Don’t get too excited, but this week we’re talking about street furniture.

Earlier this year, CityMetric regular Ed Jefferson wrote us a lengthy history of the bollard, taking in the Napoleonic Wars, Welsh devolution and the collapse of construction giant Carillion. This elevated him to the status of one of the world’s leading bollardologists, and he has since given a talk on the subject. So he joins us to summarise his findings.

Before that, the New Statesman’s India Bourke points me towards some interesting facts on nature’s bollards, better known as trees – a subject currently proving to be a surprisingly contentious topic in Sheffield. All that, and the readers tell us about their favourite bits of street furniture, too.

Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman’s cities site, CityMetric. It’s hosted by Jonn Elledge.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.