Small Sanctuaries
Designated Silence and Whether It Works
Quiet carriages, silent reading rooms, and library silent zones all promise the same thing. In practice they succeed and fail in very…
June 30, 2026Quiet hours, findable places.
Chasing Quiet Places
Written by Tessa Lindqvist
Latest
Alone, or With Someone
Nearly everything here assumes you are on your own. Some of it works with company and some of it is destroyed by it, and the difference is not…
Practical Notes
When Not to Go
Most of this site is about finding underused places. This is about the times when the right thing is to leave, or…
June 29, 2026Off-Season
All Off-Season ›
February Is the Emptiest Month
Not December, which people imagine. February, when the year has stopped being novel and nobody has started going…
June 16, 2026
Visiting the Famous Thing in the Wrong Month
The overrun landmark that is unbearable in July is often nearly empty in November, and usually cheaper.
May 24, 2026
The Business District on a Sunday Morning
The part of the city built for a hundred thousand commuters is empty for two days a week,…
April 28, 2026Practical Notes
All Practical Notes ›
Keeping a List of Places
The single most useful thing I have done for this. It takes about a minute per entry and…
May 31, 2026
The Phone Question
Not a lecture about screen time. Just what actually worked after trying most of the obvious approaches.
May 5, 2026
What to Carry
A short list arrived at by carrying too much for two years and then too little for six…
April 10, 2026Early Hours
All Early Hours ›
Getting Up Early, Without the Sermon
Most writing about early mornings is either productivity advice or a moral position. This is neither. It is…
June 23, 2026
Summer Mornings and Winter Mornings Are Not the Same Activity
Both are called getting up early, but the effort, the reward, and the kind of quiet on offer…
June 2, 2026
The Park Before the Dog Walkers
There is a window of roughly forty minutes between a park being unusable in the dark and being…
May 13, 2026City Quiet
All City Quiet ›
The Atrium Nobody Uses
Office developments are often required to provide public space in exchange for planning permission. Much of it sits…
May 26, 2026
City Cemeteries Are Public Space
Large Victorian cemeteries are among the biggest and quietest green spaces in most older cities. Using one respectfully…
May 7, 2026
The Chapel in a Building That Is Not a Church
Hospitals, airports, and some universities keep a small room open for anyone who needs it. They are almost…
April 20, 2026Small Sanctuaries
All Small Sanctuaries ›
A Weekday Afternoon at a Small Cinema
The two o clock screening at an independent cinema is often five people in a room built for…
June 10, 2026
The Back of a Secondhand Bookshop
Not the browsing, the sitting. Some bookshops have a chair at the back, and the ones that do…
May 19, 2026
Glasshouses in Winter
A botanic garden glasshouse on a cold weekday is warm, humid, almost empty, and unlike anywhere else available…
May 1, 2026
About
Tessa Lindqvist
Chasing Quiet Places is written by Tessa Lindqvist. Everything here comes from actual use, written up honestly, including the things that did not work.
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