54. White heat

This week, we’re asking a question for the ages: Why does York look like a chocolate box while nearby Wakefield looks like hell? In the early 1960s, at a time when visions of the future were all concrete and cars, and even York still thought of itself as a manufacturing centre, some British cities decided to smash up their heritage while others decided to preserve it. Jim Waterson, political editor of Buzzfeed UK and a York native himself, joins us to talk us through this forgotten moment in Britain’s architectural history. Then we ask the audience: what are the best and, especially, worst urban regeneration schemes?Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman's cities site, CityMetric. It's hosted by Jonn Elledge. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.