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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 1h

Today is #InternationalGeodiversityDay and the theme this year is Geology on Your Doorstep. Just the opportunity to submit a a building stone location to London Pavement Geology! It’s not just London, you can submit a geosites anywhere in the UK www.londonpavementgeology.co.uk/submit-a-loc...

Text reads: INTERNATIONAL GEODIVERSITY DAY 2026: GEODIVERSITY ON OUR DOORSTEP + LONDON PAVEMENT GEOLOGY CHALLENGE!

Text reads: INTERNATIONAL GEODIVERSITY DAY 2026 - GEODIVERSITY ON OUR DOORSTEP
Submit a local stone building to our website
1. Take photos of the building and a close up of the stone (~30 × 30 cm field of view)
2. Fill in the form on our website at 'Submit a Location' (www.londonpavementgeology.co.uk/submit-a-location/) and upload your photos. Include the location and postcode but you can leave other fields blank.
3. Click submit and we'll let you know when your location is live!
LONDON PAVEMENT GEOLOGY

A photomontage showing different types of buildings and different types of stones used in uk buildings. They are a stately home, a marble tombstone, a Hindu temple, a London pub, a granite paving stone, a war memorial, a shop front, a church and a cafe.

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 7h

#urbangeology of the century on the Finchley Road, north London 🧵

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 7h

Could this be the most important building in London this century? I think so! It’s a return to using stone structurally to build a 10 storey tower and hugely reducing the carbon impact of building. By Groupwork and Webb Yates engineers, Petra Heights on Finchley Road is monumental in so many ways 🧵

A view of the Finchley Road. A parade of shops housed in an early 20th Century terrace is on the left and next to these is a block composed of two towers constructed in a square grid pattern using beams of red coloured stone. Next to this spectacular building is a boring ‘council architect’ late 29th century residential block.

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Isabelle Vella Gregory @ivg.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Oooo look what @pavementgeology.bsky.social is doing. Desperately re arranging diary so I can attend!!! I had the pleasure of learning from Ruth. She’s fab www.geolsoc.org.uk/events/an-in...

geolsoc.org.uk

An Introduction to Mineral Pigments & Paints | The Geological Society of London

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London Geodiversity Partnership @londongeodiversity.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

A few more pictures from yesterday’s geoconservation day at Riddlesdown Quarry. Along with conservation we also provided info on the geology of the Chalk. Our regular volunteer Oneke brought along some fossil sea urchins that she had found the previous year #londongeology #fossils

A close up of the two fossil sea urchins in their display cases

A close up of the two fossils lying on the grass with a ruler next to them, showing that they are each 3-4 cm diameter.

Volunteers putting cleared shrubs onto the bonfire. A white chalk cliff is behind them.

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

If you want to find out how minerals can be transformed into pigments and paints, look no further than my upcoming Night School @geolsoc.bsky.social on 2 November 2026. More info, fees and registration details are at www.geolsoc.org.uk/events/an-in... #pigments #mineralpigments

A poster for the course showing a photo of red, yellow and blue paints on a stone slab and the text Geological Society of London
NIGHT SCHOOL, 02 Nov 2026, online / 18.00-20.00, An Introduction to Mineral Pigments & Paints, Dr Ruth Siddall

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

BIG NEWS! Check out our brand new website and logo, designed by Livetech and now live at www.londonpavementgeology.co.uk

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

Wouldn't want too much time to go by without reminding the public at large that my book Contesting Earth's History in Transatlantic Literary Culture, 1860-1935 would probably look very nice in your local library, so you could ask them to buy it and test this hypothesis.

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Paul D. Taylor @nhmbryozoa.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#FossilFriday It’s easy to see why Cotham Marble is often referred to as ‘landscape marble’. This Late Triassic limestone from the Bristol area is a microbialite. Detail from a specimen about 10 cm thick on display at the Natural History Museum, London.

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Barb Drummond @barbdrummond.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

These critters are beneath the eaves and look much more recent than the church in Wroxeter. Any ideas on what they are/represent? #churchcrawling

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

This is the Black Castle (Arnos Castle) in Bristol built c. 1750 from blocks of cast slag from copper smelting works. Visited by Horace Walpole, it doesn’t get more gothic than this! And they serve snakebite and black #urbangeology #gothic #18thCentury

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Another fossil tree in the urban environment ticked off. These are Logan’s trees at Swansea Museum. Found in 1838 by William Logan in the S Wales coalfield. Logan went on to be the first director of the Canadian Geological Survey. #fossiltrees

A corner of the museum building in Swansea sowing a lawn with the museum sign and a large fossil tree around 7 ft tall with two more stumps and a block of coal.

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Do drop in to @geolsoc.bsky.social for today’s open house! See the Mary Anning portrait, the William Smith map and I’ve put together a tour of the stones used in the interior. The Geol Soc gents toilets are pretty special in the world of #urbangeology! 😉 programme.openhouse.org.uk/listings/4938

A chimney piece made of a red and yellow mottled marble in the library

The portrait of Mary Anning hung on a wall over a fossil ichthyosaur jaw in a glass case standing on a limestone plinth

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London Geodiversity Partnership @londongeodiversity.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

A last-minute visit to @gaildickerson.bsky.social’s installation and residency at Beaconsfield Gallery in Vauxhall. Art inspired by the geology on London #londongeology

Gail Dickerson at Beaconsfield amongst the paintings she has made - these are laid out on the sloping floor of the gallery.

A section showing the geology of London in the Vauxhall area with the different strata depicted using paints made from them.

Gail standing behind a huge painting, several metres in length, made with London Clay and allowing water to flow across it.

Rock samples: London Clay and Lambeth Group mottled clay.

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Colne Valley Regional Park @colnevalley.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

As we learnt at the #Harmondsworth Barn 600th Anniversary Conference from Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social @londongeodiversity.bsky.social

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Just about to start my penultimate #urbangeology walking tour for this year! There will be one more in October but then I’ll be taking a break to do other things (although I might sneak one or two into the schedule in early January). Booking and info at www.walks.com/our-walks/ge...

A view of the Royal Exchange Plaza in the city of London on a sunny Saturday. Old buildings in Portland stone have glass and steel skyscrapers rising above them.

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Searsapple @sparrersway.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

All I could find for #FossilFriday, a little #ammonite on the floor of #GaredelEst, Paris. For @pavementgeology.bsky.social

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Tom Sharpe @tomsharperocks.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Scottish geologist James Hutton immortalised in Permo-Triassic red sandstone, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. So radical in his ideas that they’ve put him in a cage. @nationalgalleries.bsky.social

Red sandstone statue of a man in coat, breeches and a hat, holding a rock.

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London Geodiversity Partnership @londongeodiversity.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

A new, three-part Geotrail which traces the route of the River Westbourne from Hampstead Heath to the Thames, is now available to download from our website londongeopartnership.org.uk/geotrails/#W... #londongeology #londonsrivers #walklonson

The cover of the guide titled Walking the Westbourne: a geological trail along the River Westbourne from Branch Hill Pond to the Thames. The cover includes the London Geodiversity Partnership and Redington Frognal Association logos and a photomontage showing street signs, views and other features along the trail.

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Brian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

L.S. Lowry walking through the back streets of Salford, August 1957. In the background are Oldfield Road Dwellings.

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Darren Naish @tetzoo.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Ok, time for a thread about what I saw yesterday at #CrystalPalace. As you can see, just about everything has been repaired and re-painted, and in places (like the previously misidentified Xiphodon) re-positioned. It looks fantastic and you have to check it out, even if you've visited before...

View of some of Crystal Palace models from top of the hill.

3D print of pterosaur head being held in front of actual models way back in the distance, Iguanodon at left.

Local mural on side of building celebrating Crystal Palace prehistoric animals. Art by Nacho Welles.

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

A fabulous day out in Dunwich yesterday with my fellow wall-gamer @timholtwilson.bsky.social and @discoverdunwich.bsky.social. A great turn out and lots of enthusiasm for the many and various lithologies in Dunwich’s medieval buildings #urbangeology

A group of people standing in front of the ruined gateway which is the entrance to Greyfriars a Dunwich

A group of people looking at and pointing out different stones in the rubble masonry wall of Dunwich Leper Chapel

A fossil bivalve shell in a block of chalk in the rubble wall of Dunwich Leper Chapel

Two halves of the same flint pebble placed next to each other in the wall. The flint’s have concentric layers coloured brown and grey.

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Tim Holt-Wilson @timholtwilson.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

'The Stones of Dunwich' event yesterday drew an interesting crowd for our lithological safari with the irrepressible Ruth @pavementgeology.bsky.social. As ever, new rock discoveries and friendships were made. #Suffolk #Geology @discoverdunwich.bsky.social

A split flint cobble embedded in a medieval wall. It is a 'café au lait' specimen with irregular bands of orange iron hydroxide staining making a pictorial effect.

Dr Ruth Siddall expounding wall stone geology to a crowd of event participants in the wall of St James's Church, Dunwich.

A slab of vein quartz with several diffuse grey bands running through. It is set into a mediaeval wall at Greyfriars' Friary,Dunwich.

A crowd of event participants looking at the geology in the mediaeval walls of the Leper Chapel, Dunwich.

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Matt Salusbury 🇳🇱 @mattsalusbury.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Jurassic oyster 🦪 shells in Portland stone - seating by St Clement Dane, Strand; LSE Marshall Bldg, Lincoln's Inn Fields; STK Steak House, Aldwych. All London WC2. #FossilFriday @lseblogs.bsky.social @fossilfriday.bsky.social @pavementgeology.bsky.social

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Some nice Purbeck Marble in the new cafe at the National Gallery. In stone-speak the word marble can be applied to any soft stone that takes a polish rather than just a metacarbonate in the geological sense #urbangeology #purbeckmarble

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@maryfrancesness @maryfrancesness.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

unexpected wonders ... in a football shed

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John Tweedie @johntweedie.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Fossil collection, found and prepared by collector Chris Moore, who has appeared in TV programmes, has gone to a museum in the UAE after there were no funds for UK-based museums to purchase them. www.theguardian.com/science/ng-i...

theguardian.com

One of UK’s best fossil collections sold overseas in ‘loss to the nation’

Exclusive: Lack of funds left British museums unable pay eight-figure sum for collection, which went to Abu Dhabi institution

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Tom Sharpe @tomsharperocks.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Ripple-drift cross-bedding in the Carboniferous sandstones of Edinburgh’s New Town.

Wall of rust-weathering sandstone blocks in a wall.

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Guiding Gold stone - an oolitic limestone from Gloucestershire used here on the Royal Hotel in Oxford. Arkell described it as an ‘offensive chrome yellow colour’ #urbangeology

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Paul D. Taylor @nhmbryozoa.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

#MolluscMonday Section of a high-spired gastropod fossil in a paving stone adjacent to the National Theatre, London. #PavementGeology

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London Geodiversity Partnership @londongeodiversity.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

We had a very enjoyable trip to Crystal Palace Park today to visit the newly restored prehistoric creatures and geological illustrations. We were unanimously impressed! It’s great to be able to see everything so clearly #urbangeology #crystalpalacedinosaurs @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social

The sculptures of Megaloceras (Giant Irish Elk)

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

There are lots of chunks of rock around that claim to have come from John Rennie’s ‘Old’ London Bridge - and most do not, but these examples in Abbey Gardens, Barking just might be the real thing… #urbangeology

Two rectangular blocks of granite at one of the entrances to Abbey Gardens. The block on the left has a metal plaque with an inscription which is shown in the next photo.

The plaque inset into the granite block, with an inscription that reads ‘This granite block formed part of the London Bridge which was opened by William IV in 1831 and demolished in 1968.’

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Thanks to everyone who came along on the walk yesterday! My next walk will be on September 12 and I might try to fit in a few more for Autumn 🎃 www.walks.com/guides/ruth-1/

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Cormac MacFhionnlaoich @cormacscoast.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Fossil, Cup corals and Crinoid segments - body parts of ancient marine creatures that lay scattered here on an ocean floor over 300 million years ago. County Donegal, Ireland. Cormacscoast.com walking tours

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

My last #urbangeology walk before the summer break is this Saturday at 2.30 pm. This is one of my most popular walks taking in some great sites and fantastic rocks, minerals and fossils! Register at www.walks.com/our-walks/th...

A photograph of the Siege of Malta Memorial which we will visit on the walk. Text reads ‘discover fossils, stone and astronomy in the city of London! The Monument, The Moon and Malta: urban geology on Eastcheap. Meet at 14.30, Monument Station, Fish Street Hill Exit.

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

We’ve added a new SGI citation for the Ilford Mammoth to include this mosaic. New link londongeopartnership.org.uk/wp/wp-conten...

londongeopartnership.org.uk

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

A big thanks to Duncan Grieg and @ucllifesciences.bsky.social for inviting to talk yesterday on what we can learn from #urbanpalaeontology and #urbangeology

The title slide from my talk. The background is a Spanish limestone, crowded with the fossil gastropod Nerineia. The text reads ‘What building stones can tell us about palaeoecolology, Ruth Siddall’.

A photo of Portland stone patch reef showing oysters and the alga Solenopora in growth position

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Dr Susan Newell @sue-newell.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Thank you Dr Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social @geolsoc.bsky.social for a wonderful presentation on mineral and earth pigments combining Earth science history and art history so brilliantly @hoggroup.bsky.social

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Dr Penny Goodman @pjgoodman.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Well, I highly recommend watching this 1968 BBC documentary about an excavation at Silbury Hill before watching the 1971 Doctor Who story, The Daemons. The correlation with the barrow excavation in the first couple of episodes of the story is really very close. www.bbc.co.uk/webarchive/h...

bbc.co.uk

Chronicle - Silbury Dig: The Heart of the Mound

In this programme, originally broadcast live, Magnus Magnusson meets the archaeologists who have uncovered a tunnel that leads into the heart of the mound in Silbury.

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

I’ve just discovered that #mosaicmonday is a thing - I should have waited a day to post this ⬇️

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London Geodiversity Partnership @londongeodiversity.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

One of the things I’m often asked when identifying rocks & minerals is ‘is this a meteorite?’ The answer is always no; what they have found is industrial slag. These are slags from the Thames near Rainham where Murex Ltd metal works were located #londongeology #metalslags #mineralindustry

A photo of two chunks of glassy, blue and greenish grey iron slag.

A piece of crystalline slag with variolitic sheaves of white and green minerals.

A photo of concrete with chunks of black and blue-green glassy slags used as aggregate.

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Clearly design skills don’t qualify you for designing football trophies.

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

A mosaic of ‘Marley the Ilford Mammoth’ made from plastic bottle tops by artist Caitlin Atherton commemorates a mammoth skull excavated in 1863 from Uphall brick pits, Ilford. It’s a steppe mammoth, which lived c 200,000 ka 🦣 londongeopartnership.org.uk/wp/wp-conten... #londongeology

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The Geologists' Association @geolassoc.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Save the date! Join us and our colleagues from @rockwatch.bsky.social on Saturday 7th November 2026 from 10.30am - 4.30pm at Burlington House in London for our FREE Festival of Geology. Full details coming soon via our website: geologistsassociation.org.uk/festival/

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

As part of the celebration events in Crystal Palace Park this weekend, the Dinosaurs will be illuminated each evening. We got a preview tonight..

Colour photo. The two Crystal Palace Iguanodons illuminated at twilight. Hues of purple and blue

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Postcard From The Past @pastpostcard.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

All over too soon.

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