Georgian London

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John Summerson

Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2006, 2003 (new edition); originally published 1946, English

Nonfiction, Architecture

ISBN: 9780300089882

From the Publisher. In this classic of English architectural history (first published more than half a century ago), John Summerson provides a perceptive and highly readable account of a major building period in the history of London. Encompassing the architecture of the capital from the Great Fire of 1666 through the city’s early 19th-century expansion, the book remains an indispensable guide to the genesis and development of Georgian London. Summerson examines the way in which building was conditioned by social, economic, and financial circumstances and discusses some of Britain’s most important buildings and their architects.

While Summerson’s text is essentially unchanged in this edition, it has been corrected in the light of new research, expanded to include a few significant buildings that were originally overlooked, and enhanced with new illustrations. The Appendix of surviving Georgian buildings has also been carefully updated. Sir John Summerson (1904–1992) was the curator of Sir John Soane’s Museum in London for almost forty years, simultaneously teaching the history of architecture at the Architectural Association in London and at Birkbeck College, University of London.

On 4 book lists

Mohsen Mostafavi

On Mohsen Mostafavi’s Book List

I was lucky enough to have met Summerson. This book is indispensable as a history of an important period in the development of London as well as for the study of architectural form and its social repercussions.

Jaquelin Robertson

On Jaquelin Robertson’s Book List

Denise Scott Brown

On Denise Scott Brown’s Book List

Robert Venturi

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