Niall Kishtainy – The Infinite City: Utopian Dreams on the Streets of London

For centuries, London has been a city of dreamers, of possibility and experiment; the capital of utopian thought. In this talk, The Infinite City tells this history for the first time. Join Niall Kishtainy for a tour of utopian London, that begins with with Thomas More in the 16th century and traces a utopian lineage running from the Civil War to William Morris through to the contemporary transformation of the East End docklands and the COVID lockdowns.

Explore how London’s spirit has been one of visionary imagination amid relentless change and innovation. Meet Thomas Spence, the fiery radical who came to London to agitate for a land revolution, of the garden city pioneers who worked to create spacious, leafy towns and suburbs in London and around the country, and of 92 year-old Dolly Watson who became the queen of Claremont Road, an experimental utopian enclave during the 1990s’ Reclaim the Streets protests. 

Niall Kishtainy has worked in government, journalism and academia, also holding posts at the UN and World Bank. While teaching at LSE and the University of Warwick, he began writing about the history of economic thinking and the economic struggles of the past and present. He is also author of A Little History of Economics, which has been sold in over twenty languages, and now lives in his hometown of London.

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