A Short History of British Architecture - From Stonehenge to the Shard

Bestselling historian Simon Jenkins traces the relentless battles over the European traditions of classicism and gothic. He guides us from the gothic cathedrals of Lincoln, Ely and Wells to the ‘prodigy’ houses of the Tudor renaissance, and visits the great estates of Georgian London, the docks of Liverpool, the mills of Yorkshire and the chapels of south Wales.

The arrival of modernism in the twentieth century politicised public taste, upheaved communities and sought to reconstruct entire cities. It produced Coventry Cathedral and Lloyd’s of London, but also the brutalist monoliths of Sheffield’s Park Hill, Glasgow’s Cumbernauld and London’s South Bank. Only in the 1970s did the public at last give voice to what became the conservation revolution – a movement in which Jenkins played a leading role, both as deputy chairman of English Heritage and chairman of the National Trust, and in the saving of iconic buildings such as St Pancras International and Covent Garden.

Jenkins shows that everyone is a consumer of architecture and makes the case for the importance of everyone learning to speak its language. A Short History of British Architecture is a celebration of our national treasures, a lament of our failures – and a call to arms.<>

About the author

Simon Jenkins is author of the bestselling A Short History of England, A Short History of Europe, Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations, England's Thousand Best Churches and England's Thousand Best Houses. He is a former Editor of the Evening Standard and The Times, and columnist for the Guardian.

Product details

• Authors: Simon Jenkins
• Publisher: Viking
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.10.2024
• EAN: 9780241674956
• ISBN: 978-0-241-67495-6
• No. of pages: 320
• Dimensions: 163 mm x 242 mm x 30 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Architecture; ARCHITECTURE / Buildings / General, HISTORY / Social History, Individual architects & architectural firms, Social & cultural history, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, ARCHITECTURE / Individual Architects & Firms / General, ARCHITECTURE / Criticism, ARCHITECTURE / Historic Preservation / General, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / 20th Century, History of art / art & design styles, Biography: arts & entertainment, British & Irish history, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Social and cultural history, Architecture: residential and domestic buildings, Individual architects and architectural firms, Theory of architecture, Architecture: religious buildings