England’s Cathedrals: A Timeline — by Nicholas Orme
Nicholas Orme’s The History of England’s Cathedrals is the first history of the life and activities of all English cathedrals, from Birmingham and Bury…
Architectural history
Birmingham, Holland Hobbiss and the long influence of Philip Webb
The Arts and Crafts tradition established deep roots in Birmingham during the nineteenth century, resulting in masterpieces such as W.R. Lethaby’s Eagle Insurance being…
Christmas at the Country House
In this special festive blog, Yale author Clive Aslet welcomes us in to sit by a warm hearth as he gives a brief history…
The Story of the Country House | The Competition
Writers in the 19th century described country houses as their own ‘little kingdoms’: self-contained units with their own rulers, workers, and inhabitants whose lives…
Illustrating The Story of the Country House: Q&A with Bethan Scorey
Country houses in the UK date back as far as the medieval period, when England had a population of just a few million and…
Exploring Wiltshire with Pevsner: The Estate Villages of Joseph Neeld
The estate villages of Joseph Neeld are a remarkably complete set in the picturesque styles of the earlier nineteenth-century. They are often left in…
Location, Location, Location: Introducing the New Pevsner Guide to County Durham
When it comes to the desirability of a house, property experts and novices alike have no doubt heard (and used!) the famous mantra: location,…
A 16th-century Portuguese Plan of the Badi’ Palace
Writing a book is hard, but finding centuries-old primary sources of Moroccan royal households can be even harder. Following on from his introductory blog…
Fake Heritage for the Fake News Era
Heritage is a physical manifestation of days gone by – the remains of humankind’s past; from our buildings, monuments and landscapes, to our artefacts,…
Nottinghamshire Villages: Small Places, Far Horizons
The latest volume from the much-loved Buildings of England series to be revised and refreshed is Nottinghamshire—an oft-overlooked county that is nevertheless brimming with…
Architecture of the Islamic West: Innovative, Impressive and … Overlooked?
Some of the most outstanding examples of world architecture, such as the Mosque of Córdoba, the ceiling of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo and…
Celebrating the life & work of architectural historian James S. Ackerman
On the last day of 2016 the world lost one of its foremost architectural historians when James S. Ackerman died, age 97. Ackerman was…
A Brief History of Pevsner’s Buildings of Scotland series
‘It’ll be a sort of Scottish Pevsner, then?’ This was the reaction of an unnamed station master at Dunbar station when, as Colin McWilliam…
The People’s Galleries: South Kensington Museum – The V&A
Giles Waterfield’s The People’s Galleries is a wide-ranging examination of the phenomenon of the art museum in Britain, from its early days in 1800 when the British…
In the Steps of the Medici: A Walk Through Renaissance Florence
Put on some comfortable shoes (or just imagine putting them on!) and join us in our Italian holiday reverie, where we explore the magnificence…