Lost Victorian Britain: How The Twentieth Century Destroyed the Nineteenth Century's Architectural Masterpieces

by Gavin Stamp

Both a remarkable photographic record of a vanished landscape of 19th-century architecture, and an angry polemic against the cavalier destruction of hundreds of grand buildings, this is the latest record of magnificent buildings from previous centuries that for a variety of reasons—but above all cavalier demolition by 20th-century planners devoted to the cause of modernism—are now no more, and exist only in heartbreakingly poignant photographs. This latest chronicles an astonishing and depressing array of the finest Victorian architecture all sacrificed to the wrecking ball, from the Euston Arch to Preston Town Hall, from a great country house like Trentham in Staffordshire to a fine Victorian church like St. Jude's in London’s Red Lion Square. Here are public baths, railway termini and hotels, town houses, factories, banks, law courts—all buildings that, if threatened today, would soon see calls for restoration. But it's too late—photographs are all we have left. Gavin Stamp's indignant and scholarly text looks back at the circumstances of their loss, and analyzes the 20th-century mind set that could hold so many magnificent buildings in such little regard.

Genres: History, Architecture, Victorian, Reference, Nonfiction, London

187 pages, Hardcover

First published October 21, 2010

Reviews

[Joe]

Excellent account of how the UK lost some of its best Victorian buildings. This was largely down to prejudice from the great and the good who thought they had a monopoly on what constituted good taste, and in a particularly destructive period after the second world war set about to rob ordinary people of a large chunk of their cultural heritage. The Luftwaffe’s role is secondary.

The vast majority of the buildings, that replaced the Victorian structures documented here, were of little architectural merit and were themselves often demolished after a few decades thus making the original loss even more pointless. The book is organised around different types of building and superbly illustrated. Stamp writes extremely well and gives the villains in this (d**k waving architects, greedy developers, local government, central government, British Rail, the Church of England) an eloquent thrashing.

[Helen Birkbeck]

Sad account of the casual and often pointless destruction of so many interesting and characterful buildings, though the author's bias does get a little wearing and the book has quite a few editorial errors. Why list things if you're still able to knock them down? It's understandable but a pity that the photos are in black and white, as they don't show the true glory of the buildings.

[Gareth Evans]

This could have been so very dull, but it really wasn't. It rattled a long at a good pace. Well designed, the text and the pictures always on the same page made for comfortable and speedy reading. Of course, Stamp probably overdoes the it's a great shame that such and such a building was demolished, just as all advocates for particular architectural styles and ages do. However, it has certainly given me a better appreciation of Victorian architecture in general and made me view the isolated churches and other buildings on the Manchester skyline in a different light. Overall, a fast, interesting and charming read.