Monstrosities Mon Amour

This episode was recorded live at the Horse Hospital in London on 10 May 2026 as part of Concrete Atlantis.
In this special episode, historian and biographer Gillian Darley kidnaps not just me but a whole audience at the Horse Hospital and takes us on a trip to the Essex coast, site of the long decommissioned Magnox nuclear power station at Bradwell-on-Sea. She admires it for its sublime impact on the landscape, and its ancient neighbour St Peters Chapel, built for St Cedd, for its picturesque beauty.
Hear the extraordinary story of how the power station was blithey waved through in the 1950s, and of the strange landscape in which it sits, and the graveyard of boats just off the coast.
After the big theme of nuclear power, Gillian’s minor monster is as contrasting as could be – the shoe horn, an object she cannot get by without…
Gillian Darley is an acclaimed writer and broadcaster focussed on, as she says, ‘inspiring people, intriguing buildings and beguiling landscapes’. Her many books include Villages of Vision: A Study of Strange Utopias (1975), a biography of Ian Nairn (co-authored with David McKie (2013) and Excellent Essex: In Praise of England’s most Misunderstood County (2019). Find out more about her and her incredible work at https://gilliandarley.com
Concrete Atlantis is a series of events curated by former Monstrosities guest Travis Elborough and held at the Horse Hospital in London. Thanks so much to him, and the team who recorded the episode and made the whole event possible.
Theme tune by Lorna Rees and Rufus Rees Coshan. You can support Monstrosities Mon Amour by subscribing through Substack or through Ko-fi at https://ko-fi.com/grindrod


Get full access to Grindrodia at johngrindrod.substack.com/subscribe

Let’s ditch the Austin Maxi for a gentler way to travel: cycling round the 1950s bike lanes of Stevenage, discovering the joys of a well planned town, with Stevenage-born historian Gareth Edwards.
Stevenage in Hertfordshire was Britain’s first post-war new town, designated in 1946. Initially overseen by Clough Williams-Ellis (founder of Portmeirion) and his communist deputy Dr Monica Felton, they were soon replaced by other ambitious planners and builders, not least engineer Eric Claxton, who designed the town’s elegant road network and invented – yes invented – the cycle lane.
Discover why the development corporation had to translate the town guide into dutch, the splendour of its traffic-free shopping precinct, and how the town was robbed of its dignity once the local authority took over maintaining it.
After all of that excitement, we take a break with a corned beef sandwich – a food from simpler times – and discuss its military value, its US name of bully beef, and its baffling key.
So enjoy an episode of post-war optimism, Festival of Britain-era design, and absolute stodge, as we potter about pointing at things and attempt to stop Gareth’s cats stealing the show.
Gareth Edwards hosts The Untitled History Podcast. You can follow him on Bluesky at @garius.bsky.social or game with him on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/gariusthebrit or YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@GariusTheBrit
Monstrosities Mon Amour is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new episodes and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Theme tune by Lorna Rees and Rufus Rees Coshan. Logo by Richard de Pesando. You can support Monstrosities Mon Amour by subscribing through Substack or through Ko-fi at https://ko-fi.com/grindrod


Get full access to Grindrodia at johngrindrod.substack.com/subscribe

Let’s crash the Austin Maxi in the basement of the Victoria Centre in Nottingham, with historian and raconteur Lucy Brouwer, who runs the very entertaining and illuminating tours Watson Fothergill Walk.
Opening in 1972, the vast and vastly ambitious Victoria Centre became the nexus of all things shopping for a city on the up, where full employment was spoken of in the launch brochure. By the next decade the government’s war on miners, as well as rising unemployment and the destruction of the city’s rag trade made the Victoria Centre’s optimism look out of step with the times.
But behind its rough concrete facade you could find a cornucopia of delights: an indoor market with a stuffed bear; a multi-themed Berni Inn, and the Emmett Clock, a magnificent kinetic whimsy that held passers-by transfixed. Lucy takes us on an odyssey to see a different side of this colossal beast, the railway station it replaced, and the many businesses that have come and gone.
Alongside that beast, Lucy’s minor monster is a lost single – lost, it has to be said, at the request of the band who made it. ‘Pop is Dead’ is a Radiohead song from 1993, that is as much manifesto as it is musical bombast. Why has it been erased from the band’s history, how did it inspire Lucy to set up a fanzine, and is it actually any good?
Lucy Brouwer is a Nottingham-based tour guide and historian. You can find out more about her tours at https://watsonfothergillwalk.com or follow her on Instagram @watsonfothergillwalk or on BlueSky @notrock.bsky.social
Theme tune by Lorna Rees and Rufus Rees Coshan. Logo by Richard de Pesando. You can support Monstrosities Mon Amour by subscribing through Substack or through Ko-fi at https://ko-fi.com/grindrod
Monstrosities Mon Amour is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.


Get full access to Grindrodia at johngrindrod.substack.com/subscribe

It’s a home-town kidnapping in this episode, when award-winning beer writer David Jesudason whisks me down the road to the Point cinema in Milton Keynes.
Exploring the shiny mirrored red framed pyramid, a huge landmark of 80s entertainment and a multiplex pioneer. David grew up in nearby Dunstable, and so here he pits the wonders of the sleepy glider-town against the bright new city of MK, where the Point helped hollow out his town’s high street, but also was a massive attraction to young David. Discover a world of blockbusters, arcade games and the mysterious Le Club.
David’s minor monster mirrors the 8-bit delights of the Point: the Atari 2600, an early games console from 1977 more famed for its failed ET game than for its functional simplcity.
So let’s go Back to the Future in the DeLorean* in the latest episode of Monstrosities Mon Amour.
*Austin Maxi
David Jesudason is the author of the award winning Desi Pubs, and is twice Michael Jackson Beer Writer of the Year (2023 and 2025). Journalist and Substacker: davidjesudason.substack.com
Theme tune by Lorna Rees and Rufus Rees Coshan. Logo by Richard de Pesando. You can support Monstrosities Mon Amour by subscribing through Substack or through Ko-fi at https://ko-fi.com/grindrod
Monstrosities Mon Amour is a reader-supported podcast. To receive new episodes and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.



Get full access to Grindrodia at johngrindrod.substack.com/subscribe

Archaeologist Rebecca Lambert is used to investigating stone circles and prehistoric sites, but when she first visited the National Theatre she found a modern henge on the south bank of the Thames.
In the year of its 50th Anniversary, we visit the original ‘concrete monstrosity’, Denys Lasdun’s National Theatre, which opened in 1976. Seen through the eyes of an archaeologist it is a very different place, a vast modern henge and a place of ceremony where rituals, stone and water come together to create somewhere of great power and presence.
Is the National Theatre like Stonehenge? Rebecca Lambert takes us through the many strange similarities - and dissonances - that show us a whole new side of one of the most magnificent modernist buildings in Britain, with startling insight and wit.
But it’s drama of a different kind that has drawn our esteemed archaeologist to her other choice, that 1987 masterpiece of muscle, the Dolph Lundgren film Masters of the Universe. Find out what still captures her imagination in its depiction of small town America and its ‘Final Countdown’-style barrage of portentous hysteria and stonewashed denim.
Join us for an episode that is part revelatory reading of prehistory and modernism, and part riot of camp. I won’t say which is which.
Rebecca Lambert is an archaeologist and curator dedicated to public engagement, accessibility, and innovative research practices. Follow her on Instagram or Bluesky, or keep up with the progress of her work at https://practisesmakeplaces.wordpress.com/ where she’s investigating artistic responses to English ‘prehistoric’ monuments - from the 1720s to the present day. Her previous work has included the intriguingly titled Underpasses Are Liminal Places.
Monstrosities Mon Amour is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new episodes and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Theme tune by Lorna Rees and Rufus Rees Coshan. Logo by Richard de Pesando. You can support Monstrosities Mon Amour by subscribing through Substack or through Ko-fi at https://ko-fi.com/grindrod


Get full access to Grindrodia at johngrindrod.substack.com/subscribe