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Britain's Lost Cities
The destruction meted out on Britain's city center during the 20th century, by the combined efforts of the Luftwaffe and brutalist city planners, is legendary. Medieval churches, Tudor alleyways, Georgian terraces, and Victorian theatres vanished forever, to be replaced by a gruesome landscape of concrete office blocks and characterless shopping malls. Now, for the first time, architectural historian Gavin Stamp shows exactly what has been lost. Reproduced in this haunting volume are hundreds of top-quality photographs of cities, showing streets and buildings that are gone forever. The accompanying text traces their creation and destruction, remembering the massive campaign to save the Euston Arch, wantonly demolished in 1962, and mourning the loss of lovely medieval Coventry, which was already doomed by the city planners even before German air raids intervened. Alternately fascinating, enraging, and heartbreaking, this is an extraordinary evocation of Britain's architectural past, and a much-needed reminder of the importance of preserving heritage.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 12, 2013
This is a manically depressing read all the more so for the fact that the lessons of the past have still not been learned. Only last month Sheffield University brutally set about the demolition of the Grade II listed Edwardian Jessops Hospital ( see: https://www.facebook.com/oldjessophos... ) while without any apparent sense of irony bubbled over with how proud it was of its newly refurbished Grade II listed library! This makes Stamp's comment that universities while "ostensibly seats of learning, committed to civilised values and debate [they] always seen to be utterly convinced that their own perceived needs transcend any wider issues of civic responsibility or public interest and so they can behave with disgraceful arrogance” especially pertinant. I have a growing interest in architecture and planning and tend to favour the modern and brutal. However, I appreciate the past and find the thoughtless and unwarranted destruction of perfectly good and serviceable buildings an outrage and depressing. Until reading Gavin Stamp's book I had always assumed that the greatest destruction of Britain's architectural heritage was a direct result of the attentions of the Luftwaffe. I had not appreciated the extent to which the bombing was used as an excuse for the wholesale destruction of city after city as town/city planners in league with local politicians sought to drive vast motorways through the centres of towns and cities and do away with the past. While some of this vigour for renewal was doubtless motivated by the desire for a new and better post-war Britain the method seems in many cases to have been bloody minded and increasingly in the face of overwhelming local opposition.
Just as an aside often Central and Eastern Europe are used as reference points for all that is bad, bland and brutal in architecture in the post-war era. However, this neglects some basic facts that this part of Europe suffered the greatest attrition of the war with cities raised to the ground, the urgent need in the post war years to house tens of thousands of homeless people and the need to revitalise the economy with industry. This certainly resulted in some pretty bland housing and some brutal architecture. However, this architecture was grandiose in size and scale and has a definite appeal. It should also be remembered that the like of commercial competition and pressure on land or property for redevelopment meant that many building which would have been swept away in the West were left and reused. While many were neglected they last into the 1990s and in many cases have been restored and reused, this is particularly evident in East Germany especially in towns such as Wernigerode. Other cities such as Prague remained almost untouched during the Soviet era only to suffer the onslaught of Western redevelopment since 1990 loosing so much in a short time in the face of Capitalist commercial pressures, a similar but worse fate having also fallen upon Moscow.
Getting back to the book Stamp looks at nineteen British cities all of which seem to follow a similar depressing course. Buildings old and comparatively new of outstanding design and quality of build again and again destroyed to make a road a bit wider, make room for a roundabout, car park or shopping centre. I never really used to think about what had been in the space where the city centre shopping centres of the 1970's sprung up. This book both describes and is illustrated with pictures of what was lost. It is quite painful to look at some of the stunning buildings that were smashed apart and used as hardcore for road construction. As W.G. Hoskins noted angrily at the time of Exeter (and the same applied everywhere) “... the narrow streets are being torn apart... everything must be sacrificed to enable the motorist to go one mile an hour faster...”. The official love of and endorsement of the car and freedom of the roads that has now lasted some seventy years shows little sign sign of stopping despite the obvious dead-end it has led us to. We now have to live with fractured, broken cities in which the past clings precariously in the face of developers who think only in cash values. Buildings such as the cast iron façade commercial properties of 1850's Glasgow were still being destroyed into the 1990s. There is no reason to think that any structure is safe from the conniving of planners, local politicians and developers (See Private Eye ad. Inf.).
It is only thanks to the inhabitants of Britain's cities, and the phenomenal cost of fulling implementing many of these redevelopment plans that anything is left of pre-war Britain. Ironically now much of post-war Britain is equally threatened with many classic brutalist structures, unloved by many as the Victorian and Edwardian masterpieces were seventy years ago, under attack and threat of demolition with many classic pieces already swept away. A battle is currently raging to save Preston Bus Station ( See: https://www.facebook.com/saveprestonb... ) a stunning piece of architecture deserving of preservation. Fortunately the Twentieth Century Society and countless building specific organisations exist today to try to preserve our heritage but in the face of the same tired arguments it remains no easy task. An excellent and eye opening book which is likely to surprise.
Just as an aside often Central and Eastern Europe are used as reference points for all that is bad, bland and brutal in architecture in the post-war era. However, this neglects some basic facts that this part of Europe suffered the greatest attrition of the war with cities raised to the ground, the urgent need in the post war years to house tens of thousands of homeless people and the need to revitalise the economy with industry. This certainly resulted in some pretty bland housing and some brutal architecture. However, this architecture was grandiose in size and scale and has a definite appeal. It should also be remembered that the like of commercial competition and pressure on land or property for redevelopment meant that many building which would have been swept away in the West were left and reused. While many were neglected they last into the 1990s and in many cases have been restored and reused, this is particularly evident in East Germany especially in towns such as Wernigerode. Other cities such as Prague remained almost untouched during the Soviet era only to suffer the onslaught of Western redevelopment since 1990 loosing so much in a short time in the face of Capitalist commercial pressures, a similar but worse fate having also fallen upon Moscow.
Getting back to the book Stamp looks at nineteen British cities all of which seem to follow a similar depressing course. Buildings old and comparatively new of outstanding design and quality of build again and again destroyed to make a road a bit wider, make room for a roundabout, car park or shopping centre. I never really used to think about what had been in the space where the city centre shopping centres of the 1970's sprung up. This book both describes and is illustrated with pictures of what was lost. It is quite painful to look at some of the stunning buildings that were smashed apart and used as hardcore for road construction. As W.G. Hoskins noted angrily at the time of Exeter (and the same applied everywhere) “... the narrow streets are being torn apart... everything must be sacrificed to enable the motorist to go one mile an hour faster...”. The official love of and endorsement of the car and freedom of the roads that has now lasted some seventy years shows little sign sign of stopping despite the obvious dead-end it has led us to. We now have to live with fractured, broken cities in which the past clings precariously in the face of developers who think only in cash values. Buildings such as the cast iron façade commercial properties of 1850's Glasgow were still being destroyed into the 1990s. There is no reason to think that any structure is safe from the conniving of planners, local politicians and developers (See Private Eye ad. Inf.).
It is only thanks to the inhabitants of Britain's cities, and the phenomenal cost of fulling implementing many of these redevelopment plans that anything is left of pre-war Britain. Ironically now much of post-war Britain is equally threatened with many classic brutalist structures, unloved by many as the Victorian and Edwardian masterpieces were seventy years ago, under attack and threat of demolition with many classic pieces already swept away. A battle is currently raging to save Preston Bus Station ( See: https://www.facebook.com/saveprestonb... ) a stunning piece of architecture deserving of preservation. Fortunately the Twentieth Century Society and countless building specific organisations exist today to try to preserve our heritage but in the face of the same tired arguments it remains no easy task. An excellent and eye opening book which is likely to surprise.
January 29, 2010
Quite a decent book about how buildings in some of our major cities were destroyed during and since the war. Lovely photos but a very pompous narrative as Mr Stamp seems to believe all council planners are idiots. He also doesn't seem to accept progress much either
June 16, 2015
Very interesting read however a "before and after" comparison to what places look like today would have made the book even more enjoyable and brought into perspective the true destruction that has been undertaken over the past years.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews