paid off beautifully." Elizabeth Licata brings news from Fort Worth.

Lion & Unicorn on cautious welcomes.

"It’s time we authors were paid, not in promises of better sales and high profiles, but in money. Yes, actual cash. Is that too much to ask?" Guy Walters complains that literary festivals expect writers to work for nothing.

Andrew Hickey pays tribute to the great Roy Wood and in particular his LP Boulders, which was recorded earlier but released in 1973.

The names proposed for Crossrail's stations are all wrong, argues John Elledge.

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"When he became leader of the Opposition, Corbyn was an unknown, even to his own side. Really, he was not of the Labour Party at all. He’s hardly followed the Labour whip, he disagreed with large amounts of what the party did when last in government, and he’s spent most of his time surrounded by a small coterie of like-minded outsiders." Jay Elwes on the takeover of Labour by a strange tribe.

Gordon Lishman writes writes about an economics motion the Social Liberal Forum will be submitting to the Liberal Democrat Conference.

You will find a good podcast about Labour's troubles on Political Betting.

"It almost seems as if the Chancellor doesn’t feel that improving house prices is possible. His range of policies set out in the Budget and Spending Review this year all point to him focussing on using public funds to ‘help’ people buy homes rather than improving market conditions. And, unsurprisingly, the problem is most acute in London." Joe Sarling explains how public funds are inflating the bubble in the capital's property prices.

Jim Holt reviews a new book on Sir Thomas Browne.

Footprints of London visits Churchill’s secret wartime facility at the former Down Street Underground station,

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20’s Plenty: The Move to Safer Speeds in the UK

A video by Streetfilms:

For those watching in the United States, this film is like a road map to how to get public support and your community energized around lower speed limits. 

New York City may have recently set it's city speed limits at 25 mph, but to keep driving down serious injuries and fatalities, we should be following the example set by the UK.

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There is still crucial work to do on the campaign to reform the pub trade, says Gareth Epps.

"Dickensian would not only be inspired by Dickens’s novels: in its alternating layers of melodrama and comedy, like the ‘streaky bacon’ effect he wrote about in Oliver Twist, its style would also be truly Dickensian." Robert Douglas-Fairhurst is literary adviser to the BBC series.

"The heritage minister, Tracey Crouch, announced that Clouds Hill, the tiny home of T E Lawrence , near Wareham in Dorset has been given Grade II* status," reports David Hencke.

Alwyn Turner introduces us to William Charles Boyden-Mitchell, better known as Bill Mitchell, and better known still as Uncle Bill of British Forces Broadcasting Service.

A Lady in London discovers Eel Pie Island.

"The churches of mostly rural Suffolk ... harbour a curiosity - woodwoses (literally 'wild-men-of-the-woods'), hirsute manimals brandishing clubs." Matt Salusbury on creatures that make Jacks in the Green look tame.

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The Crystal Palace and South London Junction Railway

Built to service the Crystal Palace exhibition and opened in 1865, the Crystal Palace and South London Junction Railway ran between Nunhead and Crystal Palace. It closed in 1954.

There is more about Crystal Palace High Level station on London Reconnections.

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"New research from Leeds University into the impacts of permitted heather burning on upland peat bog shows that for the 20% biggest storms, the flow of water over land is higher than in areas where the moorland has not been burnt."  A prophetic post from Upper Calder Valley Plain Speaker back in August.

A little unexpectedly, David Boyle's take on A Christmas Carol appears on Philosophy Football.

Matt Crowley pays tribute to Malcolm in the Middle: "Far from the wistful nostalgia of The Wonder Years or the chummy bickering of Home Improvement, Malcolm In The Middle presents a childhood that basically sucks. Bullies rule the school, teachers are indifferent, and being smart is akin to being radioactive."

There are still 1500 gas street lamps burning in London. Maev Kennedy meets the people who light them.

Sam Roberts chooses his top 10 London ghost signs.

Judging by its place names, the landscape of Medieval Lincolnshire was haunted monstrous creatures, says Caitlin Green.

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Joanna Ferguson announces the relaunch of Liberal Youth's blogging platform The Libertine.

"Measurement, Bob says, is the big challenge facing the outdoor education industry. You can measure a child's progress in maths, spelling, grammar… so we tend to hone in on those things. But it’s so much harder to quantify how much more confident or empathetic or happy a child is this term versus last. So we don't prioritise these things, and so nor the activities that develop them.'" Dominic Collard speaks up for outdoor education.

The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein spent some time teaching in an elementary school in the Austrian mountains. Spencer Robins looks at that period's influence on his thought.

"Self went on to argue that understanding the age of buildings was a key to understanding the built environment. Elderly people were better at it, he said, because they had often seen the buildings being constructed. Young people less so." Steven Morris follows Will Self on a psychogeographic walk through Bristol.

Dave Walker is puzzled by an undeveloped plot in South Kensington. Someone Twitter said it had been earmarked for a new Iranian Embassy that cannot now be built because of economic sanctions.

London Traveller follows the Ravensbourne River through a surprisingly rural landscape from Bromley South station to Caesar's Well.

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Father Christmas on the Grand Union Canal

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Taken at Brentford, where the canal joins the Thames, in 1934

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Two policemen and the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree, 1948

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"Yes, Dickie, but I don't think this gentleman is very interested in policemen. Uncle Alf - that's Mr Ingles - told me this morning that he likes to have a few policemen around at this time of year. He said they reminded him of Christmas, but I can't think why, can you?"
Malcolm Saville Wings Over Witchend (1956)

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Flashbak has some great photographs of British coal mining taken between 1930 and 1950.

Chris Sayer presents his choice of the 20 mightiest small bookshops in the UK.

The children's writer Peter Dickinson has died. Britain is No Country for Old Men pays tribute to him.

"Arguments take place in online forums as to where exactly the house stood. Some are determined that there is a bit of old wall remaining and that they have stood in the back yard of the house. Others argue (plausibly) that the street alignment was changed on rebuilding, making a drain cover the location." Sarah Miller Walters on !0 Rillington Place - the house and the film.

Trisha xx has been to see the new Star Wars film and gives it five stars. Did you know, incidentally, that Daisy Ridley is the great niece of Arnold Ridley from Dad's Army?

"A truly wonderful film of a summer holiday in Bude in 1955," claims Paul Walter. And he is right. It really is wonderful. No doubt it will appear on this blog after a decent interval has elapsed.

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Mr Gladstone's orphanage at Hawarden

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Lord Bonkers has his Home for Well-Behave Orphans, but then it seems at one time every self-respecting Liberal politician had his own orphanage.

Caroline's Miscellany writes of William Ewart Gladstone and his wife Catherine:

As a regular visitor to the London Hospital, Whitechapel, Catherine saw at first hand the effects of the 1860s cholera epidemics on the East End poor. 

She founded an orphanage for the children of cholera victims, in a large house in Clapton. It also took in convalescent patients, and the convalescent home later moved to Woodford Hall, Essex, in 1866. Adults and children were sent here from the London Hospital in the East End to recover from illness or surgery. The home moved to Mitcham in 1900, eventually closing in 1940. 

As for the orphaned boys, Catherine sent them from Clapton to a new orphanage in the Gladstones' home village of Hawarden. Initially, she took a dozen boys from London to the village and accommodated them in a former coach house; Gladstone paid for their keep. (The couple also accommodated unemployed Lancashire mill girls and elderly women on their estate.) 

The orphanage continued for many years, and seems to have taken in other children in need of a home. A guide to the village of 1890 describes it as housing twenty to thirty boys and being 'hard by the Castle [the Gladstones' home] and across the yard'.

And this blog's hero J.W. Logan had a home in East Langton for the children of men killed on his works.

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"In the current flare of details coming out about the Tatler Tory bullying affair, one group more than others has been scrambling for cover, and that is the Young Britons' Foundation." Random Scribbling Notepad tells us all about it.

"Pugh’s suggestion that Labour has a tendency to choose the wrong leader and to hang on to him too long is an interesting reflection in the light of the result of Labour’s recent leadership election." Keith Laybourn looks at some books on the history of the Labour Party.

Ian Marsh argues that policy convergence, cynical marketing strategies and the demise of party organisations have destroyed the infrastructures that once provided a platform for longer term policy debates.

Shadowplay remembers Fragment of Fear, a disturbing 1970 film starring David Hemmings and many familiar faces of the period.

While Sarah Miller Walters celebrates the Peter Sellers film Heavens Above.

The Gentle Author takes us to Bromley by Bow and the largest tidal mill in the world.

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Historic England appeals for help over lost public art

Artworks created by some of the most acclaimed artists of the 20th century, from Henry Moore to Barbara Hepworth, have already been destroyed. 

Created and sited in the open for all of us to enjoy; these pieces were made for our public spaces, our schools, hospitals, housing estates, civic areas and communities. They were commissioned and designed with a social spirit to add colour to our local places and our daily lives. 

Such sculptures, murals and architectural reliefs are disappearing for many reasons, and for some pieces, it is already too late. Stolen and melted down for their scrap value; neglected and vandalised beyond repair; sold and moved from their intended public spaces; destroyed by redevelopment, or just forgotten - location unknown. The nation's great outdoor collection of public art is in jeopardy.

Historic England is seeking help in tracking down these lost pieces.

The photo here shows The Sunbathers by Peter Laszlo Peri from 1951, It was displayed on the Southbank during the Festival of Britain, but its current whereabouts are unknown.

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St Pancras to Sheffield in 1971

More than 3 hours 20 minutes  of Midland Main Line nostalgia with a commentary explaining what you are seeing and some comparison footage of the line today.

Thrill to Market Harborough (1:39:00) still with its canopies, Leicester (1:58:30) still with its overall roof and the numerous semaphore signals and signal boxes along the route.

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Mark Park shows how Stop the War airbrushed a conspiracy theory from its website.

"The long term trend of the decline of membership and support for political parties has, if anything, accelerated, and long standing loyalties to right or left have given way to a far more complicated political reality in which populist or even anti democratic voices are now being increasingly heard." Cicero's Songs on the crisis of conventional political parties.

"What to do with a broken ship full of explosives? That question has been debated off and on for the past seven decades, and the consensus has been to leave it alone, safer right where it is. So there the ship sits at the bottom of the estuary, the area around it cordoned off by buoys." Robkam on the wreck of the SS Richard Montgomery, which lies in the Thames Estuary.

California's third-largest city is a desert ghost town - Laura Bliss explains.

Martyn Barber and Edward Carpenter present some striking aerial photographs that reveal previously unsuspected archaeological sites.

Tiffany Imogen celebrates gifts from the hedgerow.

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"The key to reducing the risk of more floods like those in Carlisle is to realise that conventional 'flood defence' can never provide security against the ever more extreme weather events that global warming will bring. We must embrace natural solutions to holding back flood waters: more trees; and bring back the beavers!" Oliver Tickell is right.

Dawud Islam looks at the lessons of Oldham West: "All of us from Tim downwards need to hasten the roll out of our new direction and messages. Only when we finally give people something to vote for will the strains of the ‘lost deposits’ songs start to fade into the distance."

Ben Schiller explains how Finland's basic income scheme will work.

"To understand the complexities of the ongoing eurozone crisis, we need to analyze culture, since culture and history shape how policies are accepted, rejected, or modified," says Séamus Power looking at Ireland.

The inventor of Blue Peter has been forgotten because of the glorious, if tyrannical reign of Biddy Baxter. Andrew Martin introduces us to John Hunter Blair.

A London Inheritance goes in search of Park Row - a lost Knightsbridge street.

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John Lanchester on the London housing crisis

John Lanchester is the author of the novel Capital, which is currently being dramatised on BBC One.

Here he is interviewed about London's housing crisis, its social impacts and its consequences for ordinary citizens who can no longer afford to live in their capital city.

Whoops!, Lanchester's nonfiction account of the financial crash, is well worth reading.

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Photo: Andreas Trepte

"The real case against the party leader, that most Labour MPs know in their hearts but dare not say openly, is not that a Corbyn government is unlikely, but that a Corbyn government would be disastrous." Peter Kellner gets it right on Labour and Jeremy Corbyn.

Ian Cummins endorses a study suggesting that Work Capability Assessments are linked with an increase in suicides.

"It is no coincidence that the notion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights is spreading globally at the exact moment that old boundaries are collapsing in the era of the digital revolution, mass migration, and international commodity markets." Mark Gevisser explains why repressive states are losing the battle against sexual freedom.

Dr Anna Arrowsmith says we are using the term 'mansplaining' incorrectly.

Dan Brown tells us about the status of the curlew in the UK and the work that needs to be done to safeguard the future of this wonderful bird.

The trap streets mentioned in Doctor Who the other week really are a thing. Londonist will tell you all about them.

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