The book features an insightful introduction by Gavin Stamp, positioning Lutyens as a significant figure in architecture, noted for his genius and humanity. It showcases twenty-two of Lutyens's houses, spanning his entire career, accompanied by two hundred exquisite photographs. Stamp's essay enhances the visual experience, offering a comprehensive exploration of Lutyens's architectural contributions.
Edwin Lutyens' Memorial to the Missing of the Somme at Thiepval in Northern France, visited annually by tens of thousands of tourists, is arguably the finest structure erected by any British architect in the twentieth century. It is the principal, tangible expression of the defining event in Britain's experience and memory of the Great War, the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916, and it bears the names of 73,000 soldiers whose bodies were never found at the end of that bloody and futile campaign. This brilliant study by an acclaimed architectural historian tells the origin of the memorial in the context of commemorating the war dead; it considers the giant classical brick arch in architectural terms, and also explores its wider historical significance and its resonances today. So much of the meaning of the twentieth century is concentrated here; the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing casts a shadow into the future, a shadow which extends beyond the dead of the Holocaust, to the Gulag, to the 'disappeared' of South America and of Tianenmen. Reissued in a beautiful and striking new edition for the centenary of the Somme.
The book provides an in-depth exploration of British architecture during the interwar period, highlighting the diverse styles that emerged as modernism gained prominence. It challenges previous historical narratives by showcasing lesser-known movements alongside traditional designs, reflecting the cultural shifts of the era. Authored by Gavin Stamp, a prominent architectural critic, this work serves as both a historical account and a portrait of a nation in transition, marking a significant contribution to the understanding of architectural evolution in Britain from the Great War to the Blitz.
George Gilbert Scott was the most prolific and most famous of Victorian architects. For many, however, blinded by prejudice to the merits of Victorian architecture and the Gothic Revival, he was the most notorious. The rehabilitation of his reputation after a century of abuse is symbolised, above all, by the magnificent restoration of one of his best-known buildings (once seriously threatened with demolition), the hotel at St Pancras Station in London. He was the founder of the greatest architectural dynasty in British history, a dynasty which still flourishes in the fourth and fifth generation. Scott ran the largest architectural office of its time and it produced designs for some seven or eight hundred buildings (estimates vary). Only a limited selection can therefore be illustrated here, but all of his major secular works are represented, whether by old or new photographs, original drawings and prints, along with the best and most significant of his many churches. The first in what is a long-overdue illustrated biography of Sir Gilbert Scott, Gavin Stamp has trawled tirelessly through the archives, trying to piece together the life of this great Victorian architect. The sheer scale of Scott's work and the foundations of an architectural empire has amassed a huge portfolio. Within these pages is a celebration of his work.
An authoritative survey of British buildings between the wars by the late Gavin Stamp - one of Britain's best-known architecture critics