An expanded and fully revised edition of John Newman's classic survey of the buildings of West Kent, first published in 1969. Here is an extraordinary concentration of architecture of the first rank, and an immense variety of landscape and townscape, from the deep woods of the Weald to the shingles of Dungeness, the cathedral city of Rochester with its Norman castle, and the remarkable Georgian naval dockyard at Chatham. Domestic buildings of note range from plentiful timber-framed hall houses to the Palladian masterpiece of Mereworth Castle and the planned modernist village of New Ash Green, as well as country houses on the grandest scale, such as Cobham Hall and Knole. The parish churches can show rich and memorable work of almost every period, especially the middle ages and the Gothic Revival. This new edition includes detailed explorations of many rewarding urban areas, and fresh perspectives on such famous landmarks as Ightham Mote, Sissinghurst and Hever Castle.
Sir Nikolaus Pevsner was one of the twentieth century's most learned and stimulating writers on art and architecture. He established his reputation with Pioneers of Modern Design, though he is probably best known for his celebrated series of guides, The Buildings of England, acknowledged as one of the great achievements of twentieth-century scholarship. He was also founding editor of The Pelican History of Art, the most comprehensive and scholarly history of art ever published in English.