A Short History of British Architecture: From Stonehenge to the Shard

REVIEW BY ALISTAIR FAIR

Simon Jenkins’ Short History of British Architecture ranges over several thousand years of cathedrals, castles, and grand buildings. Jenkins enjoys a good example and a memorable phrase. Inevitably in a survey, there is some unevenness, with Jenkins’ definition of ‘architecture’ and his interest in style sidelining the vernacular. More fundamentally, Scotland is skimmed over and ‘English’ is sometimes elided with ‘British’. The final part of the book sees Jenkins open fire on 20th-century Modernism – with some inaccuracies when it comes to the post-war new towns and housing drive. Jenkins concludes by arguing for better public understanding of design – a good aim. His account certainly offers a panorama of buildings, designers, and styles, but one hopes that readers will also think about the experience of space and place, the nature of materials, and the networks of people and ideas which together create the built environment.

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Emma Kay
Amberley, £15.99
ISBN 978-1398110991