- Publisher: Head of Zeus
- Year: 2023
- Format: Hardback
- Pages: 512pp
- Illustrated: Yes
- Dimensions: 240x165mm
- Condition: New
- Weight: 1.1kg
- ISBN: 9781801108751
- Product code: 545397
Building Britannia
A History of Britain in Twenty-Five Buildings
Steven Parissien New Hardback Illustrated
Postscript summary
Through a chronological survey of some of the nation’s most significant buildings, the acclaimed architectural historian Steven Parissien explains what each tells us about the history, politics and culture of its age. The illustrated entries range from the Iron-Age Maiden Castle in Dorset, through Lincoln’s medieval cathedral, Brighton’s Regency Royal Pavilion and Newcastle’s High Victorian Central Station, to Norman Forster’s Modernist ‘Gherkin’ in the City of London.
Product information
Full publisher description
An ambitious history of Britain told through the stories of twenty-five notable structures, from the Iron Age fortification of Maiden Castle in Dorset to the Gherkin.
Building Britannia is a chronicle of social, political and economic change seen through the prism of the country's built environment, but also a sequence of closely observed studies of a series of intrinsically remarkable structures: some of them beautiful or otherwise imposing; some of them more coldly functional; all of them with richly fascinating stories to tell.
Steven Parissien tells both a national story, tracing how a growing sense of British nationhood was expressed through the country's architecture, and also examines how these structures were used by later generations to signpost, mythologise or remake British history.
Rubbing shoulders with some 'expected' building choices - the Roman baths at Aquae Sulis, the early Gothic splendour of Lincoln Cathedral and the Tudor jewel that is Little Moreton Hall - are some striking inclusions that promise to open doors into what will be, for many readers, less familiar areas of social history: these include The Briton's Protection, a Regency pub close in Manchester city centre and the Edwardian Baroque Electric Cinema in Notting Hill, one of the country's oldest working cinemas. Thus as well as identifying the relevance of certain iconic structures to the unfolding of the national story, Building Britannia finds fascination and meaning in the everyday and the disregarded.
Building Britannia is a chronicle of social, political and economic change seen through the prism of the country's built environment, but also a sequence of closely observed studies of a series of intrinsically remarkable structures: some of them beautiful or otherwise imposing; some of them more coldly functional; all of them with richly fascinating stories to tell.
Steven Parissien tells both a national story, tracing how a growing sense of British nationhood was expressed through the country's architecture, and also examines how these structures were used by later generations to signpost, mythologise or remake British history.
Rubbing shoulders with some 'expected' building choices - the Roman baths at Aquae Sulis, the early Gothic splendour of Lincoln Cathedral and the Tudor jewel that is Little Moreton Hall - are some striking inclusions that promise to open doors into what will be, for many readers, less familiar areas of social history: these include The Briton's Protection, a Regency pub close in Manchester city centre and the Edwardian Baroque Electric Cinema in Notting Hill, one of the country's oldest working cinemas. Thus as well as identifying the relevance of certain iconic structures to the unfolding of the national story, Building Britannia finds fascination and meaning in the everyday and the disregarded.
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545397
Building Britannia
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Through a chronological survey of some of the nation’s most significant buildings, the acclaimed architectural historian Steven Parissien explains what each tells us about the history, politics and culture of its age. The illustrated entries range from the Iron-Age Maiden Castle in Dorset, through Lincoln’s medieval cathedral, Brighton’s Regency Royal Pavilion and Newcastle’s High Victorian Central Station, to Norman Forster’s Modernist ‘Gherkin’ in the City of London.
Hardback
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rrp_info:£35.00
productId:181843
bic_code:AMX, HBJD1, HBTB
AMX, HBJD1, HBTB
£35.00
Steven Parissien
General
240x165mm
Head of Zeus
No
Hardback
British & Irish
