SAH Newsletter Vol 88 - sahgb.org.uk Newsletter Vol 97: ... and No. 3as the Survey of London. ......

In the architectural history circus there were once threetroupes of big performing animals. The crowds never reallycared for them as much as for the acrobats, the jugglers andthe monkeys. But they respected and tolerated them,because they knew that the big animals could performsome specially elaborate tricks which the smaller andquicker ones never could manage. Besides, they had acertain dignity. So long as they didn’t appear too often andpeople didn’t have to concentrate all through theirperformances (which tended not to be very frequentanyway), everyone was content to watch and clap themnow and again. Truth to tell, these animals were expensive to keep.

They might have been a drain on the circus, but luckilythere were patrons who paid for their maintenance,generously or grudgingly, and who liked to take a littlebow when their troupe lumbered out to perform. Thentimes changed. The patrons got poorer or found otherthings to do with their money, and the audiences gotyounger – or at any rate their attention-span got shorter.So the trainers had to decide what to do next, and see ifthey could think up some new tricks. Troupe No. 1 was much the biggest. What its animals

were doing in the architectural history circus was a bit of apuzzle, because most of their routine seemed geared to adifferent audience. But the troupe was old and famous andplayed all over the country, and the trainers did their best tokeep the show on the road and gradually change the tricks.The problem for Troupe No. 1’s trainers was that it becameharder and harder for them to find patrons. Many of thosewho used to pay for the animals said they couldn’t afford todo so any longer, so the troupe ended up performing onlyin the places where money was provided, while the trainersspent most of their time trying to drum up funds when theyshould have been working with the animals. The story of Troupe No.2 is a sad one. These beasts

went on year after year turning the same out-of-datetricks. Even the trainers were bored to death with them, sothey suddenly came up with a completely new routine. Tothe animals’ credit, some of them picked the new tricks upremarkably well, and audiences remember some of theirlast performances as the best. But it was already too late.Troupe No.2’s patron was suddenly sold up, and thoseanimals who weren’t dispatched to the abattoir went off toa new owner.Troupe No. 3 was in some ways the luckiest, though it

had had its scrapes. This troupe started out about the sametime as No. 1. But it was much smaller and it only ever

performed in London. Precariousness in its early days hadtaught its animals to be more flexible than the other twotroupes, and No. 3 benefited from that lesson. So long asthe performances were successful, the trainers mostly letthe No. 3 animals get on with things. Quite a few years agonow, when Troupes No. 1 and 2 were still stumblingaround with outdated routines, No. 3’s leading animalquietly introduced all sorts of fresh tricks. But he was wilyenough not to drop the old ones completely. So the troupecame to have a wide range, even if it had quite a narrowaudience. Not only were its performances sharper, theylooked better too. After the clever old animal retired (he isstill out to grass), Troupe No. 3’s patrons changed twice insuccession, which was naturally confusing. A few of thefresh trainers tried to interfere. But the new patron – whoincidentally wasn’t a Londoner – soon saw that the No. 3animals, who had got the knack of varying their tricks, still

97 Society of ArchitecturalHistorians of Great BritainNewsletter No. Summer

THE SURVEY OF LONDON

SURVEY OF LONDON

CLERKENWELL

New P

ublic

ation

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Published by Yale University Press forThe Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

SAH Newsletter Vol 97:SAH Newsletter Vol 89 01/06/2009 10:55

knew pretty well what they were up to. He wisely realizedthat he got credit out of the beasts’ performance, and hasbeen generous enough to keep on paying.Enough of taking allegorical liberties. Readers who

have got this far will recognize Troupe No. 1 as the VictoriaCounty History series, No. 2 as the old inventory volumesof the defunct Royal Commission on HistoricalMonuments (England) and No. 3 as the Survey of London.It’s only the Survey that the rest of this article addresses, inthe shape of an informal review of what the series has beenup to over the past generation and what are its plans andprospects today.A quarter of a century ago today the Survey of London

was under threat, as Mrs Thatcher’s plans for destroying ordismembering its paymaster, the Greater London Council,ground bitterly forward. But it had friends in high places.An editorial in The Times commended the plan to bestowit on the RCHME, ‘whose labours of detachedscholarship elsewhere in Britain have long been the dullfoil against which the Survey shines so bright.’ Couldsuch an editorial appear today, one wonders? Wouldreaders understand what it was about? Francis Sheppard had then recently retired after

something short of thirty years’ service as General Editorof the Survey, or a third of the series’ lifetime. Under a neweditor, Hermione Hobhouse, the last of its four volumeson Kensington was nearing completion. Volume 42 came

out in 1986, the year of the GLC’s abolition. It marked theend of an era, because the GLC and its predecessor theLCC had been involved in the series from almost the start.But it also set the coping stone on the Sheppard legacy.Over the previous twenty six years fourteen volumes ofthe Survey had been published, a formidable average ofmore than one every two years. Not only that, but thosefourteen books were all about the smartest andarchitecturally richest areas of London, the West End,Soho, Covent Garden and Kensington, where great estatesand significant architecture abound. Such places could notbe covered with a quick fix. They deserved, and they got,intensive research and immaculate analysis. Those were thevolumes which earned the Survey of London the highcritical reputation which it still enjoys. If you compare the Survey’s earlier productions with

those volumes, especially the run starting with the famousVolume 37 of 1973 on Northern Kensington (the nearestthe series has ever had to a best-seller), Francis Sheppard’squiet and continuous revolution appears astonishing. Until1960 the series was still vestigially a cataloguing orinventorizing exercise, listing and describing London’shistoric buildings as separate pearls in a sea of dross.Thereafter a small team of researcher-writers (seldommore than five) and architectural illustrators absorbed themethods and interests of the new urban history thenemerging from centres like the University of Leicester, or

President: Professor Malcolm AirsPast President: Frank KelsallChairman: Professor Andrew Ballantyne, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University, Newcastleupon Tyne, ; [email protected]

Honorary Secretary: Simon Green, RCAHMS, Barnard Terrace, Edinburgh eh8 9nx; [email protected] Treasurer: David Lermon, Beech House, Cotswold Avenue, Lisvane, Cardiff cf14 0ta; [email protected] Editor: Professor Judi Loach, Africa Gardens, Cardiff ; [email protected] Editor: Dr Zeynep Kezer, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University, Newcastleupon Tyne, , [email protected]

Reviews Editor: Kathryn Morrison, English Heritage, Brooklands, Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge, ,[email protected]

Events Secretaries: Andrew Martindale and Pete Smith, [email protected] Secretaries: Dr Elizabeth Green (for 2009 Liverpool, [email protected]); Jo Moore (for 2010Herefordshire, [email protected]); Olivia Horsfall Turner (2011 Conference, in progress)

Publications Officer: Dr Simon P. Oakes, [email protected] Membership Secretary: Dr Alex Bremner, Department of Architecture, University of Edinburgh, 20 Chambers Street,Edinburgh eh1 1jz; [email protected]

Registrars of Research: Dr Kerry Bristol, [email protected] Officer: Dr Julian Holder, English Heritage (North West), Suites . and ., Canada House, , Chepstow Street,Manchester, ; [email protected]

Minutes Secretary: Olivia Horsfall TurnerWebsite Officer: Dr Robert Proctor, [email protected] Members of the Committee: Dr James Campbell, Peter Guillery, Dr William Whyte, Dr Sarah Whittingham, Nicholas Molyneux

The Society’s officers all hold honorary posts.Contributions for Architectural History should be sent to Professor Judi Loach and books for review to Kathryn Morrison.Items for inclusion in the Newsletter should be sent to Dr Zeynep Kezer. Enquiries about the Society’s publications shouldbe sent to Dr Simon Oakes. Correspondence concerning membership (for example, new membership enquiries, payments of subscriptions and change of address) should be sent to Dr Alex Bremner. Enquiries about events should be sent to Simon Green. Enquiries about the Research Register should be sent to Dr Kerry Bristol. Enquiries about Bursariesand Essay Medal Prize should be sent to Dr Julian Holder. Queries about mail inserts should be sent to David Lermon.Matters related to fundraising should be referred to Charles Keighley (tel: 01993 831403, [email protected]).Correspondence on all other matters should be sent to Simon Green.

THE SOCIETY’S OFFICERS


at least those which seemed most applicable to theSurvey’s work. The buildings themselves were neverneglected; they remained the be-all and the end-all of theseries. But now they were set firmly in the context of eacharea’s overall development, its demography and, to a lesserextent, its social and industrial history. What had startedout as episodic pieces had been joined together into anintricate but complete and coherent urban jigsaw. That kind of inclusive approach seems fairly standard in

Britain today. Aspects of it apply, for instance, in the revisedPevsner guides. Though they stick even more firmly thanthe Survey to the rubric of architecture, the Pevsnerssupply much more background and colour to their senseof a town or street than their eminent founder had timefor. Mixing architecture with other types of history hasbeen a general development, and no doubt has much to dowith the increasingly visual nature of education andculture at large. But what the reformed Survey could add,perhaps uniquely because of its scale, was a sense ofprocess. It now conveyed how streets, neighbourhoods andwhole areas of London were built up, settled, renewed orneglected over the years, in a process which is still at theheart of metropolitan actuality today.

There was nothing preordained about what happenedin the 1970s, just as there is no guarantee that the balanceof topics and treatment which the Survey of Londonarrived at then and has gone on developing since will seemnatural and right in perpetuity. How far what we do at theSurvey can look peculiar has been borne in on merecently. Next year we hope to hold a meeting that bringstogether scholars from a number of big cities round theworld to see what is being done that is in any wayanalogous with our series, and how systematically theyrecord their urban architectural history. It is early days yet;our list of contacts is still building up. One thing seemsalready clear, and it is hard to know whether we should bemore worried or proud about it. No other city hasanything directly comparable with the Survey of London.What marks us out as different is not just that we have aseries which has been up and running since 1900 and isstill going (47 not out at present), but that we shamelesslymix urban history with architecture. Many other cities and most countries have or have had

inventory-style projects with some sort of publishingdimension. But they all seem rigidly restricted to the old-style concept of the monument and the statutorily

Battersea Power Station in action during the 1950s’ (photograph by John Gay, courtesy of English Heritage)


protected building, the straitjacket the Survey started toescape in the 1960s. For whatever reasons, they have failedto go beyond that and embrace an inclusive presentationof their city fabrics. Of course there have been many suchstudies everywhere, but they are generally individualefforts fragmented here, there and everywhere, inarchitectural magazines, historical and geographicaljournals, and planning policy papers. None of them seemsto constitute a series for wider public consumption andeducation. So much for the origins of the Survey’s present-day

Gestalt, and its continuing influence on the way in whichits volumes are researched and written. What then haschanged since Francis Sheppard’s time? The answer is alot. One rationale for the Survey’s existence from the starthas been to chronicle areas in peril, as indeed the West Endand Covent Garden were in the 1960s. But it was time bythe 1980s to break off the long love-affair with the poshparts of London. Hermione Hobhouse threw the teamdramatically in the other direction, at the docks, or whatlittle was left of them. Arguably the decision to go toPoplar, the heart of the redeveloping docklands, came tenyears too late. The Development Corporation was thenworking at full throttle; much had already come down,with more following while research was taking place. The shock was profound but mostly salutary. The

Survey had to get its hands dirty and grapple withindustrial archaeology, which it had never tackled before.Nor had it devoted much space before to public housing.A higher proportion of what the authors and illustratorsfelt was worth recording had gone than in past volumes,and a lot of what was on the ground had only just beenbuilt or was even in the process of building. That raisedissues of proportion and relevance. New skills had to belearned, and they have been retained. It would no longerbe possible to treat a major modern building as cursorilyas the Survey did with Eero Saarinen’s American Embassyin Volume 40, for instance.As important for the direction of the series was the fact

that in a landscape of brutally changing infrastructure andownership like the docks the old Summersonianmethodology of basing the chapter structure on estatehistory would no longer wash. Landownership and leasingare always fundamental to understanding citydevelopment, and will always provide part of theframework for the Survey’s volumes. But the greatlandlords of the West End are not as typical as we used tothink. Estates elsewhere were often smaller and weaker,and less able to impose development patterns. InDocklands the first and sometimes the second layout hadoften been swept away entirely. The estate rudder havinggone missing, there was nothing for it but to steer thevolumes empirically.The RCHME, to which the Survey was transferred in

1986 from the GLC, as The Times had hoped, was a benignpatron to the series for thirteen years. The staff grew, andsplit itself between Poplar (under Stephen Porter) andKnightsbridge (John Greenacombe, who succeededHermione Hobhouse in 1994), while a small advance guardstarted looking at Clerkenwell, another area in transitionwhich had suggested itself for study back in the ’80s. Allsorts of new things were opening up. But the magicalproductivity of the Sheppard years was missing. The twovolumes on Poplar came eight years after Volume 42, andslimmer Knightsbridge (an elegant afterthought on the

Kensington model, with the details on leasing andmortgaging severely squeezed) another six years on again, in2000. A modicum of this slowing down may have been dueto a failure of control at the RCHME, which paradoxicallyexpressed itself as a tendency to interfere more. Thevolumes, when they came, were as good as ever, if not better.But they were getting fewer reviews, and the slower rate,caused mainly by the desire to be ever more complete andauthoritative, was a serious matter. Series like the Surveymust not only evolve, they must produce. The fuller booksget, the slower they get. This remains a problem.By the time Knightsbridge came out the RCHME had

been abolished and the Survey had been shifted to EnglishHeritage, where its colleagues from the former GLCHistoric Buildings Division had been restabled in 1986. Atleast in theory, that gave back a connection with thepractical day-to-day issues of historic buildings workwanting in the RCHME years. The two Clerkenwell volumes which appeared in 2008

have been extraordinarily well received. The reasons arenot far to seek. Clerkenwell has become fashionable, and if(with exceptions like Lubetkin’s Finsbury Health Centre)it possesses few buildings of great fame or absolutely topquality, the average standard is high and the ‘grain’ of thearea, especially in the south of the parish, dense andabsorbing. It is the kind of district that the Survey’s skillsand tenacity are ideal for unravelling. It proved indeed acomplex place to write about. That helps explain why itagain took so long, but most of the team would agree thatthe task was more enjoyable and rewarding than Poplar.No Survey volumes have been quite so comprehensive asthose on Clerkenwell, and perhaps none ever will be again,for the series must learn to leave things out as well as putthings in. The other reason for Clerkenwell’s happy reception is

that it marked changes in publishing arrangements andformat. The Paul Mellon Centre has agreed to back theseries for a defined period, which has meant publication byYale University Press. This has been a lifeline, for the serieshad been without a publisher since the old Athlone Pressdisappeared. The new arrangement coincided with thelong-overdue shift to integrated format, with photographsinterspersed in the text alongside the line drawings. Wealways said we would not get it right first time, andprobably have not quite done so. But everyone haswelcomed the change, and it is undoubtedly here to stay. Two new ‘parish’ projects are now on the stocks,

Battersea and Woolwich. They mark an overdue return toSouth London, neglected since the first Sheppard volume(Lambeth Part 2, back in 1956). Both are at presentscheduled for 2012, though we shall probably publish firstwhichever is finished first. Woolwich has been chosenbecause of the intensive redevelopment going on there. Itwill also allow us to piece in work already done on someof the military buildings, notably the Arsenal, and put themin the context of Woolwich’s development as a distinctivesatellite town to London. Battersea will be in two volumes. The first will be

arranged thematically (essentially by building-type) andwill take in everything except the housing, destined for thesecond volume. This new strategy is meant to stimulategreater selectivity, but it is no surprise that we are alreadyfeeling pressure on space. Battersea is not only big (at 2,400acres very big for the Survey), but also an area of greatvariety. There were some 20 Anglican churches and about


35 primary schools alone, forgetting about the ocean ofhousing. There was much fascinating industry, all gone,along the Thames. And who would want to shortchangethe park, the power station or Clapham Junction? Whenyou start to dig, everything in London is interesting. Greatdiscipline will be needed, not only in writing but inillustration. It can be argued that the Clerkenwell volumeswere over-illustrated – too many pictures, too small.Anyone involved in architectural book production knowsthis problem. One minor innovation we are thinking about for the

Woolwich and Battersea volumes is how, within reason, toget more people into our pictures: not people on theirown, as buildings with people in and around them. If youlook back at C. R. Ashbee’s 1896 monograph on theTrinity Almshouses in Mile End, the forerunner of theSurvey series, you will find drawings of retired seamenplaying draughts or reading the newspaper amid theelevations and plans of the building. That is because Ashbeethought of buildings as expressions and locations of humanactivity, not just as bald bricks and mortar. Somehow thatgot lost in twentieth-century architectural illustration. Sowe have commissioned Peter Cormack to make a smallnumber of special drawings for each of the new volumesin which people appear in the foreground of the buildings– soldiers parading, mechanics hosing down a garageforecourt, shoppers window-shopping, and the like. The same principle can apply to some of the

photographs. We all like to see people and vehicles as a foilto the buildings in older urban photographs, so why nottoday? For that reason, we are encouraging ourphotographers to include people in their shots. Churchinteriors, for instance, have always been depicted in the pastas empty voids, partly because of photographic technologyand partly out of respect for worship. But moderntechniques allow the photographer to work quietly at theback, and easier-going priests and ministers are happy towelcome a record of their congregation. These issues of thechanging nature of architectural illustration go well beyondthe Survey of London, of course. One great imponderable issue hangs over us, as it does

over many big, non-profit, series of illustrated books:digitization and on-line publication. The Survey has takenthe first step in this direction successfully. At the cost ofEnglish Heritage, all the parish volumes up toKnightsbridge have been scanned and are now accessiblevia the British History On Line website, alongside theVCH. Doubtless that is how most users now encounterour work and our name. There is one drawback. For reasons of cost, time and the

difficulties of permissions, most of the illustrations on theweb can be seen only at low resolution and some have hadto be omitted. So though the information we provide isnow far more widely available, the quality and beauty ofthe illustrations and of the volumes as a whole are missing

on line. In practice, most people will be content with theon-line version and unlikely to look further. Recently aresearcher on behalf of one of Kensington’s smartest estateagents asked permission to reproduce some Surveydrawings in a brochure. As the details of houses given inthe Survey volumes are known to be helpful to estateagents, I had assumed that the firm possessed copies of theKensington set, but not so. The researcher had seen onlythe ‘low-res’ web illustrations, and did not seem aware ofthe published books. When I became general editor in 2006, I made it my

business to ask a variety of people whether they felt theseries had a future in book form, or whether we should goentirely digital. The answer was unequivocal: keep the bigbooks going. I was happy to hear that answer. But then Ihave to admit that those I consulted were mostly over fiftyyears of age. The ideal answer is easy to give: we should do both. We

should preserve the permanence and elegance of thebooks and at the same time provide a sophisticated, fullyillustrated and searchable version on the web. Any anxietythat publishers might have about that could probably beresolved, as it seems to be a maxim now (though on whatevidence?) that on-line and book publication support oneanother. The real problem is resource. It is well known thatthe design and the very conception of first-rate websitesmust be completely different from those of books. Extrastaff would be needed, inside or outside English Heritage,not only to design each new publication but to maintainand update it – mercifully, not an issue with the publishedvolumes. The flexibility of web publication, in whichthings can be altered and recast, has great attractions, but itcan also lead to superficiality and haste. The greatadvantage of the books is that they are matured andstructured in such a way as to be definitive. And if a whollynew and successful web version of the Survey wereestablished, who could doubt that the need for the bookswould be questioned?It’s been argued in this piece that the achievement of

the Survey series, such as it has been over the past fiftyyears, has depended on a continuous evolution. That isbound to go on. But there has been something else as well.Ultimately everyone who works on the Survey wants toget on with the task in hand. If further change does come,including such a ‘great disruption’ as a switch from printto electronic production would entail, the key test will bewhether those who research and write and illustrate thevolumes will be able to get on and do the job before them,and not get enmeshed in endless intricacies of process. Stillless than half of inner London – the old area of theLondon County Council – has been covered. We urgentlyneed to finish the task. And then there is the small matterof revision. Estimate the start of that, if all goes well, inabout 2100 …

ANDREW SAINT


AWARDS AND BURSARIESGrants for Publication and Education The Society distributes a number of small grants, twiceannually, to support research in architectural history, ineither of the two categories of Publication and Education (see below for details).

Value of Awards Individual grants will not normally exceed £, but inexceptional circumstances a grant of up to £, may beawarded.

Eligibility (a) Awards are open to members of the Society, and non-members, in any category. (b) Candidates may apply for a second award, but in casesof equal merit priority will be given to the first-timeapplicant. No one may receive more than two awards. (c) The topic in the application may relate to any aspect ofthe history of architecture. (d) Applicants must either be resident in the British Isles,or working on the history of British architecture.

Application Applications should include the following information: • title and description of project • CV • detailed estimate of costs • date of start of project and estimated completion date • two letters of recommendation to be sent directly byreferees to the Secretary Applicants are responsible for asking their referees to write.Six copies of the application should be submitted to theHonorary Secretary, Simon Green, with a sae ifacknowledgement is required. The deadlines for application are April and

October each year.

Awards The award decisions will be made annually in May andNovember. Payments to successful applicants will be madeonly after documentary evidence of each major item inthe proposed expenditure has been supplied. This may bea receipt or invoice, or confirmation of travel booking orconference enrolment. The Society must be acknowledgedin any published work arising out of the application. Copies of books, or in the case of shorter publications,

an offprint or photocopy, should be sent to the Secretaryof the Society. A brief report of the use made of the grantmust be submitted to the Secretary within a year of itsreceipt and, if the work extends beyond twelve months, asecond report should be submitted on its completion.

Stroud Bursaries (for publication) Any of the following expenses may be claimed: • subsidy to defray publication costs • cost of purchase of illustrations • payment of copyright fees • contribution to the costs of mounting an exhibition

Ramsden Bursaries (for education) Applicants must normally be students registered for higherdegrees. Awards will be given for research expenses, such as: • travel • building survey • photography • conference attendance

Grants will not be awarded for: • maintenance at home • purchase of books or equipment • secretarial help • tuition fees

Post-Graduate Research BursariesThe Society awards two bursaries, each subject to identicalterms and providing support for two full-time postgraduateresearch students in the field of architectural history.

Jonathan Vickers Postgraduate Research BursaryAs a result of a generous bequest from the estate of a latemember, Jonathan Vickers, together with support fromEnglish Heritage and many members, the Society hasrecently made its second Bursary award. Frances Sands,University of York, recently commenced her research onNostell Priory: the evolution of a house: -; thebursary extends until -, subject to variousconditions.

Ernest Cook Trust Postgraduate Research BursaryThis Bursary arises as the result of the generosity of theTrustees of the Ernest Cook Trust, and of other donorsincluding the D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust and theThriplow Trust.This bursary is currently held by Joanne O’Hara,

University of York, who is researching the preparatorydrawings for Vitruvius Britannicus by Colen Campbell, inthe RIBA Drawings Collection.Each award is worth £, for each academic year. It

is the Society’s intention to fund a three-year Ernest CookPostgraduate Research Bursary, subject to the candidate’ssatisfactory performance and to the Society’s financialresources at the time. A grant of £, for eachacademic year will be made to the successful candidates,subject to AHRC funding not being available.Applications are requested before September foran award for the / academic year.Applicants should send a CV, a report (of not more than

words) outlining their research proposal, a statement oftheir financial position (including details of other grantapplications made or pending) and proof of UK universityregistration, along with a covering letter (to include fullcontact details) and two academic references to SimonGreen (Honorary Secretary, SAHGB), RCAHMS, Bernard Terrace, Edinburgh EH NX. Full terms andconditions are available on request from the Society’sEducation Officer ([email protected]), or on theSociety’s website.

JULIAN HOLDER EDUCATION OFFICER

ANNOUNCEMENTS


THE SOCIETY’S PUBLICATIONSStudies in Architectural History Presented toHoward ColvinArchitectural History, Volume : . pp. Includes essays on design and practice in British architecture. Alimited number of cloth-bound editions of this volumeare now available to Members at the special price of £,incl. p&p. These will be released on a first-come-first-served basis. To register interest, please email Dr SimonOakes in the first instance at [email protected]

Deadlines For CopyThe SAHGB Newsletter is published three times a year.The deadlines for copy to the editor for the next threeissues are listed below: Issue Publication date Deadline for CopyNo , Autumn early September July , No , Winter/Spring early February December , No , Summer late May April ,

Please make note of the interval between each issue andthe time lag between deadline and publication, andcontact us about your announcements well in advance. We welcome brief details of forthcoming lecture series,

symposia, conferences, and exhibitions both in the UKand overseas. We also invite short notices about recentdiscoveries and requests for information. Contributionsmaybe sent as attached Word compatible files [email protected] as attachments or on disk, or on

paper with double spacing and wide margins, to theaddress provided on page .

Mailing guidelines for advertising insertsThe Society publishes a newsletter three times a year,normally in January, May and September. Promotionalinserts can be accepted, provided these are relevant toarchitectural history, and they are charged at £ for anA, A or A folded leaflet. The Society reserves the rightto re-quote should our mailing house raise any concernsabout the size or weight of the material. This price applies to a mailing to all UK addresses

(approximately , comprising individuals as well asacademic and other institutions). Should the advertiserwish to include a mailing to our overseas members(approximately ), this will be charged at an additional£, subject to weight and dimensions. The order should be placed with David Lermon,

Honorary Treasurer, stating whether only UK or totalcirculation including overseas is required (all contactdetails are provided above), and where an order number isrequired by the advertiser, this should also be provided.The advertiser should also copy in our mailing house atGraham Maney, Outset Services Ltd, Belvedere, ChurchStreet, Clifford LS DG Email: [email protected];Telephone/Fax: We will do our best to mail inserts in your preferred

time-slot, but where the mailing is time sensitive pleasemake the Society and the mailing house aware of this inwriting or by email.

THE SOCIETY’S EVENTSForty Hall Revisited, July , Since the Society’s original Study Day was held at FortyHall, London in , under the leadership of ElainHarwood, much new information has been uncoveredabout this important early th century house. Elainpublished her conclusions, drawn from that day ofexploration, under the title Forty Hall and Tyttenhangar inThe Renaissance Villa in England edited by Malcolm Airsand Geoffery Tyack. The London Borough of Enfield, inconjunction with English Heritage, commissioned aconservation management plan from Paul DruryPartnership in . This thorough and comprehensiveexamination of the fabric has resulted in the pulication oftheir conclusions in last year’s volume of ArchitecturalHistory entitled Forty Hall, Enfield: Continuity andInnovation in a Carolean Gentry House, by RichardPeats.This second Study Day, on Saturday th July, plans to

give those who attended the first one the opportunity tore-examine the fabric in the light of these newpublications, as well as allowing those who were not ableto attend the first Study Day opportunity to test forthemselves the theories and suggestions made about theoriginal form of this small, but possibly revolutionary,country house. The day will be led by Paul Drury and PeteSmith. The cost, including lunch is £25. For furtherinformation and to sign up for the tour please contact

Pete Smith (17, Villa Road, Nottingham ng3 4ggor [email protected]).

Bristol Study Day, July This study tour, led by Dr Sarah Whittingham will bespent looking mainly at buildings with an educationaltheme. Bristol University celebrates its centenary thisyear, and we will meet at the Architecture Centre at am to view the exhibition ‘The University ofBristol’s Buildings: Past, Present and Future’ (furtherinformation at www.bristol.ac.uk/centenary/look/exhibitions.html). We will have a packed lunch(provided) in the cathedral (work from the Cthonwards, nave by G E Street , w towers by J LPearson ), and there will be time to look around thebuilding independently. We will then have a guided tourof Bristol Central Reference Library (Charles Holden-) by Anthony Beeson, Fine Art Librarian since, and author of Bristol Central Library and CharlesHolden (). This will be followed by tea in BristolCity Museum and Art Gallery (Frank Wills -). Wewill finish at the Wills Memorial Building (Sir GeorgeOatley -). This is the University’s most significantbuilding and the last great secular Gothic building to beconstructed in this country. Sarah Whittingham will leada tour of the Entrance Hall, Great Hall, ReceptionRoom, Council Chamber and Library, as well as the-feet-high tower (optional). The visit will finish atabout pm.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS


Please note: there is a lot of walking in this tour,including up a very steep hill and a lot of steps to climb tothe top of the Wills Memorial Building tower.The cost is £ per person, to include morning coffee,

a packed lunch and afternoon tea. Please send a chequemade out to ‘Society of Architectural Historians GreatBritain’, to Dr Sarah Whittingham, Fern House, ChurchRoad, Sneyd Park, Bristol bs9 1ju, and make sure toinclude your address, phone number, and email address ifyou have one. Numbers are limited to . Joininginstructions will be sent out at the end of June.

SAHGB Study Tours to Naples: September and Spring Professor Alistair Rowan is planning to lead two furtherStudy Tours for members of the society to Naples in thenext months. The first tour took place in April this yearand is fully booked. There are (at the time of writing) a fewplaces available on each of the tours which take place asfollows:Tour , from Saturday September to Sunday

September Tour , will be from Saturday April to Sunday

April . Fuller details of the Naples Study Tour programmes,

which will be broadly similar for all tours, may be foundon the Society’s website www.sahgb.org.uk Costs for Tour are Euro per person in a single

room and Euro per person in a double room sharing.The exact cost of Tour will be similar but will reflectthe current rate of charges for the hotel, bus hire andmeals current in Naples in April . For each tour therewill be a reduction of Euro for bona fide students,and any surplus at the end of the tours will be used toincrease the fund for the President’s essay prize or similar.Payment can be made in sterling, but the total cost willbe based on the Euro exchange rate at the time. Eachstudy tour begins and ends in Naples. Members areresponsible for making their own travel arrangements andshould plan to have arrived in the city in time to takepart in an initial walking tour of a part of the centre at. pm on the Saturday. Members who book are advised to take out

comprehensive travel insurance at the time of booking, as costs will have been incurred. Each group will stay in a three star hotel - Albergo Napolit’amo, Via S.Tommaso d’Aquino - which is in the centre of the historic city in a distinctly ‘safe’ area [Seehttp://www.napolitamo.it/home/albergo/albergoen.html] Breakfast in the hotel, six additional meals, the cost of entry

to properties and the hire of busses for two days touringoutside of Naples are included in the price of each tour.Members who wish to join one of the tours are asked to

get in touch with Professor Rowan as soon as possible statingtheir preference for the September or April visits.Places are limited to not more than members for eachtour and will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Itwill be easier if members can provide an email address. Whenthe bookings are confirmed, a deposit of £ will berequired. Recent trips organised by Professor Rowan for theSociety to Pisa () and to Bologna ( & ) wereeach oversubscribed and greatly appreciated by those whoattended. Contact details are as follows: Professor Alistair Rowan, Leeson Park, Dublin ;phone: ; e-mail: [email protected]

Annual Conference (- September )LiverpoolThe SAHGB Annual Conference will be based inLiverpool Britannia Adelphi and, as usual, a number ofpre-conference tours including Port Sunlight, Universityof Liverpool, The Ropewalks and Liverpool One, will alsobe available. Enquiries should be addressed to theConference Secretary for Liverpool: Dr Elizabeth Green([email protected] or Dr Liz Green,Curator, The National Trust, Trinity Square, Llandudnoll30 2de). For further details and booking forms, please seethe enclosed flier in the previous issue of the newsletter orconsult the Society’s web page at(http://www.sahgb.org.uk/index.cfm/display_page/Events%Conference)

SAHGB Annual Lecture, November , ,LondonThis year's SAHGB Annual Lecture will take on Monday November at the Courtauld Institute, London.Professor Vaughan Hart of the University of Bath will bespeaking on 'Inigo Jones and the Architecture ofDecorum'. An insert containing detailed information andthe reservation form will be included in the next issue ofthe newsletter.

OTHER EVENTSThe Dog Rose Trust Georgian GroupShropshire and Marches Regional Branch Events(April-July )The mission of the Dog Rose Trust is to research anddevelop means of improving access, interpretation andunderstanding of the environment with a special emphasison architecture and art, and particularly for those withvisual impairments. Upcoming trips organized by the trustinclude: July Shifnal townscape and Staffordshire gardens Day AugustPainswick Day September Combermere Abbey and CholmondleyCastleFor more information about the details of trips and

pricing, please contact The Dog Rose Trust��Greenacres, Ludlow, Shropshire sy8 1lz, UnitedKingdom��Tel: + ()

Owen Jones Bicentenary Born in , Owen Jones trained as an architect and wenton to become one of the most influential design reformersof the nineteenth century. In recognition of his importantcontribution to its own foundation, the Victoria & AlbertMuseum’s exhibition of Jones’s work entitled A HigherAmbition: Owen Jones (-) runs until November.The museum is also holding a study day on Saturday

June. This event will explore the many aspects of OwenJones’s career: his unrivalled survey of the Alhambra; hiscontroversial paint scheme for the Great Exhibitionbuilding and his contribution to the Sydenham CrystalPalace; the Grammar of Ornament; his architectural work,interiors and textiles; and his enduring legacy. Speakersare Charles Newton, Mariam Rosser-Owen, Jan Piggott,Kathryn Ferry, Sonia Ashmore, Carol Flores, MarySchoeser, Ariane Varela-Braga and Alan Powers. The fee


is £ (£ concessions) and bookings can be madeonline at http://www.vam.ac.uk/activ_events/courses/courses/study_days_seminars/study_days/ or by phoneon + ()

Field/Work: th AHRA International Conference�- November , EdinburghThe th AHRA International Conference thematicallytitled Field/Work will take place in Edinburgh. Theconference aims to address conventions of praxis/actionand field/work across media, scales, cultures; toarticulate current discourses on the topic, and toidentify critical dilemmas and opportunities for futurepractices of design and research. Registration opens inJune .

CALLS FOR PAPERS ANDSESSIONS AT CONFERENCESNarrative Space�- April , University of Leicester�Narrative Space is a -day international interdisciplinaryconference exploring the creation of narrativeenvironments in museums, galleries, historic sites,buildings and landscapes. Narrative Space draws togethermuseum professionals, exhibition designers, architects andacademics to explore practice at the cutting-edge ofexhibition and experience making. Proposals are soughtfrom museum practitioners, architects, designers, artists,filmmakers and others actively involved in the imaginativereshaping of museums, galleries and visitor experiences aswell as academics researching in the areas of museum andgallery architecture, exhibition and display, both historical and contemporary. Please send a short proposal of no more than words to Suzanne MacLeod at:�[email protected] and Laura Hanks at: [email protected]. Deadline for applications is th July . For more informationplease refer to http://www.le.ac.uk/museumstudies/profdev/nspace.html

Society of Architectural Historians rd Annual Meeting, - April, , Chicago,Illinois, USAThe rd Annual Meeting of the Society of ArchitecturalHistorians (SAH) will hold its annual meeting in Chicago. Members and friends of the SAH are invited to submit abstracts for papers to be presented at the conference by August for a range of thematic sessions. Detailed descriptions of the sessions and information about submission policies are available at www.sah.org/clientuploads/TextFiles/CallPapers.pdf

European Architectural History Network st International Meeting, - June, ,Guimarães, PortugalAbstracts are invited for the various paper and roundtablesessions at the st International Meeting of the EuropeanArchitectural History Network in Guimarães, Portugal.The deadline for submissions is October . Detaileddescriptions of the sessions and policies for participationmay be found at www.eahn.org/EAHN_CPF.pdf

INFORMATION EXCHANGE Conservation Areas at Risk CampaignEnglish Heritage Launches First National Survey ofNation’s Most Special Places England has , Conservation Areas designated by localauthorities to preserve their special character. The heart ofa historic town might be a Conservation Area, as might astreet of well-preserved s semi-detached houses or anisolated group of farm buildings. Details of localConservation Areas are held by councils and can usuallybe found on their websites.English Heritage has asked every Local Authority in

the country to fill in a questionnaire for each of theirConservation Areas as part of the first nationwide censusof the condition of this important element of ourheritage. The results will be announced and a campaignwill be launched on rd June to help councils,communities and individual residents to care for thesespecial places. Those conservation areas identified as at risk will be

added to the Heritage at Risk register, published annuallyby English Heritage which has new categories added to iteach year in an attempt to create a Domesday Book ofevery aspect of England’s threatened heritage. The registerhelps everyone to prioritise action, direct resources toareas of need and focus attention on saving the best of thepast for the future. Eventually it will make England thefirst country in the world to have a comprehensive pictureof its heritage at risk and the necessary understanding tosave it.Many conservation areas have local amenity societies or

residents’ groups which perform a valuable role inprotecting the special character of the place where theylive for everyone’s benefit. English Heritage is keen tohear from as many of these local groups as possible inorder to gain a wider picture of what is happening acrossthe country as well as to keep them informed of thecampaign. To receive information and get involved

in the campaign, please visit www.english-heritage.org.uk/conservationareas

RIBA British Architectural Library – Drawings andArchives Collections – Assael ScholarshipApplications are invited for the Assael Scholarship,based in the RIBA’s Drawings and Archives Collections inthe Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The Scholarshipis funded through the generosity of John Assael, whowishes to support the cataloguing of Modern Movementdrawings from the s-s in the RIBA’s collections.The task for the Assael Scholar will be to sort,arrange and catalogue designs by Ernö Goldfinger (-) for amongst others, Westville Road Primary School,-, Carr & Company in Birmingham, -, HilleHouse, Watford for S.Hille Ltd, and - AlbemarleSt, London, . There are some private houses as well.Training will be provided. The successful candidate willhave a demonstrable knowledge of an interest inarchitecture, good communication and organisationalskills and a flexible and helpful approach. Ideally thecandidate will also have undertaken post-graduate work inarchitectural history.For further information, contact either Charles Hind

or Kurt Helfrich in the Drawings and Archives


Collections ([email protected] and --) or [email protected] and --.Please apply with a curriculum vita and a statement aboutyour suitability for the scholarship. Candidates should alsoattach an Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form(http://www.architecture.com/educationandcareers/careersandopportunities/equalopportunities.aspx) and anApplicant’s Statement to their application. The deadlinefor applications is June, . The successful candidatewill receive £ gross per week for the duration of theScholarship, which is envisaged to be up to weeksstarting at the end of July . However, the duration andstart date may be negotiable.

The IHBC Gus Astley Annual Student AwardThe IHBC Gus Astley Annual Student Award offers up to£ or equivalent, for an outstanding item of under-graduate or post-graduate coursework relating to historicenvironment conservation. Topics may cover any aspect ofconservation including: evaluation (eg history, pre-history& research), management (eg policy, finance & planning)and/or intervention (eg design, technology &architecture). Applicants simply submit a digital version oftheir best - coursework to [email protected]. See www.ihbc.org.uk for forms & details.Open to all students engaged in taught courses in - Forresults see Context, the IHBC’s journal, & the IHBCAnnual School Closing date: July .

MPhil at the University of BathThe MPhil in Architectural History and Theory at theUniversity of Bath invites applications from studentswishing to pursue advanced studies in the history andtheory of architecture in the highly regardedDepartment of Architecture and Civil Engineering,under the expert supervision of a world class team ofarchitectural historians. The range of research topicscovered is broad, and is supported by academics in the department with research interests ranging from classical antiquity to the most up to date computer-assisted modelling of historic architectural and urban environments. For further informationcontact the course director, Dr. Fabrizio Nevola at [email protected] or consult the website:http://www.bath.ac.uk/ace/mphil-arch-history-theory/

Major Accessions to Repositories in Relatingto Architecture

LOCALAyrshire Archives (Ayrshire Archives Centre, CraigieEstate, Ayr, ka8 0ss) Darley Hay Partnership, architects,Ayr: plans and drawings, mainly rel to Ayrshire th-thcentury (Accession )

Bath and North East Somerset Record Office(Guildhall, High Street, Bath, BA AW) John WilliamsCollection: deeds and papers rel to Bath properties inclplans and estimates for alterations to the Theatre Royal,Bath - (Acc ) Bath City Council:engineer’s department plans and papers rel to Pump Roomand Roman Baths heating boiler - (Acc )

Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and RecordsService (County Hall, Cauldwell Street, Bedford mk42

9ap) Victor Farrar Partnership, architects, Bedford: churchdrawings c- (Z addition)

Berkshire Record Office ( Coley Avenue, Reading,Berkshire rg1 6af) East Garston parish: church restorationplans by JW Hugall - (D/P )

Bexley Local Studies and Archive Centre (CentralLibrary, Townley Road Bexleyheath, Greater London,da6 7hj) Brampton Place Estate: maps, plans, estate papersand corresp - (PEBRM)

Bristol Record Office (‘B’ Bond Warehouse, SmeatonRoad, Bristol bs1 6xn) Sir Frank W Wills & Sons,architects, Bristol: records - () BristolSociety of Architects: records - ()

Cambridgeshire Archives (Shire Hall, Cambridge, cb30ap) Victor Farrar Partnership, architects, Bedford: miscCambs architectural drawings - (R/)

Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies (County Hall,Walton Street, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire hp20 1uu)Carden & Godfrey, architects, London: corresp and papersrel to Buckinghamshire projects - (D )

City of Westminster Archives Centre ( St Ann’sStreet, London sw1p 2de) Carden & Godfrey, architects,London: papers incl corresp and plans - ()

Cornwall Record Office (Old County Hall, Truro,Cornwall tr1 3ay) Penzance Union Workhouse, Madron:architectural drawings (AD)

Coventry Archives (John Sinclair House, Canal Basin,Coventry cv1 4ly) TRJ Meakin, architect, Coventry:plans - (PA)

Croydon Archives Service (Central Library, CroydonClocktower, Katharine Street, Croydon cr9 1et) Carden& Godfrey, architects, London: files rel to Croydon c- (A)

Cumbria Record Office (Carlisle Headquarters, TheCastle, Carlisle, Cumbria ca3 8ur) John Robinson,architect, Brampton: drawings c- (H)

Derbyshire Record Office (New Street, Matlock,Derbyshire, de4 3ag) WM Ashmore, architect,Chesterfield: letter book and papers - (D),Queen’s Hall Methodist Mission, Derby: architect’s plansth cent (D add)

Devon Record Office (Great Moor House, Bittern Road,Sowton, Exeter, Devon ex2 7nl) Trago Mills, shopping andleisure centre, Newton Abbott: plans and drawings, westernextension and proposed foyer - ()

East Riding of Yorkshire Archives and Local StudiesService (The Treasure House, Champney Road,Beverley) Blackmore, Son & Co, architects, Hull: plansand churches quinquennial inspection reports s -s (); Carden & Godfrey, architects, London:records rel to Beverley Minster s-s ()


Essex Record Office (Wharf Road, Chelmsford, Essex,cm2 6yt) Carden & Godfrey, architects, London: furtherplans and papers rel to work on Essex buildings -(D/F addl.)

Flintshire Record Office (The Old Rectory, RectoryLane, Hawarden, Flintshire ch5 3nr) TACP, architects:restoration reports on properties in Flintshire -(AN)

Gloucestershire Archives (Clarence Row, AlvinStreet, Gloucester gl1 3dw) George ThomasRobinson, architect: sketch book of ecclesiasticalarchitecture and street scenes in Gloucestershire - (D); Frank Timothy Associates, architects,Gloucester: plans and papers for Gloucestershireprojects (D)

Guildhall Library (Aldermanbury, London, ec2v 7hh)Carden & Godfrey, architects, London: misc papers c- (ACC /) Sarum Partnership, architects,Salisbury: misc papers - (Acc /)

Gwynedd Archives, Caernarfon Record Office(Victoria Dock, Caernarfon, ll55 1sh) Harries Thomas,architect: Caernarfon Collection, plans and drawings- (XD)

Hammersmith and Fulham Archives and LocalHistory Centre (The Lilla Huset, Talgarth Road,London w6 8bj) Carden & Godfrey, architects, London:plans and papers of work done on All Saints, Church,Fulham, and schools in Hammersmith and Fulham thcent (A/)

Hampshire Record Office (Sussex Street, Winchester,so23 8th) JC Prangnell of Winchester: scrapbook mainlyrel to architecture c- (AW); British Rail,Eastleigh Locomotive Works and Carriage and WagonWorks: plans incl architectural and engineering details- (A); Ian Taylor, architect: assorted plansfor buildings in Winchester when working for localpractices c- (A); Romsey parish:architectural plans of Romsey Abbey incl restoration,remodelling and archaeological excavation -(M)

Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies (CountyHall, Hertford, sg13 8ej) Eileen Rose-Marie Roberts,architectural historian: working papers c- (Acc); Victor Farrar Partnership, architects, Bedford: miscHertfordshire architectural plans c- (Acc ,DAcc )

Huntingdonshire Archives (Grammar School Walk,Huntingdon, Huntingdonshire pe29 3lf) Victor FarrarPartnership, architects, Bedford: misc Hunts architecturalplans - (Accession )

Liverpool Record Office (City Libraries, WilliamBrown Street, Liverpool l3 8ew) Edmund Kirby & Sons,architects and surveyors, Liverpool: plans, drawings,corresp etc - (Acc ); Goodison Park plans- (Acc )

Medway Archives and Local Studies Centre (CivicCentre, Strood, Rochester me2 4au) George EdwardBond and Frank T Goring, architects, Rochester:architectural drawings incl for Sir Joseph Williamson’sMathematical School, Rochester (D)

Norfolk Record Office (The Archive Centre,Martineau Lane, Norwich nr1 2dq) Andrew Anderson,architect, Driffield (Yorkshire): further drawings andpapers rel to Norfolk churches - (ACC/); M & S Gooch, architects, Norwich: furtherplans and drawings c- (ACC /)

North Devon Record Office (North Devon Libraryand Record Office, Tuly Street, Barnstaple, Devon ex311el) Gould & Son, architects, Barnstaple: plans of churchrestoration, Broadwood Kelly (A)

North East Lincolnshire Archives (Town Hall, TownHall Square, Grimsby dn31 1hx) Grimsby and DistrictArchitectural Society: minute book - ()

Nottinghamshire Archives (County House, CastleMeadow Road, Nottingham ng2 1ag) FWB Charles,architect: records incl office job books for the White Hart,Newark and Keyworth Barn - ()

Oxfordshire Record Office (St Luke’s Church, TempleRoad, Cowley, Oxford ox4 2ht) South OxfordshireDistrict Council: building control records c- (Acc)

Plymouth and West Devon Record Office (Unit ,Clare Place, Plymouth, Devon pl4 0jw) Richardson &Gill, architects, London: drawings for Duchy of Cornwallrel to Princetown Village Hall (Acc )

Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive (TheShakespeare Centre, Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avoncv37 6qw) Hawkes/Cave-Browne-Cave, architects,Stratford upon Avon: files rel to Hawkes Edwards practice- (DR)

Southampton Archives Office (South Block, CivicCentre, Southampton so14 7ly) Southampton CityCouncil: building inspectors plans c- ()

Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archive Service:Lichfield Record Office (Lichfield Library, The Friary,Lichfield, ws13 6qg) Martin Stancliffe Architects, York:records rel to work for Lichfield Diocese -(D)

Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds Branch( Raingate Street, Bury St, Edmunds, Suffolk ip33 2ar)The Old Vicarage, Wickhambrook: historical survey by thearchitectural historian Leigh Alston (HD)

Surrey History Centre ( Goldsworth Road,Woking, Surrey gu21 6nd) John Wornham Penfold,architect: survey of buildings in Godalming (Z/)

West Sussex Record Office (Sherburne House, Orchard Street, Chichester, West Sussex po19 1rn)


Stereoscopic photographs of the collapse of ChichesterCathedral spire (PH -)

West Yorkshire Archive Service, Wakefield (Registryof Deeds, Newstead Road, Wakefield wf1 2de) APECarchitects, Wakefield: corresp, development files anddrawings rel to Wakefield Cathedral - (C)

Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre (CockleburyRoad, Chippenham, Wiltshire sn15 3qn) W Bertram &Fell, architects, Bath: corresp and plans - ()Blair & Curd, architects, Chipping Sodbury: corresp andplans - (); John Simmons & Associates,architects, Bath: corresp and plans - ()

Worcestershire Record Office, County Hall Branch(County Hall, Spetchley Road, Worcester, wr5 2np)Carden & Godfrey, architects, London: plans and papers relto St Andrews Parish Centre, Pershore c-(BA); FWB Charles, architect: architectural drawings(incl restoration of Commandery, Worcester), photographs,corresp and publications c- (BA, BA);Nick Joyce, architect, Worcester: plans and photographs ofprojects in Powick, Wolverley and Worcester early st cent(BA); Malvern Architectural Society: record ofmeetings - (BA)

NATIONAL

Jersey Archive (Jersey Heritage Trust, Clarence Road, StHelier, Jersey je2 4jy) Taylor Leapingwell & Horne,architects: additional drawings and plans -(JA/);St Ouen parish: additional records rel to designsand plans for St George’s church - (JA/)

National Library of Ireland (Kildare Street, Dublin 2,)William Burn, architect: plans for Castlewellan Castle- (Acc ); Niall Montgomery, architect andliterary critic: papers collected by him and JamesMontgomery incl corresp from WB Yeats, Samuel Beckett,Jack B Yeats, Dylan Thomas and others - (Acc )

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (Balmoral Avenue, Belfast bt9 6ny) DJ MacRandal,architect, Belfast: architectural drawings mainly rel toschools and other public buildings c- (D)

Victoria & Albert Museum, Archive of Art andDesign ( Blythe Road, London w14 0qx) GervaseJackson-Stops, architectural historian: papers c-(AAD//)

SPECIAL

Royal Institute of British Architects (BritishArchitectural Library, Drawings and Archives Collections,Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road Londonsw7 2rl) Arthur Thomas Bolton, architect and architecturalhistorian: drawings, sketches and letters th cent (.);Henry Thomas Cadbury-Brown, architect: drawings rel tovarious projects th cent (.); James S Cousins,architect: drawings rel to Royal Festival Hall Auditoriumand competition designs rel to Festival of Britain

(.); Arthur Gerald Crimp, architect: competitiondrawings for Guildford Cathedral (.); JamesTrevor Dannatt, architect: architectural drawings andmodels for various projects - (.); PercyBoothroyd Dannatt, architect: student and misc drawings- (.); Arthur Joseph Davis, architect:photographs () of drawings made by Davis as a student atEcole des Beaux Arts, and by his fellow students -(.); William Henman, architect: drawings of churchesin UK and France and topographical drawings from Europeand Egypt - (.); John Oliver Brook Hitch,architect: sketch books () of topographical views andmeasured details rel to various places in UK and overseas- (.); Ray Nathaniels, architect: drawings andarchives rel to work in North Africa, Bahamas, Middle Eastand Italy, and his student work at Regent Street Polytechnic- (.); Brian Richards, architect: drawings,files and photographs th cent (.); David Levitt,Peter and Alison Smithson, architects: drawings, papers andmodel rel to Ansty Plum, Salisbury, Wiltshire -(.); Ahrends, Burton & Koralek, architects, London:drawings and papers rel to the British Embassy, Moscow;Oxford Centre for Management Studies; Keble College,Oxford and Dover Heritage Centre - (.);Dennis Lennon & Partners, architects, London: drawings forvarious projects in London incl Ritz Hotel, Stafford Hoteland Royal Opera House - (.); Eric Lyons& Partners, architects: drawings for various SPAN housingdevelopments incl Priory Hall, Blackheath and MallardPlace by Ivor Cunningham (-) -(.)

UNIVERSITYBristol University Information Services: SpecialCollections (Arts and Social Sciences Library, Universityof Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol bs8 1tj) GeorgeHerbert Oatley, architect: plans rel to University of Bristol- (DM )

Liverpool University: Special Collections andArchives (Sydney Jones Library, University of Liverpool,Chatham Street, Liverpool l7 7ay) Witold Korzeniewicz:records incl photos and corresp rel to Polish School ofArchitecture, University of Liverpool - (D.);Harold J Woods, architecture student: design and otherdrawings and related papers c- (D.)

London University: Institute of Education (Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL) David Leslie and MaryMedd, architects: papers, articles and notebooks rel tofurniture, colour and the Building Bulletin c-(DC/ME)

Manchester University: John Rylands Library (Deansgate, Manchester m3 3eh) Hubert Congreve, shipsengineer and architectural historian: albums documentingtravels in France and England incl photographs, diaryentries, letters and ephemera - (/); SirRaymond Unwin, architect and town planner: personalpapers, papers rel to town planning and glass platenegatives of Hampstead Garden Suburb (/)


THE SOCIETY’S EVENTSVisit To Dumfries House, March Simon Green and Andrew Martindale organised thisSociety study day at Dumfries House in conjunction withthe Dumfries House Trust, which has been set up by theGreat Steward of Scotland, His Royal Highness PrinceCharles, The Duke of Rothesay.Drizzle in the air did not discourage the fortunate group

that assembled in front of Dumfries House, admiring itssymmetry and proportions, the elegance of the flankingquadrant screens and low wings, and its fine masonry. It waswonderful to see the real thing after all the press photographswhen its future was uncertain. And even more wonderful towalk up the broad steps, under the superb pediment, to thevery simple door; and into the entrance hall, to find manydocuments and photographs spread out for us. We were givenphotocopies (courtesy of the RCAHMS) of historic plans:plates - of Vitruvius Scotticus, c. , showing Adam’selevations and floor plans, and plans and sections dated March showing alterations for the rd Marquess of Bute byRobert Weir Schultz. The Adam plan has a spine corridor; theside elevations have pedimented central projections, withDiocletian windows on ground floor and Venetian above.Work by Schultz included restoration/re-instatement, not alldocumented, as in the dining room. His new work includeda billiard room, a tapestry room, and a chapel in Byzantinestyle in extensions behind the wings, reached by lowcorridors with shallow domes. He also developed the atticfloor to give further accommodation and storage. In the course of full explanations and discussions we

became familiar with the ownership history of the houseand the changes made (hardly altering its southernelevation) by succeeding generations. It was easy to feel

which were the eighteenth-century spaces, especially sincethose spaces contained so many Chippendale pieces thathad been made for the house. Indeed, spot-the-Chippendale would have been far too simple a game thatday. The th Earl of Dumfries had in inherited whatwas then called Leifnorris House, and by hadcommissioned a William Adam design for rebuilding. Wewere able to see those drawings and many others, as wellas Chippendale’s designs for much of the furniture whicheither came from his workshops, or was made by othercraftsmen using his designs. Other fine pieces were fromEdinburgh furniture makers William Mathie, AlexanderPeter and Francis Brodie. Much of Adam’s plasterdecoration has survived, now supplemented by, and inplaces replaced with, the work of C. Campbell & Smith(the present elaborate painting of the entrance hall plaster)after they had worked at Bute for the rd Marquess.There was sufficient time to investigate most parts of

the house, aided by our guides and by their carefulresearch. That research had assisted the Dumfries HouseTrust in the restoration by Oliver Chapman Architects,with conservation plan by Simpson & Brown. Anexcellent guide book by Marcus Binney has already beenproduced for the Trust. A fortunate outcome of thealmost-sale of the contents was that while the cataloguedrawn up with the benefit of the new research will providea research tool, the feared dismantling was avoided, leavinghouse and its multi-layered contents intact. In addition tobeing presented with such a feast of architecture, we werewell looked after, with very good refreshments. The Trust,the Society’s organisers, and all those who had made theday such a great success were given hearty thanks beforewe reluctantly departed.

GRACE McCOMBIE AND PETE SMITH

Dumfries House (photo by Pete Smith)

REPORTS


REPORTS FROM THESOCIETY’S BURSARIESColen Campbell and the Preparatory Drawings forVitruvius Britannicus.I commenced the research for my PhD in September at the University of York and am now in my final year ofstudies. In summer , I received the Ernest CookPostgraduate Research Bursary, which has enabled me tocontinue with my work and finish my PhD. I have nowcompleted the bulk of my research and am writing up myfindings. This process is due to be complete by autumn of thisyear. I am very grateful to the society for its financial support.

My PhD is concerned with the collection ofarchitectural drawings in the RIBA Prints and DrawingsCollection associated with Colen Campbell. In particular, Ihave focused on two bound volumes of drawings whichwere discovered in and came into the ownership of theRIBA in . These volumes contain the preparatorydrawings for volumes I & II of Campbell’s VitruviusBritannicus, -. They contain mainly original drawings,but in some cases, where the drawing has not survived, proofengravings have been inserted. These drawings andengravings represent almost all of the images in the first twovolumes; only a very small number are missing, or variant. Alarge part of my research has been a technical analysis of thedrawings, and I have been able to put together a catalogueof this collection, which forms the basis of my doctorate. In addition to this I hope to use the drawings to shed

light on a number of issues relating to the genesis andproduction of Vitruvius Britannicus. I argue that Campbellwent to London in c. with the wherewithal toproduce an architectural publication, and the intention topublish an architectural book like Vitruvius Britannicus. Isuggest that once Campbell arrived in London he acquirednew images from a variety of sources and the bookunderwent a radical expansion in scope, acquiring therecognisable form of Vitruvius Britannicus as published. I am addressing three main issues relating to various

stages of production of Vitruvius Britannicus. Firstly I trackthe accumulation and acquisition of the images whichCampbell subsequently copied and included in his book.This includes the material which Campbell brought fromScotland, and material which he obtained on his arrival inLondon. I intend to present a chronology of theproduction of the book, based on my findings in thedrawing collection. Secondly I am trying to establish theaccuracy of Campbell’s representations of buildings inVitruvius Britannicus. This involves analysing the graphicsources that Campbell copied, since it is unlikely that he

undertook any building surveys. Lastly I am concernedwith the transformation of the preparatory drawings intothe engraved book, and use this analysis to drawconclusions about the responsibilities that the draughtsmanand the engraver had in creating the visual properties ofthe book. My dissertation will therefore significantlyadvance our understanding of this landmark publication.

JOANNE O’HARA

Nostell Priory: History of a House, -Nostell Priory is the most important Palladian building inthe north of England. With its Italianate exterior and lavishRococo interior, it epitomises the dramatic shift in taste thatoccurred in early Georgian England. Several of the leadingarchitects and craftsmen of the age were employed there,including James Paine, Joseph Rose, Thomas Chippendaleand Robert Adam. It is also one of the most richlydocumented houses in the National Trust portfolio, with avast extant family archive and three hundred survivingarchitectural drawings. My study of Nostell is focussed onthese sources. The graphic material is particularly central tomy research, and I intend to produce a catalogue of thearchitectural drawings as part of my thesis. This rich body of material provides an excellent

opportunity to write a monograph of a house, drawing outthe interaction between patrons, architects and craftsmen.And by concentrating on a single building it has beenpossible to emphasise the continuity of the design andconstruction history. The structure of my thesis is dictatedby the different phases of building work, and I emphasiseissues of patronage throughout. The first chapter discussesthe inception of the house under the patronage of the thBaronet of Nostell and the superintendence of JamesPaine, while the second chapter analyses the contributionof Robert Adam under the th Baronet. The third chapterconsiders the design of the interiors, building a picture ofeach of the principal interior decorative schemes. Thefourth and final chapter will explore the buildings withinthe park, illustrating the extensive nature of a largelyoverlooked architectural landscape.I have already drafted much of the thesis, and the most

developed part of my work considers the phase ofconstruction carried out under the th Baronet and JamesPaine. In Henry Pickering’s portrait, still in the house, theth Baronet is shown pointing to Nostell with one handand resting the other on an architectural drawing, denotinghis interest in Continental design and the genesis of hishouse from a graphic source. Through close observation ofPaine’s architectural drawings, I have been able to addressthe early contribution of another architect associated with

Nostell Priory (photo by Frances Sands)


ARNOLD PACEY: Medieval Architectural Drawing, Englishcraftsmen’s methods and their later persistence (c. - )(Tempus, , pp, col. pls, b&w pls, b&wfigs, £, ISBN: )

Most people who work on historic buildings will have seentechnical drawings left on the walls by builders, or morerecently by electricians and plumbers, who worked outproblems, or explained solutions to their work-mates onthe nearest surface. It is a universal system and the drawingsare ephemeral, meant to be covered over by the finishedsurfaces applied to walls. A designer working at HamptonCourt in the seventeenth century left a sketch of a fireplacesurround that only came to light when the panelling wasremoved after the fire. Carpenters at work after thefire at York Minster in the s drew out the pattern of thevault, and the framing of the roof timbers, on the temporarywooden floors laid down as work spaces. Medieval masonsand carpenters were no different, although their workingdrawings and designs tend to be cut into the fabric, orpainted on using a red ochre that stained the timber andremained visible, while the use of framing floors bycarpenters is inferred from the study of roof timbers. Arnold Pacey’s book is the first to tackle the whole

subject of architectural drawing in medieval England, andsince, as he points out, very few drawings on parchmentsurvive from the period, he has turned instead to thebuildings themselves and looked at the walls, timbers andfloors to find the working drawings. Some sites, such as the

York and Wells tracing floors, are well known, but Pacey isable to offer new readings of both. At York he suggests thatone full-scale drawing may have been a vidimus for clergyapproval, and he identifies others as being for St Michael-le-Belfry, a church known to have been built by a Minstermason. The Wells floor, although laid down in thefourteenth century was still in use in the fifteenth, whenthe cloister was being built, as it includes the design forboth the window tracery and the vault ribs. Drawings alsoreveal the extent of geometric knowledge of othercraftsmen and some under-drawings for wall paintings arecompass-drawn. Most of the carpenters’ marks relate toassembly, and in particular, to lining up individual elementswithin frames, rather than to design, which is to beexpected, and decorative elements, such as carvings ondragon posts, can be related to wood-cuts.Timber buildings are the chief subject of the early

modern period since Pacey has made a particular study ofthese buildings in northern England and has madesignificant discoveries about their construction. The crafttraditions in carpentry continued from the medievalperiod little altered although masons were facing greatchanges in their area of work. For both types of buildersthe introduction of scaled drawings in the sixteenthcentury, evidenced first in estate maps and then indrawings like those in the Thorpe collection, heralded anew era. This is the point at which Pacey stops anddiscussion of the whole range of drawings by Smythsonand others must await another study.

BOOK REVIEWS

Nostell, John Moyser. I offer a reconstruction of Moyser’soriginal design, before presenting a new interpretation ofPaine’s house. Paine’s characteristic attitude toward designwas motivated by his arguments about climaticconsiderations, which he sets out in his Plans, Elevations andSections of Noblemen and Gentleman’s Houses (). I relatethese arguments to specific aspects of the fabric, and usethem to demonstrate the extent of Paine’s authorship. Hisdesign includes features which allow light to enter thebuilding but also provide shelter from the elements. Anexample is the shallow portico and wide pediment atNostell, which is certainly by Paine.One feature, which I have been able to attribute to

Moyser, is an arcade which was originally constructedbetween the external staircases on the central block atNostell. It was subsequently removed by Adam, butcertainly designed by Moyser, as its inclusion is notappropriate for the Yorkshire climate and thereforecontrary to Paine’s arguments about climatic suitability.After his dismissal from Nostell, Paine produced anengraving of the principal elevation of Nostell for thefourth volume of Vitruvius Britannicus (). In this idealversion of the house, Paine tellingly removes Moyser’sarcade. Paine’s recasting of Nostell should therefore becelebrated as a new form of naturalised Italianatearchitecture. As such it has been possible to offer a newinterpretation of a house that has previously been regardedtoo dismissively by architectural historians.I am very grateful to the SAHGB for their support of

my research.FRANCES SANDS

SOCIETY NEWS AND UPDATES

Fundraising for postgraduate research bursariesSince I last reported, the following have made donationstowards the Society’s funds which are used forsupporting bursaries: the estate of Sir Howard Colvin, theD’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, the Follett Trust, GrahamChild. The Society had a major fundraising campaign in ,

successfully raising £, for the Vickers Bursary fund.This included £, from the estate of the lateJonathan Vickers, £, from English Heritage and thebalance from about members. Funding applications tovarious grant giving trusts are made on a regular basis, butin the current financial climate these applications are notas productive as before.The Society has made a commitment to fund two

bursaries for postgraduate research, costing £, perannum in total. This figure was previously achievable frominvestment income; however the recent interest ratereductions and decline in value of investments haveconsiderably reduced this income. For example, investmentincome for was over £, whereas we anticipateless than £, for based on current rates. We believe that our postgraduate bursaries will help

secure the future of British architectural history. If you areable to assist the Society by making a donation towardsbursary funds or wish to remember the Society in yourwill, please contact me.

DAVID LERMON, HON TREASURER


In sum the book is a useful introduction to the subjectof working drawings in medieval buildings, and it providesa balanced and rational examination of the various types.It remains to be discovered what purposes the drawingsserved apart from design, whether for training apprentices,or as aides-memoire, but for this a much larger corpus ofdrawings has to be available. Pacey has laid the groundwork, and others must now seek out further examples,such as those mentioned at the start of this review, toenable more detailed questions about the function ofscribed drawings to be addressed.

JENNIFER ALEXANDER

DAVID ADSHEAD: Wimpole: Architectural drawings andtopographical views (The National Trust, , pp,approx. b&w and col. illus., £ hardback, ISBN-: , ISBN-: X)

WILLIAM HAWKES (ed.): The Diaries of Sanderson Millerof Radway, together with his Memoir of James Menteath(The Dugdale Society, in association with TheShakespeare Birthplace Trust, vol. , , pp, illus., £, ISBN: )

In the extensive bibliography of the British country houseDavid Adshead’s volume on Wimpole, Cambridgeshire,occupies something of a unique position. As no lesserauthority than John Harris notes in his foreword, thiswould appear to be the first time that a single volume hasbrought together all known architectural drawings andtopographic views of a major country house. As well ascataloguing all items and illustrating the majority, thevolume is accompanied by a CD on which all the entriescan be viewed, making it particularly useful. Wimpole is amagnificent building, and one particularly worthy of thiscomprehensive survey, as behind the elegant yet restrainedbrick elevations stands a building of complex form andevolution.The history of the current house at Wimpole begins

with the mid-seventeenth century building works of SirThomas Chicheley (-), apparently either begun orunderway in . It is frustrating that virtually nocontemporary records of that building survive, althoughsufficient information can be gleaned from eighteenth-century drawings, including survey drawings by HenryFlitcroft. The seventeenth-century house had a highlydeveloped triple pile plan form which forms the basis ofthe central block of the house to this day. In elevation itpresents something more challenging for, as recorded byFlitcroft, it appears an odd hybrid, with two-storey,unbalustraded projecting bays at either end of theelevation that appear particularly unresolved. Might thisbe the result of a partially implemented refacing scheme,possibly associated with the addition of wings to thehouse by James Gibbs, c. ? Flitcroft’s own restrainedyet elegant refacing of the main block, c. , destroyedany pertinent evidence in the building fabric, and so,unless an early topographic view should be found, thisaspect of the development of the house is likely to remainan enigma. It is frustrating that the Kip engraving of does not show the house as then standing, but rather ascheme for its modernisation and extension proposed bythe then owner, the nd Earl of Radnor. Adshead gives athoughtful consideration of the evidence that relates thisproposal to the hand of Sir Christopher Wren.

The subsequent architectural development of thehouse is predominantly one of remodelling andenlargement, and is far better recorded in surveys, designdrawings and topographical views, all of which are givendue weight in this catalogue. One of the most complexperiods in the building’s evolution occurred between and , when John Soane carried out a series ofremarkable transformations of existing spaces that createdsome of the finest interiors. Soane also worked on theestate buildings and possibly the most charming drawingin the entire catalogue is that for the Hen House (cat.).As John Martin Robinson has written, ‘It is symptomaticof the seriousness with which farm buildings were treatedin the late eighteenth century that the august architect ofthe Bank of England did not consider the design ofnesting boxes for hens beneath his attention’.From the final major aggrandisement of Wimpole

occurred, to the designs of Henry Edward Kendall. Theseworks are now largely lost, having been removed as part ofthe rehabilitation of the house carried out in the mid-twentieth century for Captain and Mrs Bambridge. It istherefore particularly fortunate that they are recorded in amagnificent series of drawings by Thomas Allom. Theinterior view of the conservatory, remodelled in aJacobean style, is especially impressive. The drawings of acentury later, all proposing the remodelling and truncationof the house, reflect a very different social climate, inwhich the future of the great country house lookedincreasingly bleak. It is particularly fortunate that thedrastic scheme of , commissioned by the Yorkes, wasnot carried out, as it would have destroyed almost all ofSoane’s work and most of the flanking wings. Followingtheir acquisition of the house in , the Bambridgescarried out a much more sympathetic scheme.Sanderson Miller occurs in the history of Wimpole as a

friend of its mid-eighteenth century owner, Philip Yorke,


Earl Hardwicke, and advisor on architectural projects,most notably as the designer of the Gothic Tower in thepark. Of his possible alterations to the house itself, nodrawings survive, but sufficient secondary sources exist tosupport an attribution of alterations to the library to him,possibly working with Henry Flitcroft as executantarchitect. In publishing Miller’s Diaries and Memoir of JamesMenteath the Dugdale Society has added greatly to thereadily available knowledge of this fascinating gentlemanarchitect and antiquary. Will Hawkes, in editing thevolume, deserves particular praise as Miller wrote in aremarkably contracted style, in small scale engagementdiaries. The amount of information that Hawkes, and hisjoint editor, the late Tony Wood, succeed in teasing fromthese compact entries is an object lesson to any historianfaced by an apparently difficult primary source.Understanding of Miller as a personality, and particularlyhis position within society, is greatly enhanced by thispublication. It is to be hoped that Hawkes will one daypublish a full monograph on Miller and his architecture, asubject that he has been pursuing since his undergraduatedays at Cambridge.

ANDREW MARTINDALE

ROBERT WARD: The Man Who Buried Nelson. TheSurprising Life of Robert Mylne (Stroud: Tempus, , pp, b&w illus., £. paperback, ISBN-:, ISBN-: )

Robert Mylne (-) has long stood in the shadowof Robert Adam, William Chambers and James‘Athenian’ Stuart in discussions of mid-eighteenthcentury British architecture. This book presents abalanced assessment of Mylne’s achievements and shinesa spotlight on a figure whose career straddled what wenow see as two separate disciplines – architecture andcivil engineering – at a time when both were subject toredefinition and refinement. Its title, however, is amisnomer. Architectural historians will find nothing‘surprising’ about the life related here. Rather, Mylne’scareer is a textbook example of how a visit to Italy couldfoster a craftsman’s ascent from the ranks of the artisan tothat of the architect. Since so much hinged on the visit toRome that Mylne made from -, it is a pity that fewof his letters survive. The problems Mylne encounteredlater in his career suggest that he was not always the bestjudge of men, but in this instance he was remarkablyperspicacious. Had the author read a little more widely inA Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy (), nodoubt he would have discovered that the ‘Mr Devisme’in whose company Mylne returned from Italy was LouisDevisme, the bear-leader of Sir Wyndham Knatchbull-Wyndham. Since Mylne had supplied Knatchbull-Wyndham with a design for a new house in , themeeting with Devisme in Brescia in can hardly havebeen accidental.A strength of the book is the way that it highlights the

Scottish network in London and how this turned toMylne’s advantage in the Blackfriars Bridgecompetition. One wonders whether he would have beenawarded the commission if James Paterson, the secretaryof the bridge committee, had not befriended his fellowScot. Understandably, four well-documented worksdominate: Blackfriars Bridge, Mylne’s surveyorship of

the New River Company (an organisation that suppliedLondon with fresh water from Hertfordshire), hissurveyorship of St Paul’s Cathedral, and his role as clerkof works to the Royal Naval Hospital at Greenwich. Asan incident regarding the payment of a bill at St Paul’sreveals, Mylne could be inflexible when he believed hewas in the right. This intractability probably should haveseen him dismissed at St Paul’s. It did cost him his job atGreenwich. While the author ably demonstrates thewide geographical extent of Mylne’s work, however, hisprivate commissions are under-explored. Inveraraydeserves a chapter in its own right as Mylne’sprofessional relationship with the Dukes of Argyllendured for several decades, and only the house thatMylne designed for himself at Great Amwell, Herts., isdiscussed in any detail. The plan of an unidentified housereproduced as illustration and that of The Wick,Richmond (illus. ), are near mirror images of eachother. Since we are given no other plans beyond that atAmwell, are we to assume that the majority of his privatework followed the same pattern? If so, was theresomething especially appealing about Mylne’s compactvilla designs? An analysis of the identity of his patrons,based on an investigation of their private papers as wellas Mylne’s drawings in the RIBA, Canadian Centre forArchitecture, etc., would have fleshed out this aspect ofhis career. Although the book is not an architecturalmonograph, more foregrounding of domesticcommissions would have helped readers understand whyMylne was a successful architect.

KERRY BRISTOL

TIMOTHY BRITTAIN-CATLIN: The English Parsonagein the Early Nineteenth Century (Spire Books, , pp, col. pls, b&w illus. plus many plans,summaries in French and German, ISBN:)

This magnificent book could have the subtitle ‘or whatPugin did for parsonages: from Regency to Arts andCrafts’. But while the subject of Dr Brittain-Catlin’sdoctoral thesis shows through, it does not take over. ‘Theoretical architectural principles cannot change the

way we live,’ he says as he sets off, ‘our houses havedeveloped not because Pugin or anyone else madeimpressive statements but because artistic genius hasallowed social conditions and presumptions to expressthemselves powerfully’ (p.). The road to that conclusionleads carefully – through County, Diocesan and otherarchives – across the whole country. The early chaptersshow the Church of England, as it sheds pluralities,needing houses for the new parish clergy. Queen Anne’sBounty was frequently applied for, and the resultingmortgage papers, their drawings, and the built parsonages,are explored. (Not all documents have reached localarchives; many are safe in the central archive of theChurch of England but – awaiting cataloguing – areunavailable.)The superb illustrations could stand alone, drawn from

many sources and including many historic plans. From theearliest, a simple, unattributed thatched rectory in Dorset,via an astonishing elaborately-gabled house at ComptonMartin (E.J. Andrews, ), and S.S. Teulon’s watercolour of Tathwell rectory, Lincolnshire, to the last in


the book, E.B. Lamb’s beautiful design for the westelevation of Copdock rectory in Suffolk (), the readersees gradual changes of plan (L-plan, back-corridor,pinwheel) and style (Regency, Tudor Gothic, Gothic, Artsand Crafts) as fashions, and expectations, change. Plansshow consideration of routes through the house, fromhouse to church, and for poor parishioners into the house;they reveal the provision of nurseries, or not, according todenomination. English literature supplies supportingevidence, especially the books of Austen, Scott andDickens. The work of architectural writers and designers,from Loudon to Webb, underpins the analysis. Pugin’s vitalcontribution to the development of a house type for thereligious man is made clear, and the value of carefulresearch is shown by reference to Paul Drury’sconservation plan for The Grange, Ramsgate – visitedduring the Society’s East Kent conference in September. Chapter very usefully considers the part played by

many later architects such as Hansom, Wardell, Butterfield,Street, Webb and Teulon, in developing appropriate designsfor (especially clergy) houses. The widely-referenced textadds layer upon layer to the reader’s understanding.Construction, materials, historical detailing – all areimportant in this fascinating account. The book’s clear design has wide margins, in which are

set thumbnail pictures with captions; other illustrations aregiven quarter or half pages; all as close as possible to therelevant text. Endnotes, bibliography and index are full andcareful. Perhaps a gremlin has transformed the Oxindenfamily of Broom (see notes for SAHGB Kent Conference,September ) into ‘Ovenden’.

GRACE McCOMBIE

PAUL OVERY: Light, Air and Openness. Modern Architecturebetween the Wars (Thames & Hudson, , pp, b&w illus., £., ISBN: )

Paul Overy’s last book, published shortly before his deathin , looks at the preoccupation of between-the-warsarchitects with cleanliness, fresh air and sunlight, and theeffect this had on the form of their buildings. This is not a new subject, and Overy has no new central

thesis to prove. Instead he presents a very thorough andscholarly exploration of this fundamental aspect ofinterwar modernism: that so much of its theory – whethersocial, political, intellectual, or artistic – was inextricablylinked with contemporary improvements in health andwelfare. By avoiding polemic, he allows himself thefreedom to investigate at length the many and wide-ranging strands to the story, and in so doing greatlyenhances our understanding of it. Jan Duiker’s and Bernard Bijvoet’s Zonnestraal

Sanatorium (-), set in pine woods near Hilversum inHolland, acts as a suitable starting point. Overy explainsthe technological and stylistic advances forged there and inother sanatoriums – the improved heating and ventilationsystems; the geometric forms and purity of line; the wafer-thin concrete; the large sheets of glass; the metal balconiesand sun-terraces; the symbolically clean white exterior (atZonnestraal a dash of blue paint was added to make it lookeven whiter) – and then traces their influence in modernistarchitecture through chapters arranged by theme (e.g. Sun,Water, Air) or building type. Hotels, factories, schools,offices and swimming-pools all bore the stamp of thishygienic revolution, as of course did housing, from themodern palace designed by Ludwig Wittgenstein for hismillionairess sister, to even the collective Soviet apartmentblocks (the dom kommuny) of the s. The subject of housing brings us to one of the

inconsistencies and contradictions of modernism of whichOvery is aware, that of social division. Modern architectscould experiment at will with roof-terraces, gymnasia andswimming-pools in the houses of rich industrialists anddoctors for whom such things were a fashion statement,and an extension of the exclusive lifestyle they alreadyenjoyed in grand hotels and cruise liners. But generallythere was little room for similar facilities in the apartmentsdesigned for the urban proletariat, something the prolesknew as well as – if not better than – the architectsthemselves. Le Corbusier brought the sun-terraces androof-gardens of his large private commissions to a workers’estate he designed at Pessac, near Bordeaux, in the mid-s, but at such expense to the interior living-spaces thatthe occupants later glazed them in and roofed them over.It would be interesting to learn more of the reactions ofthe lower orders to the modernist architecture fed tothem: how did German workers respond to being lined upin rigid rows of Zeilenbau housing, ostensibly to have aneven share of sunlight? Or what about the displaced slum-dwellers of The Hague, who were corralled into newwalled estates for ‘re-education’? This social engineering aspect of modernist housing has

unpleasant fascist connotations that seem to chime withthe obsession with muscular health, with stripping off andexercising together on the flat rooftops. Yet, on the otherhand, the fervent appeals from Le Corbusier and AdolfLoos for people to reject their outworn bourgeois


principles by throwing away their curtains and ornamentsand whitewashing everything have obvious socialistovertones. Modernism appealed to opposing politicalideologies. It could also bolster colonial domination. Overy sees

the redevelopment by German-Jewish émigré architects ofparts of British-mandated Palestine in a modern Europeanstyle as reinforcing the dominant position of the Jewsthere, the ‘white’ architecture of the settlers forming a‘clear ideological contrast’ with the vernacular buildings ofthe indigenous Arab population – which, ironically, hadstrongly influenced modernism in the first place. He alsodiscusses Le Corbusier’s ambitious, unrealized plans for avast complex of apartment blocks for middle-class Frenchcolonists at Algiers in a similar light. Paul Overy is an erudite and enlightening guide, and

brings many other art forms to the story, such as Germancinema. His wide knowledge of modern European cultureleads to some interesting digressions: for instance on thesocial etiquette of open-air swimming; on thedevelopment of the bathtub; and on the between-the-warsphotogravure process, which produced sparklingmonochrome prints that bleached out the off-whites andsubtle pastel tones used by many early modernists, thuspromoting and prolonging a distorted, white-obsessedview of their architecture.The book has many such enjoyable sidelines. For

instance, the story of Arnold Rikli, a pioneer of nature-therapy treatment in a sanatorium in Austro-Hungary inthe s, whose theories evolved from childhoodexperiences walking in the Alpine foothills of his nativeSwitzerland, where he would remove more and more ofhis clothing until he was walking completely naked.Fortunately, Rikli spared his patients such extremes: forthem he designed a revolutionary ‘hygienic walkingcostume’, of shorts, sandals, and an open-necked short-sleeved shirt, which was to become the universal attire ofthe holidaymaker. Overy also reminds us how this popularAlpine culture of the late nineteenth century influencedthe work of the arch-modernist Le Corbusier. ‘We wereconstantly on the mountain tops’, Le Corbusier wrote ofregular family jaunts with his father, a passionatemountaineer. The great pinnacles, vast horizons and seas ofmist he saw then were in later life reinvented in the tallbuildings, elevated viewpoints and openness of hisarchitecture. More illustrations from Thames & Hudson would have

added greatly to the book’s value. Sixty-six is too fewwhen spread over pages, especially for an artform asphotogenic as interwar architecture; and a more generousallowance would have helped our understanding of someof the many lesser-known examples cited by Paul Overyin what is otherwise a fitting tribute to a well-liked, ablescholar and art-critic.

COLIN THOM

EITAN KAROL: Charles Holden (Shaun Tyas, , pp, b&w illus., col. pls, £., ISBN:)

Charles Holden (-), the subject of this newbiography by Eitan Karol, is one of those architects aboutwhom we all know something, but few know a great deal.Previous studies have constructed him in several different,often discrete, guises. Firstly, and famously, has been

Holden as the acceptable face of English Modernism – ofthe master-narrative provided by Nikolaus Pevsner. That’sthe Holden we all tend to know. Then, partly impelled bythe Arts Council’s seminal ‘Thirties’ exhibition at theHayward Gallery in , we were treated to Holden asthe designer of the magnificently Mannerist BritishMedical Association building on London’s Strand, with itsJacob Epstein sculptures scandalously disfigured in thes. It fell to Alistair Service in his work on Edwardianarchitects to remind us that there was an individual talentat work before the First World War, and to drag thisbuilding back to its completion date of , rather than asa cause célèbre of the ideological rifts of the s. Mostrecently, Michael Saler placed Holden into a morenuanced relationship with modernity, in what he describedas Medieval Modernism in his work, centred on ahandful of key figures with their roots – cultural, politicaland religious – in Yorkshire. Last, but not least, has been thesomewhat tired epithet of Holden the master-planner ofLondon University, architect of the ‘monstrous’ SenateHouse, and ‘destroyer’ of Bloomsbury.So what does this biography give us that is new, apart

from a drawing together of these disparate strands of a life?A great deal. Like Rosemary Hill’s recent biography ofPugin, the author explores the powerful intellectual andcultural forces which shaped Holden’s notion of himselfand his work. Where Pugin can now be more clearlyviewed as an artist of the Romantic Movement, so Holdenmust be viewed, more than ever before, as formed by theArts and Crafts Movement – and the Voysey or DetmarBlow hair-shirted end of it, rather than the glittering andbejewelled escapism of Ricardo or Wilson.Holden’s career, beginning in when he was

articled to Everard Leeson in Manchester, couldn’t havefailed to be influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement.


Having been drawn to the arts in his home town of Boltonalso meant that he had come under the influence of thepoetry of Walt Whitman. ‘Whitmanmania’ is a curiousepisode in British cultural history which deserves a fullerstudy. As an architect, Holden remained remarkablyconsistent and loyal in his early influences – a fact it hasbeen hard to appreciate until this study, which also unravelshis fascinating time working with C. R. Ashbee inLondon, and the aesthetic he subsequently developedspecialising in hospital design with Adams and Pearson.Necessarily, one of the five large chronologically

arranged chapters in this substantial work is devoted to hiswork for Frank Pick, Pevsner’s modern Medici, forLondon Transport. This is a well-known tale but, alliedwith the introductory chapter on ‘Major themes andinfluences in Holden’s life and architecture’, merits tellingin all its detail yet again. Given the extent of interest in thePiccadilly Line extensions, the author could probably nothave hoped to add much to the story. However, what hedoes add, and which is a feature of this handsomelyproduced book throughout, are many hithertounpublished designs and sketches. The great joy for me wasthe chapter devoted to Holden’s work for the ImperialWar Graves commission. No less than with LondonTransport, here was a new client, indeed a new type ofclient, that was to provide an increasing amount of workfor architects in the twentieth century, and this is a storywe still need to understand more clearly.Another joy is to discover the buildings one never knew

of before. Apart from their description in the text, theauthor supplies a four-page gazetteer and an extensive

bibliography. Holden wrote more than we had supposedand the author not only reveals the individual through hiswords, but attributes previously anonymous works – suchas the article ‘If Whitman had been an Architect’ – tohim.One of the problems of biography as a genre can often

be the difficulty of achieving some objective distance fromthe subject, so that judgement isn’t completelyoverwhelmed by detail and transformed into fascinationbordering on worship, and Karol has achieved this. In thisrespect Karol treads lightly on Holden’s reputation.As should be expected for a book which has emerged

from a PhD, this is a weighty, meticulously researched,admirably referenced, and wonderfully illustratedbiography which builds and expands on all previousstudies and is clearly now the standard work on its subject.The traditional methodology results in a work which islargely untouched by theory and, therefore, light oninterpretation whilst heavy on detail and description. Thisis meant as an observation rather than a criticism. If thereis any criticism, or perhaps one should say regret, about thiswork – beyond a few typos and a tendency to overdo theillustrations (though can that really be a criticism?) – it ismore to do with the genre of architectural biography andits limitations, which can be untroubled by thecomplexities of politics and historical context. As this studyhas completed the all-important spade work, these aspectscan now be left to others. Indeed, this is probably needlesscarping over literary forms which we all must work withinand try to mould to our own needs . . . even reviewers.

JULIAN HOLDER


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