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The Friday Five 29.04.22

Published on: 29 Apr 2022

Five heart lollies 250 [square]1. TEAM LEADER – DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT, SOUTHWARK COUNCIL



Location: Southwark, London

The job: “We are looking for an experienced planner to join a busy Development Management team, taking a leading role in a wide range of projects from major cases to one of the country’s most ambitious council house building programmes delivering affordable housing and the playing an important role to the council's response to the climate emergency.


“Managing a diverse caseload, you will represent the council and use your experience in negotiations to achieve the best outcomes for the community. You will provide support to elected members and senior officers using your sound judgement to make reasoned and considered recommendations on complex matters, and to present cases to the planning committee.


“Southwark Council is an ambitious central London authority, which is home to some of the largest and most exciting developments in the country.”

Clink Prison [square]Fun fact: For 785 years from 1104, a 28 hectare area of Southwark – known as the Liberty of the Clink – was exempt from the jurisdiction of its county’s (surrey’s High Sheriff) and subject instead to the rules of the Bishop of Winchester - who was usually the monarch’s chancellor or treasurer. 


This meant that behaviour not permitted elsewhere could be licensed within Southwark and the liberty became notorious as a haven for gamblers, prostitutes, bear baiters, drinks, criminals and, er, actors.


The story goes that the liberty, in modern day Bankside, was granted by King Henry I to the Priory of Bermondsey in 1004. In 1149, the Priory sold it to the Bishop of Winchester, who built his London residence there (Winchester House).


In 1161 the bishop was granted to the power to license prostitutes and brothels and the area’s reputation as a place of lawless behaviour and disrepute began. The prostitute’s were informally known as Winchester Geese and many are buried in Cross Bones, an unconsecrated graveyard. To “be bitten by a Winchester goose” meant  “to contract a venereal disease”.


The liberty is perhaps most famous for its prison and its theatres. Indeed, the Liberty of the Clink is named after the bishop’s prison, the Clink – which you can still visit as a tourist attraction). Theatres and playhouses were also allowed, the most famous of which were Shakespeare’s Globe and The rose, where both Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe premiered plays. Bull and bear baiting were also permitted in the liberty and it was general a pretty notorious place.


Its unusual freedoms came to an end with the Local government Act 1888, which merged the remaining liberties into their respective counties. From 1889, the Clink became part of the new County of London.


Find out more and apply

2. PLANNING AND CONSERVATION PROJECT OFFICER, LONDON HISTORIC PARKS & GARDENS TRUST (PART-TIME)

Location: Central London

The job: “The London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust seeks a planning and conservation volunteer training and project officer to join its team based in Central London. This campaigning role involves working with volunteers, providing training and leadership to help protect London’s historic landscapes.


“You will have an understanding and enthusiasm for historic landscapes and the planning (development management) process, plus excellent communication, IT and administrative skills. Recruiting and working with volunteers an advantage.


“Hours can be worked flexibly though there will be occasional evening and weekend work, and an expectation of attendance at the Trust’s office one day a week.”


Corokia [square]Fun fact: Mona Abboud officially has ‘the best back garden in London’ in the space behind her North London home, according to the London Gardens Society. It’s also recognised as such by the London Parks & Gardens Trust, which will include Mona’s garden as the only domestic garden in its London Square Open Gardens Weekend in June.


What’s so special about the narrow 100 metre space behind Mona’s home between Muswell Hill and Highgate? Well, for starters, it’s home to the National Corokia Collection (corokia pictured), such is Mona’s dedication to the evergreen shrub found in rocky and forested areas in New Zealand (and which provides an excellent alternative to box).


Secondly, it has a stunning array of Mediterranean plants, such as olive, Phillyrea, Pistacia lentiscus, which reflect Mona’s own Mediterranean background. Then there are the other Antipodean plants,unusual in London, which altogether create a flavour of the kind of garden you might find in a milder climate (or as Mona herself says, she has “A Cornish garden in London”). 


These are all beautifully arranged and pruned to maximise the impact of colour, shape, light and texture for the entire length of the garden. Even though she only began her enterprise in 2000, the garden is so impressive that Mona has been featured on Channel Four’s All Gardens Great and Small, on the BBC’s Garden Rescue and Gardener’s World, and in many magazines and newspapers.


If you like gardens and you’re in London, you can find out about the London Square Open Gardens Weekend here.


Find out more and apply




3. PLANNING CONSULTANT, HALLS (PRIVATE PLANNING PRACTICE)


Location: Shrewsbury, Shropshire

The job:Halls, one of the oldest and most respected property and business consultants in Shropshire requires an experienced planning consultant to join our expanding planning department based in Shrewsbury on a full-time basis.


“The successful candidate will be responsible for the delivery of our wide-ranging consultancy services across the residential, commercial and agricultural sectors, involving the preparation, submission and management of planning applications, planning appeals and working with clients in land promotion and strategic land allocation across the Midlands.


“With offices across the Midlands region, we are seeking an ambitious person with good knowledge of the planning system and a real drive to deliver an exceptional planning service that creates sustainable and successful development for our existing and growing client base.”

Charles Darwin [square]Fun fact: The great naturalist Charles Darwin was born and raised in Shrewsbury, just a stone’s throw from the town centre. Born in 1809, he was the fifth of six children of Dr Robert Darwin (a wealthy society doctor and financier) and his wife Susannah, daughter of the famous potter Josiah Wedgewood. 


His interest in natural history developed early. AS a boy he would help his mother, a keen gardener, to catalogue the various species of plant in their garden. A young Charles Darwin would fish for newts and study rocks in the Dingle, a former stone quarry that had been turned into a park.


From the age of eight Darwin boarded at Shrewsbury School, but was not a dedicated student and often spent his time exploring the great outdoors.


His father intended Charles to become a doctor like himself and sent him to Edinburgh to study medicine. Though he learned a good deal about anatomy and, additional to his studies, taxidermy, he found surgery distressing and was far more dedicated to the university’s natural history society. So his father sent him to Cambridge to study for a Bachelor of Arts degree in the first step towards becoming a country parson - a shrewd move, since this was the age of the parson-naturalist.


Darwin befriended botany professor John Stevens Henslow, who became his mentor and recommended a young Charles as the on-board naturalist for a two year mapping expedition to be undertaken by the HMS Beagle.


The rest, in a sense, is history. The journey in fact took five years and Darwin spent his time observing, cataloguing, collecting, formulating the ideas that would eventually become the theory of natural selection and recording his thoughts on the natural world in journals that he sent to his mentor, Henslow, along with specimens that he had collected. Unbeknown to him, Henslow was sharing and publishing Darwin’s observations to other naturalists and by the time Darwin arrived home in 1836, he was celebrated.


Shrewsbury recalls Darwin annually with a Darwin Festival and has many reminders of the great man, including statues and public art. You can even visit the garden of his former home, The Mount, where his interest in the natural world was first piqued by gardening with his mother.


Find out more and apply

4. SENIOR CONSERVATION OFFICER, DURHAM COUNTY COUNCIL (12 MONTH CONTRACT)

Location: Durham, County Durham

The job: “An exciting opportunity has arisen for a senior conservation officer to join the county's design and conservation team for a period of 12 Months.


“The post holder will assist the principal design and conservation officer in the delivery and management of the built design and conservation service within the planning service and in the delivery of an integrated specialist service of environment and design. The role will be to promote exemplary urban and rural design and built conservation and through that help raise the aspirations and identity of Durham County.


“The post will be concentrated on the delivery of the council’s conservation area character appraisal and management plan programme. Specifically, the delivery of a conservation management plan for Durham City Conservation Area.”

Sir Bobby Robson [square]Fun fact: Former England football team manager Sir Bobby Robson is one of just two individuals to have been granted the freedom of the City of Durham – the other is Archbishop Desmond Tutu.


The reason for Sir Bobby’s accolade is that he was born in Sacriston, just three miles north of Durham, in 1933. His father, a colaminer, then moved the family to Langley Park, four miles east of Durham. Young Bobby attended secondary school on the other side of the city.

His school’s headmaster would ot allow the schoolt eam to joina lague, so the football-mad boy signed up for his local Langley Park team at 11. By 15 he was playing for the under-18s while working as an apprentice electrician for the National Coal Board at the Langley Park colliery.


His footballing talent attracted significant attention. Nearby Middlesbrough FC offered a contract, Newcastle United expressed an interest but the 17-year-old signed instead for London-based Fulham where he felt he had a better chance of breaking into the first team.


Following a professional debut in 1950, his career took in Fulham, West Bromwich Albion and Fulham again. He also played 20 times for England. But it was a manager that Robson really made his mark.


He had taken coaching qualifications early in his career and, after an initial unsuccessful period as Fulham manager, took the reins at Ipswich Town in 1969. Over 13 years, he took the small Suffolk club into the upper echelons of the First Division, won the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup and became noted for his capacity for nurturing and developing talent.


In 1982 he became England manager. His tenure was mixed, though ended on a high note - a World Cup semi-final against West Germany in 1990, lost only on penalties.


He then had a very successful 14-year managerial career in the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and back in England with Newcastle United. Robson was awarded freedom of the City of Newcastle in 2005 and, finally, in 2008, the freedom of his ‘home’ city of Durham.


He died in 2009,aged 76.


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5. STRATEGIC INFRASTRUCTURE COORDINATOR, OXFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL


Location: Oxford

The job: “You will play an important role in the infrastructure strategy team, leading on the development and co-ordination of strategic infrastructure policy and strategy. Building off the successful delivery of the new Oxfordshire Infrastructure Strategy (OxIS), you will use your knowledge and skills to bring partners responsible for planning and delivery of infrastructure across Oxfordshire together. You will ensure priorities align with the Oxfordshire Vision, planning for a net-zero carbon future. You will also be responsible for continuing to champion the role of OxIS both internally and externally, including managing the next stage of work that will support the new Oxfordshire Plan, as well as mapping out funding and delivery opportunities.

“By being directly involved in high-profile strategic infrastructure policy and strategy workstreams in Oxfordshire, you will have many opportunities to further your career in a highly innovative area. In short, you will be at the forefront of re-defining the role of infrastructure planning in the context of the current climate emergency.” 

Ashmolean Museum [square]Fun fact: Opened in 1683, Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum is Britain’s first public museum, the world’s second university museum and one of the oldest museums in the world that is still open. It was built originally to house the ‘cabinet of curiosities’ given by Elias Ashmole to the University of Oxford in 1677.


Ashmole was a fascinating figure - an antiquarian, a politician, an astrologer, an alchemist and, above all, a collector. ‘Cabinets of curiosities’ were collections of notable objects that were likely to include objects belonging to natural history, geology, ethnography, archaeology, religious or historical relics, works of art and antiquities (ie, objects from ancient civilisations). Ashmole’s personal collection included antique coins, books, engravings, geological specimens, and zoological specimens—one of which was the stuffed body of the last dodo ever seen in Europe.


The Ashmolean Museum’s first ‘keeper’ was the naturalist Robert Plot who was a professor of chemistry at the University of Oxford. As its collection expanded, the museum was moved to a new building in 1845. Over time it acquired yet more collections and now houses huge collections of archaeological specimens and fine art. 


It has one of the best collections of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, majolica pottery, and English silver. The archaeology department has Greek and Minoan pottery and an extensive collection of antiquities from Ancient Egypt and the Sudan.


Among its more interesting items are drawings by Michelangelo and paintings by Picasso, the Alfred Jewel (an amazing piece of Anglo Saxon goldsmithing), the death mask of Oliver Cromwell, Arab ceremonial dress owned by Lawrence of Arabia, Saxon and Viking hoards and a Stradivarius violin.


Nowadays many of the kinds of item contained within collections bequeathed to the Ashmolean are controversial because of the manner of their acquisition. The museum is involved in discussions to repatriate some stolen items such as bronzes looted from the city of Benin by British soldiers in 1897 and at least one other taken from a site in India.


Find out more and apply

Photo credits | Viiviien, Shutterstock; Birdog Vasile Radu, Shutterstock; iStock; Michael715, Shutterstock; Pavlos Manousiadis, Shutterstock