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Archaeological investigations undertaken during the streetscape improvements in Whitehall revealed the remains of several periods of activity. Middle Saxon activity most likely assodated with that previously found at the Old Treasury Building in the 1960s was revealed on Whitehall opposite the west end of Horse Guards Avenue. Elsewhere masonry associated with York Place, the Archlnshop of York's offidal residence in London, and Whitehall Palace was found. Later remains consisted of buildings which were constructed in the 18th and 19th century following the destruction of Whitehall Palace in two fires at the end of the 17th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Writing within the sonic register of a soundtrack that plundered the diasporic mind-set of a certain “London” massive, Hanif Kureishi was widely criticized for his contribution as writer to two films in the 1980s: My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987). Less lyrically perhaps—and less filmic—Salman Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses was famously set on fire in Bradford in 1989. Antiracist sexualities, street riots, and book burnings were taken to mark the mobilization of a diverse and complicated British Asian presence on the streets of the United Kingdom. The point that interests the author here is the reconfiguration of the streetscape of diaspora and terror in the years since these films and the burning of the book. Burning streets and books (not particularly good in themselves) are replaced with a more virulent racial profiling in contemporary times—a constant anxiety about and accusations againstMuslims (and by extension all British Asians), who are made uncomfortable at best, bombed into democracy elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Few studies have been published on the reactions of residents to modifications of their residential landscape. We explored residents'' experiences of home zone remodelling and construction of a new cycle-walkway in a deprived neighbourhood with a particular focus on aspects of quality of life and physical activity participation. Focus groups (n=5 groups, 21 individuals) were used to investigate residents'' perceptions of the effects of neighbourhood change on their lives. Consultation by planners was received positively. Several aspects of the neighbourhood were perceived to have improved, including spatial aesthetics, lighting and streetscape planting. However, influence on physical activity was minimal. Car-focused behaviour and ownership remained dominant, and safety related concerns limited behavioural choices. Residents highlighted many socio-environmental challenges that remained such as sense of neighbourhood safety, poor public transport provision, people''s parking behaviour locally, and problem neighbours, and these tended to dominate conversations. Infrastructural intervention may be one important part of multi-layered solutions to improved neighbourhood life. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The vertical variation of particle number distributions (PNDs) and concentrations in a street canyon is the result of the competing influences of meteorology, traffic and transformation processes overall and for various particle size ranges. A recently developed instrument, the ‘fast-response differential mobility spectrometer DMS500’, measured PNDs in the 5–2738nm range, pseudo-simultaneously, at four different heights (z/H=0.09, 0.19, 0.40 and 0.64) on the leeward side of an 11.6-m-deep street canyon which had a height-to-width ratio of near unity. Measurements were made in Cambridge, UK, between 20 and 21 March 2007. The PNDs were bimodal with the same shape at each height, and with similar values of both the peak and geometric mean particle diameters in each mode. This suggested that transformation processes were not important. Coagulation and condensation time scales were comparable and large, and these processes should have had a negligible effect on the PNDs. The particle number concentrations (PNCs) changed significantly with height from a maximum at z/H=0.19 and decreasing towards both the lowest (z/H=0.09) and highest (z/H=0.64) sampling points. The decrease in PNCs with height in the upper part of the canyon was attributed to the removal of particles as a result of mass exchange between street canyon and the wind above while the reduction in the PNC towards street level was thought to be due to dilution and dry deposition. Over 99% of the PNCs were found in 10–300nm range whereas the particle mass concentrations were almost equally distributed between the 10–1000nm and 1000–2738nm size range at each height. The PNCs in the 10–30nm and the 30–300nm size range were linearly correlated with the traffic volume but poorly correlated with the rooftop wind speed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this work global sensitivity studies using Monte Carlo sampling and high dimensional model representations (HDMR) have been carried out on the k–ε closure computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model MISKAM, allowing detailed representation of the effects of changing input parameters on the model outputs. The scenario studied is that of a complex street canyon in the city of York, UK. The sensitivity of the turbulence and mean flow fields to the input parameters is detailed both at specific measurement points and in the associated canyon cross-section to aid comparison with field data. This analysis gives insight into how model parameters can influence the predicted outputs. It also shows the relative strength of each parameter in its influence. Four main input parameters are addressed. Three parameters are surface roughness lengths, determining the flow over a surface, and the fourth is the background wind direction. In order to determine the relative importance of each parameter, sensitivity indices are calculated for the canyon cross-section. The sensitivity of the flow structures in and above the canyon to each parameter is found to be very location dependant. In general, at a particular measurement point, it is the closest wall surface that is most influential on the model output. However, due to the complexity of the flow at different wind angles this is not always the case, for example when a re-circulating canyon flow pattern is present. The background wind direction is shown to be an important parameter as it determines the surface features encountered by the flow. The accuracy with which this is specified when modelling a full-scale situation is therefore an important consideration when considering model uncertainty. Overall, the uncertainty due to roughness lengths is small in comparison to the mean outputs, indicating that the model is well defined even with large ranges of input parameter uncertainty. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]