Urbanist in Residence

The Museum of London (MoL) has appointed an urbanist in residence to explore how it can engage with the city as a “24-hour cultural destination”. The role will be filled by writer, curator and researcher Jordan Rowe, who is the centre manager of the University College London Urban Laboratory. He will work on a project called Museum of Night London(ers) that will include research and public programming linked to the museum’s planned move to a new location in West Smithfield. The museum says Rowe will explore how it can “use its position to address a historic lack of night-time civic space in the capital”. It says “the urban night faces increasing economic and social pressures that are set to increase further as London charts a recovery from Covid-19”. The position is hosted in partnership with the charity Theatrum Mundi, where Rowe will be a research fellow, and supported by funding from Arts Council England. Theatrum Mundi says Rowe will research “the conditions in the area for a night-time cultural hub, in the context of increased policy interest in nocturnal London, and in the precarity of existing civic infrastructures following a decade of austerity”. The project will explore questions such as: “How can the complexities and inequalities of the urban night be reflected and addressed in the proposed development? And can the night provide the laboratory conditions for the museum to test out new relationships with the city and its publics?” The results of the interdisciplinary research will be presented as a publication and a public programme co-curated by the MoL and Theatrum Mundi. The museum plans to move to the new location from its current London Wall site by 2024.