Pevsner Architectural Guides

The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were published between 1951 and 1974. The series was then extended to Scotland, Wales and Ireland in the late 1970s. Most of the English volumes have had subsequent revised and expanded editions, chiefly by other authors.

The final Scottish volume, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, was published in autumn 2016.^[1] This completed the series' coverage of Great Britain, in the 65th anniversary year of its inception. The Irish series remains incomplete.

Origin and research methods

After moving to the United Kingdom from his native Germany as a refugee in the 1930s, Nikolaus Pevsner found that the study of architectural history had little status in academic circles, and that the amount of information available, especially to travellers wanting to inform themselves about the architecture of a particular district, was limited. He conceived a project to write a series of comprehensive county guides to rectify this, and gained the backing of Allen Lane, founder of Penguin Books, for whom he had written his Outline of European Architecture.

Work on the series began in 1945. Lane employed two part-time assistants, both German refugee art historians, who prepared notes for Pevsner from published sources. Pevsner spent the academic holidays touring the country to make personal observations and to carry out local research, before writing up the finished volumes. The first volume was published in 1951.

Pevsner wrote thirty-two of the books himself and ten with collaborators, with a further four of the original series written by others: the two Gloucestershire volumes by David Verey, and the two volumes on Kent by John Newman. Newman is the only author in the series to have written a volume and revised it three times.

Since Pevsner's death, work has continued on the series, with several volumes now in their third revision, and three in their fourth editions.

Buildings of England

The books are compact and intended to meet the needs of both specialists and the general reader. Each contains an extensive introduction to the architectural history and styles of the area, followed by a town-by-town – and in the case of larger settlements, street-by-street – account of individual buildings. These are often grouped under the heading Perambulation, as Pevsner intended the books to be used as the reader was walking about the area. The guides offer both detailed coverage of the most notable buildings and notes on lesser-known and vernacular buildings; all building types are covered but there is a particular emphasis on churches and public buildings. Each volume has a central section with several dozen pages of photographs, originally in black and white, though colour illustrations have featured in revised volumes published by Yale University Press since 2003.

Boundaries

The boundaries of each volume do not follow a uniform pattern and have evolved with revisions and expansions. The original intention was to maintain whatever boundaries were current at the time of writing; in the first years of the survey these were the traditional counties of England.^[2] However, boundary changes to the London area in 1965 and the rest of England in 1974 meant that this was no longer practicable. As such there are now many variants: Cumbria, for example, covers the modern non-metropolitan county – excepting the district of Sedbergh which although in modern Cumbria is included in the volume covering the West Riding of Yorkshire. Conversely, the Furness area – geographically in Cumbria but traditionally in Lancashire – is included, having been omitted from the predecessor volume, Cumberland and Westmorland.

The six volumes currently covering London collectively represent the 32 London boroughs plus the City, which constitute the modern Greater London region, rather than earlier divisions. The entire volume on Middlesex was an early casualty of this rearrangement, as are parts of the revised volumes covering Surrey, Essex and Kent. Birmingham and the Black Country covers the area bounded by the modern West Midlands metropolitan county, but minus the Metropolitan Borough of Coventry and the rural part of Metropolitan Borough of Solihull. These appear in the revised Warwickshire volume, despite no longer being in that county. Hence Warwickshire now follows the boundary of neither the traditional nor the modern county.

The Buildings of Scotland similarly features hybrid divisions, with volumes such as Fife and Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire reflecting their traditional county boundaries whilst Highland and Islands corresponds to the modern counterparts. The Buildings of Ireland has so far broadly corresponded to the traditional provinces of Ireland and is blind to the Border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The Buildings of Wales largely follows the post-1974 divisions.

Volumes in print and their editions

The list below is of the volumes that are currently in print.

Since 1962, the guides have undergone a gradual programme of updating to reflect architectural-history scholarship and to include significant new buildings. Pevsner left virtually all the revisions to others, acting as supervisor only. He ultimately revised only two of his original editions alone: London 1: The Cities of London and Westminster (1962) and Cambridgeshire (1970). Both were later revised again by others. To date, the oldest wholly unrevised volume is Yorkshire: The North Riding (1966). Staffordshire (1974) is the only other volume currently issued in its unrevised first edition.

Until 1953, all volumes were published in paperback only, after which both hardback and paperback versions were issued. The revision of London: 1 in 1962 was the first volume to be issued in hardback alone, and no further paperbacks were issued after 1964. Until 1970 volumes bore a sequential BE reference number, with Cornwall being BE1. The last volume to be so numbered was Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and the Forest of Dean (BE41). Thereafter ISBNs identify each volume. Beginning in 1983, a larger format was introduced, and all subsequent new editions have been issued in this format. Volumes revised pre-1983 have been reprinted in the original, smaller format (marked with an asterisk in the table below). All editions are now published by Yale University Press.

Where revisions have been spread over more than one volume, the preceding edition remains in print until the whole area has been revised.

Title of current edition	First edition	Co-author(s) or^[a] sole author	Second edition	Co-author(s) or^[a] sole author	Third edition	Co-author(s) or^[a] sole author	Current ISBN
Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire and Peterborough^[b]	1968		2014	Charles O'Brien			978-0-300-20821-4
Berkshire	1966		2010	Geoffrey Tyack, Simon Bradley			978-0-300-12662-4
Birmingham and the Black Country	1966–1974^[c]		2022	Andy Foster			978-0-300-22391-0
Buckinghamshire	1960		1994	Elizabeth Williamson			978-0-300-09584-5
Cambridgeshire	1954		1970		2015	Simon Bradley	978-0-300-20596-1
Cheshire	1971	Edward Hubbard	2011	Clare Hartwell, Matthew Hyde			978-0-300-17043-6
Cornwall	1951		1970	Enid Radcliffe	2014	Peter Beacham	978-0-300-12668-6
County Durham	1953		1983	Elizabeth Williamson	2021	Martin Roberts	978-0-300-22504-4
Cumbria	1967^[d]		2010	Matthew Hyde			978-0-300-12663-1
Derbyshire	1953		1978	Elizabeth Williamson	2016	Clare Hartwell	978-0-300-21559-5
Devon	1952^[e]		1991	Bridget Cherry			978-0-300-09596-8
Dorset	1972	John Newman	2018	Michael Hill			978-0-300-22478-8
Essex	1954		1965	Enid Radcliffe	2007	James Bettley	978-0-300-11614-4
Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds	1970^[a]	David Verey	1979^[a]		1999^[a]	Alan Brooks	978-0-300-09604-0
Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and Forest of Dean	1970^[a]	David Verey	1976^[a]		2002^[a]	Alan Brooks	978-0-300-09733-7
Hampshire: South	1967^[f]	David W. Lloyd	2018	Charles O'Brien, Bruce Bailey			978-0-300-22503-7
Hampshire: Winchester and The North	1967^[g]	David W. Lloyd	2010	Michael Bullen, John Crook, Rodney Hubbuck			978-0-300-12084-4
Herefordshire	1963		2012	Alan Brooks			978-0-300-12575-7
Hertfordshire	1953		1977	Bridget Cherry	2019	James Bettley	978-0-300-09611-8
Isle of Wight	1967^[h]	David W. Lloyd	2006	David W. Lloyd			978-0-300-10733-3
Kent: North East and East	1969^[a]	John Newman	1976^[a]		1983^[a] 2013 (4th)^[a]		978-0-300-18506-5
Kent: West and the Weald	1969^[a]	John Newman	1976^[a]		2012^[a]		978-0-300-18509-6
Lancashire: Liverpool and the South West	1969^[i]		2006	Richard Pollard			978-0-300-10910-8
Lancashire: Manchester and the South East	1969^[i]		2004	Clare Hartwell, Matthew Hyde			978-0-300-10583-4
Lancashire: North	1969		2009	Clare Hartwell			978-0-300-12667-9
Leicestershire and Rutland	1960		1984	Elizabeth Williamson			978-0-300-09618-7
Lincolnshire	1964	John Harris	1989	Nicholas Antram			978-0-300-09620-0
London 1: The City of London	1957^[j]		1962^[j]		1973^[j] 1997 (4th)^[k]	Bridget Cherry Simon Bradley	978-0-300-09624-8
London 2: South	1951–1976^[l]		1983	Bridget Cherry			978-0-300-09651-4
London 3: North West	1951–1952^[m]		1991	Bridget Cherry			978-0-300-09652-1
London 4: North	1951–1952^[m]		1998	Bridget Cherry			978-0-300-09653-8
London 5: East	1952–1965^[n]		1998^[o]	Elizabeth Williamson	2005	Bridget Cherry Charles O'Brien	978-0-300-10701-2
London 6: Westminster	1957^[j]		1962^[j]		1973^[j] 2003 (4th)^[k]	Bridget Cherry Simon Bradley	978-0-300-09595-1
Norfolk 1: Norwich and North East	1962		1997	Bill Wilson			978-0-300-09607-1
Norfolk 2: North-west and South	1962		1999	Bill Wilson			978-0-300-09657-6
Northamptonshire	1961^[p]		1973^[q]	Bridget Cherry	2013	Bruce Bailey	978-0-300-18507-2
Northumberland	1957	(Ian A. Richmond)^[r]	1992	John Grundy, Grace McCombie Peter Ryder, Humphrey Welfare			978-0-300-09638-5
Nottinghamshire	1951		1979	Elizabeth Williamson	2020	Clare Hartwell	978-0-300-24783-1
Oxfordshire: North and West	1974^[s]	Jennifer Sherwood	2017^[a]	Alan Brooks			978-0-300-20930-3
Oxfordshire: South	1974^[s]	Jennifer Sherwood	2023^[3]	Simon Bradley			(in preparation)
Shropshire	1958		2006	John Newman			978-0-300-12083-7
Somerset: North and Bristol	1958		2011	Andrew Foyle			978-0-300-12658-7
Somerset: South and West	1958		2014	Julian Orbach			978-0-300-20740-8
Staffordshire: North	1974		TBA				978-0-300-09646-0
Staffordshire: South	1974		2023^[3]				978-0-300-09646-0
Suffolk: East	1961^[t]		1974	Enid Radcliffe	2015	James Bettley	978-0-300-19654-2
Suffolk: West	1961^[t]		1974	Enid Radcliffe	2015	James Bettley	978-0-300-19655-9
Surrey*	1962	Ian Nairn	1971	Bridget Cherry	2022^[3]		978-0-300-09675-0
Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove	1965^[u]	(Ian Nairn)^[v]	2013	Nicholas Antram			978-0-300-18473-0
Sussex: West	1965	Ian Nairn	2019	Elizabeth Williamson, Tim Hudson, Jeremy Musson			978-0-300-22521-1
Warwickshire	1966	Alexandra Wedgwood	2016^[w]	Chris Pickford			978-0-300-21560-1
Wiltshire	1963		1975	Bridget Cherry	2021	Julian Orbach	978-0-300-25120-3
Worcestershire	1968		2007	Alan Brooks			978-0-300-11298-6
Yorkshire: The North Riding*	1966		2022^[3]				978-0-300-09665-1
Yorkshire: The West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North	1959^[x]		1967^[x]	Enid Radcliffe	2009	Peter Leach	978-0-300-12665-5
Yorkshire: The West Riding: Sheffield and the South	1959^[x]		1967^[x]	Enid Radcliffe	2017	Ruth Harman	978-0300-22468-9
Yorkshire: York and The East Riding	1972		1995	David Neave			978-0-300-09593-7

Notes

1. Pevsner is not credited as author in these editions
2. Peterborough previously included in the 1962 edition of Northamptonshire
3. First published across three volumes: Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and Staffordshire
4. First published as Cumberland and Westmorland – see Superseded and unpublished volumes.
5. First published as two volumes: North Devon and South Devon – see Superseded and unpublished volumes.
6. First published as Hampshire and the Isle of Wight
7. First published as Hampshire and the Isle of Wight
8. First published as Hampshire and the Isle of Wight
9. First published as Lancashire 1: The Industrial and Commercial South – see Superseded and unpublished volumes.
10. First published in London: The Cities of London and Westminster – see Superseded and unpublished volumes.
11. Not identified as a Fourth Edition in the text but as a "successor volume".
12. First published across four separate volumes: Middlesex, London, except the Cities of London and Westminster, Surrey and Kent: West and the Weald
13. First published in two separate volumes: Middlesex and London, except the Cities of London and Westminster – see Superseded and unpublished volumes.
14. First published in two separate volumes: London, except the Cities of London and Westminster and Essex
15. Docklands area only – See Superseded and unpublished volumes.
16. Including Peterborough.
17. Excluding Peterborough – see Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire and Peterborough above.
18. Ian Richmond credited as a contributor rather than co-author.
19. First published as Oxfordshire – see above.
20. First published as Suffolk – see Superseded and unpublished volumes.
21. First published as Sussex – see above.
22. Ian Nairn was only indirectly involved in the text under revision in this volume.
23. Excluding Birmingham and the Black Country – see above.
24. First published as Yorkshire: The West Riding – see Superseded and unpublished volumes

City Guides

The first of the paperback City Guides, covering Manchester, appeared in 2001. It featured a new format with integrated colour illustrations. In most cases the City Guides have preceded a revision of the county volume in which they are located, although they do go into greater detail than the county volumes and have more illustrations. Thus the Birmingham guide completely supersedes the central Birmingham section of the Warwickshire volume, which is now almost fifty years old. Two of the guides, covering Newcastle and Gateshead and Hull, are more recent than the hardback editions for the surrounding counties, and therefore update as well as expand the coverage of those cities. This series appears to be on a hiatus, with no new volumes published since 2010 and none confirmed as in planning.

Title of current edition	First edition	Co-author(s) or sole author	Second edition	Co-author(s) or sole author	Third edition	Co-author(s) or sole author	Current ISBN
Bath	2003	Michael Forsyth					978-0-300-10177-5
Birmingham	2005	Andy Foster					978-0-300-10731-9
Brighton and Hove	2002	Nicholas Antram, Richard Morrice					978-0-300-12661-7
Bristol	2008	Andrew Foyle					978-0-300-10442-4
Hull	2010	David Neave, Susan Neave					978-0-300-10702-9
Leeds	2005	Susan Wrathmell					978-0-300-14172-6
Liverpool	2003	Joseph Sharples					978-0-300-10258-1
Manchester	2001	Clare Hartwell					978-0-300-09666-8
Newcastle and Gateshead	2009	Grace McCombie					978-0-300-12664-8
Nottingham	2008	Elain Harwood					978-0-300-12666-2
Sheffield	2004	Ruth Harman, John Minnis					978-0-300-10585-8

Two supplementary works – thus far the only of their type – were published in 1998, one covering London's City Churches and the other the Docklands area (see London Docklands in Superseded and unpublished volumes below). Both were issued in the format of the main series rather than the City Guides. However, unlike the Docklands edition which represented preliminary work for an expanded main volume, the City Churches volume augmented the text in London 1: The City, published the previous year. The continued development of the Docklands area meant that the volume was superseded when London 5: East was published seven years later, but the City Churches volume remains current and was reissued by Yale in 2002.

• London City Churches (1998) (Simon Bradley) ISBN 978-0-300-09655-2

Buildings of Scotland

The series continued under Pevsner's founding editorship into Scotland. The format is largely similar; however, only Lothian was published in the original small volume style. One noticeable difference in some of the Scottish series is a greater subdivision of the main gazetteer (e.g. in Argyll and Bute mainland Argyll has separate gazetteer from its islands, and Bute similarly is treated on its own). Unlike The Buildings of England, none of the Scottish volumes adopts a hierarchy of ecclesiastical buildings, instead grouping them together. As with the English revisions, several of the volumes are the work of many contributors. The series was completed with Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, published in November 2016. A new edition of Lothian is in preparation, set to be published in 2022.^[3]

The volumes on Glasgow and Edinburgh are, with Dublin (see below) the only Pevsner volumes outside London to focus exclusively on a city. These volumes should not be confused with the City Guide format (see above).

Title of current edition	First edition	Co-author(s) or sole author	Second edition	Co-author(s) or sole author	Third edition	Co-author(s) or sole author	Current ISBN
Aberdeenshire: North and Moray	2015	David W. Walker, Matthew Woodworth					978-0-300-20428-5
Aberdeenshire: South and Aberdeen	2015	Joseph Sharples, David W. Walker, Matthew Woodworth					978-0-300-21555-7
Argyll and Bute	2002	Frank Arneil Walker					978-0-300-09670-5
Ayrshire and Arran	2012	Rob Close, Anne Riches					978-0-300-14170-2
Borders	2006	Kitty Cruft, John Dunbar, Richard Fawcett					978-0-300-10702-9
Dumfries and Galloway	1996	John Gifford					978-0-300-09671-2
Dundee and Angus	2012	John Gifford					978-0-300-14171-9
Edinburgh	1984	John Gifford, Colin McWilliam, David Walker					978-0-300-09672-9
Fife	1988	John Gifford					978-0-300-09673-6
Glasgow	1990	Elizabeth Williamson, Anne Riches, Malcom Higgs					978-0-300-09674-3
Highland and Islands	1992	John Gifford					978-0-300-09625-5
Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire	2016	Rob Close, John Gifford, Frank Arneil Walker					978-0-300-21558-8
Lothian, except Edinburgh	1978	Colin McWilliam					978-0-300-09626-2
Perth and Kinross	2007	John Gifford					978-0-300-10922-1
Stirling and Central Scotland	2002	John Gifford, Frank Arneil Walker					978-0-300-09594-4

Buildings of Wales

The series has also been extended to Wales, and was completed with the issue of Gwynedd in 2009 (although this initial survey had taken seven years longer than Pevsner's first complete survey of England). Only the first volume, Powys (edited by Richard Haslam, and published in 1979), appeared in the original small format style; and this volume has now been superseded by a revised large-format edition, published in 2013. This is the first (and to date only) guide outside The Buildings of England series to be revised.

Title of current edition	First edition	Co-author(s) or sole author	Second edition	Co-author(s) or sole author	Third edition	Co-author(s) or sole author	Current ISBN
Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion	2006	Thomas Lloyd, Julian Orbach, Robert Scourfield					978-0-300-10179-9
Clwyd (Denbighshire and Flintshire)	1986	Edward Hubbard	2003	Edward Hubbard			978-0-300-09627-9
Glamorgan	1995	John Newman					978-0-300-09629-3
Gwent/Monmouthshire	2000	John Newman					978-0-300-09630-9
Gwynedd	2009	Richard Haslam, Julian Orbach, Adam Voelcker					978-0-300-14169-6
Pembrokeshire	2004	Thomas Lloyd, Julian Orbach, Robert Scourfield					978-0-300-10178-2
Powys: Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire and Breconshire	1979	Richard Haslam	2013	Robert Scourfield and Richard Haslam			978-0-300-18508-9

Buildings of Ireland

The Irish series is incomplete, with six volumes being published between 1979 and 2020. Research for some of the remaining five volumes is underway.

Title of current edition	First edition	Co-author(s) or sole author	Second edition	Co-author(s) or sole author	Third edition	Co-author(s) or sole author	Current ISBN
Belfast, Antrim and County Down	in preparation
Connacht/Connaught	in preparation
Cork: City and County	2020	Frank Keohane					978-0-300-22487-0
Dublin	2005	Christine Casey					978-0-300-10923-8
Dublin: County	in preparation
Munster, except Cork	in preparation
North West Ulster: the Counties of Londonderry, Donegal, Fermanagh and Tyrone	1979	Alistair Rowan					978-0-300-09667-5
Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly	2019	Andrew Tierney					978-0-300-23204-2
North Leinster	1988	Alistair Rowan, Christine Casey					978-0-300-09668-2
South Leinster	in preparation
South Ulster: the Counties of Armagh, Cavan and Monaghan	1992	Kevin Mulligan					978-0-300-18601-7

Crown dependencies

Pevsner did not make any moves to extend the series to the Isle of Man or Channel Islands. However, a volume covering the Isle of Man is to be published in early 2023.^[3]

• Isle of Man (2023) ISBN 978-0-300-22502-0 (Jonathan Kewley)

Treatment of bridges

A number of bridges connect areas covered by different volumes. However, there is no single approach for which volume should include the structure in its main gazetteer. In some cases, one volume refers the reader to the other, and in other cases only a few lines appear in one volume and a fuller entry appears in the other. In a very few cases (listed below) a full entry appears in both volumes.

Bridge	Connection	Volume(s) of main entry
Coldstream Bridge	Berwickshire–Northumberland	Borders Northumberland
Erskine Bridge	Renfrewshire–Dunbartonshire	Stirling and Central Scotland Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire
Forth Bridge Forth Road Bridge	West Lothian–Fife	Lothian
Humber Bridge	Lincolnshire–Yorkshire	Lincolnshire
Kincardine Bridge	Stirlingshire–Fife	Fife
Queen Elizabeth II Bridge	Essex–Kent	Essex Kent: West and the Weald
Severn Bridge	Monmouthshire–Gloucestershire	Gloucestershire 2
Second Severn Crossing	Monmouthshire–Gloucestershire	Gwent/Monmouthshire
Tamar Bridge	Devon–Cornwall	Cornwall
Tay Bridge Tay Road Bridge	Dundee–Fife	Dundee and Angus

Superseded and unpublished volumes

The revision of the series has rendered some original volumes obsolete, usually as the area of coverage has changed. For example, the county of Cumbria was created after the publication of Cumberland and Westmorland and North Lancashire, leading to the merger of material from both volumes in a single volume Cumbria, a revision with a new geographical focus. To date the following volumes have been entirely superseded:

• Cumberland and Westmorland (1967)
• London: the Cities of London and Westminster (1957, rev. 1962 and 1973)
• London, except the Cities of London and Westminster (1952)
• London Docklands (1998) (with Elizabeth Williamson)
• Middlesex (1951)
• North Lancashire (1969)
• South Lancashire (1969)
• Suffolk (1961, rev. Enid Radcliffe 1974)
• Yorkshire: The West Riding (1959, rev. Enid Radcliffe 1967)

In addition, two volumes, North Devon and South Devon (1952) were superseded by a single volume covering the entire county. Parts of the original Hampshire & the Isle of Wight and Yorkshire: the West Riding volumes have been superseded by revised volumes.

In some published volumes and in advance publicity, certain titles were announced which were ultimately never published. A number of factors accounted for this, including the readiness of parts of the text covering certain areas and the anticipated size of the volumes. Unpublished titles included:

• Argyll, Bute and Stirling^[2]
• Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire^[4]
• Dublin: City and County^[2]
• London III ^[5]
• South Strathclyde^[6]

Related works

In 1995 Penguin, in conjunction with English Heritage, released a publication based on the guides entitled Looking at Buildings. Focusing on the East Riding of Yorkshire volume, Pevsner's text was adapted as an introduction, with a greater number of illustrations than the main guides. No further print publications were issued, but the title survives as an introductory website to architectural terms and selected buildings which feature in the Pevsner guides.^[7]

In 1995 a CD-ROM entitled A Compendium of Pevsner's Buildings of England was issued by Oxford University Press, designed as a searchable database of the volumes published for England only. A second edition was released in 2005. Bibliographies of the guides themselves were published in 1983, 1998 and 2012 by the Penguin Collectors Society.

In 2016, Yale University Press published three volumes, each serving as an introduction to some of the buildings and the architectural terms mentioned in the text of the guides. Published as Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions these are: an architectural glossary (also available as an app), a volume focusing on church buildings and another on dwelling houses (including vernacular architecture).

Celebratory volumes

In 1986, Penguin published an anthology from Pevsner's volumes edited by Bridget Cherry and John Newman, The Best Buildings of England, ISBN 0-670-81283-8. It has an introduction by Newman assessing Pevsner's aims and methods. In 2001, the Penguin Collectors Society published The Buildings of England: a Celebration, edited by Simon Bradley and Bridget Cherry, fifty years after BE1 was published: it includes twelve essays and a selection of text from the series.^[8] In 2012, Susie Harries, one of Pevsner's biographers, wrote The Buildings of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales: A Sixtieth Anniversary Catalogue of the Pevsner Architectural Guides, which was published in a limited edition of 1,000 copies by the Penguin Collectors Society.^[9]

Travels with Pevsner

In 1997, the BBC broadcast a series of documentaries^[10] entitled Travels with Pevsner, in which six writers and broadcasters travelled through a county which had particular significance to them. They revisited buildings mentioned by Pevsner, critically examining his views on them. A further series was broadcast in 1998. John Grundy, who presented the programme on Northumberland, was one of the revisers of that county volume. Both series were accompanied by booklets published by the BBC, describing the buildings featured in the programmes and suggesting others to explore. The counties visited and the travellers were:

Series One Norfolk (Dan Cruikshank) North Yorkshire (Janet Street-Porter) Dorset (Patrick Wright) County Durham (Lucinda Lambton) Warwickshire (Germaine Greer) Surrey (Michael Bracewell)

Series Two Derbyshire (Joan Bakewell) Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (Philip Hoare) Worcestershire (Jonathan Meades) Suffolk (Craig Brown) Northumberland (John Grundy) Bristol and Somerset (Philippa Gregory)

In both series, extracts from Pevsner's text were read by Benjamin Whitrow.

See also

• Survey of London – an even more detailed but incomplete account of the architecture of London
• The Penguin Collectors Society for the Pevsner Memorial Trust
• The King's England
• Victoria County History
• Buildings of the United States – a series inspired by the Buildings of England

References

1. "Pevsner Architectural Guides: Newsletter". Yale University Press. 2015. Retrieved 25 June 2016 – via Issuu.com. volume 2015/16
2. Cherry 1998, p. ?.
3. "Pevsner Architectural Guides". Yale University Press. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
4. Announced in the Dumfries and Galloway volume (1996)
5. Announced in the first edition of the West Kent volume (1969)
6. Announced in the Fife volume (1992)
7. "Looking at Buildings". Pevsner Architectural Guides. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
8. Cherry & Bradley 2001, Introduction.
9. Harries & Mackay 2012, p. 2.
10. Travels with Pevsner (BBC site)

Sources

• Cherry, Bridget (1998). The Buildings of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales: a short history and bibliography. London: Penguin Collectors' Society. ISBN 978-0-952-74011-7.
• Bridget Cherry; Simon Bradley, eds. (2001). The Buildings of England: A Celebration. London: Penguin Collectors' Society. ISBN 978-0-952-74013-1.
• Susie Harries; James Mackay, eds. (2012). The Buildings of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales: A Sixtieth Anniversary Catalogue. London: Penguin Collectors' Society. ISBN 978-0-955-83955-9.

External links

• Pevsner Architectural Guides, Yale University Press
• Looking at Buildings website