
Open City is a charity dedicated to making architecture and built heritage more open, accessible and equitable.
Providing you with essential listening, inspiring voices and built environment insights – the Open City Podcast covers news and current events as well as in depth studies of landmark buildings, and cities around the UK and world.
At the centre of our line-up is our flagship show The Brie... more
| Publishes | Weekly | Episodes | 279 | Founded | 6 years ago |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Listeners | Categories | DesignArtsSociety & Culture | |||

In this episode Fiona Chilton is joined by Miriam, who lives in rural Devon in a home that she bought together with two other households so that they could raise their families side by side. But the dream was more challenging in reality as they tackl... more
In this episode Matthew Lloyd Roberts is joined by Judy Ovens, one of the authors of the new book ‘Adventurous Vents: A Journey through the Ventilation Shafts of Britain’. They discussed the Culling Road Ventilation shaft on the edge of Southwark Par... more
In The Room at Accelerate Debates is a podcast which broadcasts the live debates from Accelerate, Open City’s free educational programme. In this episode, you’ll hear our fifth and final debate of 2025, “Heatlhy Competition", where we ask: is there a... more
This week on The Brief Sahiba Chadha is joined by Henrietta Billings. Henrietta is the director of SAVE Britain’s Heritage, an organisation dedicated to protecting historical buildings. Since joining SAVE in 2016, she has worked on campaigns such as ... more
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This podcast is sometimes good.
However sometimes it is just like listening to some left wing drunk in a pub making weak and naive and oversimplified and one sided arguments about why the tories are bad. Yawn. Please edit the naive bits out or get some guests who are capable of presenting two sides of an argument
Love the podcast. Fast consumer city the East end cafe was painful listening though, 2 people shouting over each other. Heart in the right place but production / execution bit ropy. Loved episode otherwise
The principal presenters Merlin and Phin generally present interesting London based architecture news stories but co-presenters and guests increasingly are clearly reading from scripts which hugely detracts from their credibility. Also there is a consistent undercurrent of simplistic and naive opinions and critique given without suggesting any viable alternatives. Oh and seemingly there has to be at least one naive anti-police ‘story’ per episode.
Great podcast but it’s starting to sound obvious that guests are reading from a script in their responses sometimes. The podcast works best when it’s a dialogue.
I love how it is talking about the history of different places across London, how the politics tie into what’s going on and covering recent news. But what I appreciate the most is that it’s covering all Boroughs of London but just ‘oh here’s what’s happening in London Bridge’
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Listeners, social reach, demographics and more for this podcast.
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Open City features accessible, expert-driven discussions about architecture, urban design, housing, and city life with a focus on London and the UK. Episodes frequently center on public spaces, regeneration, sustainability, and how policy, planning, and community engagement shape built environments. A notable strength is hosting a rotating roster of practitioners, journalists, and academics who bring critical, design-led perspectives to contemporary urban issues, often tying historic context to current reform efforts. This mix makes it valuable for listeners who want nuanced, informed conversations about how cities are built and governed, not just how buildings look. The show tends to blend technical architectural insight with accessible st... more
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These podcasts share a similar audience with Open City:
1. The Rest Is Politics
2. Page 94: The Private Eye Podcast
3. The Politics Show
4. Today in Focus
5. Politics Weekly UK
Open City launched 6 years ago and published 279 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.
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Recent guests on Open City include:
1. Miriam Turner
2. Judy Ovens
3. Selasi Setufe
4. Rosa Rogina
5. Jonathan Hagos
6. Tomi Balogun
7. Chloë Phelps
8. Henrietta Billings
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