Georgian London
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Yellowed
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Few books have so definitively captured the built environment of a great city as Georgian London, Sir John Summerson's masterful account of the architectural and urban transformation of London between the early eighteenth century and the reign of George IV. With scholarly precision and infectious enthusiasm, Summerson chronicles the grand ambitions of speculative builders, the genius of architects such as Wren, Nash, and Soane, and the organic social forces that shaped the terraces, squares, and parishes we still recognise today. He argues, convincingly, that Georgian London was not the product of a single imperial vision but of a restless, entrepreneurial energy that nonetheless produced one of the most coherent and beautiful urban landscapes in the world. A cornerstone of British architectural historiography since its first publication in 1945, this work stands as a model of lucid, authoritative writing — the prose as well-proportioned as the façades it describes. Summerson illuminates the deep connections between economics, society, and aesthetics, revealing how landlord ambition, aristocratic taste, and the humble speculative lease combined to create streets of enduring grandeur. For anyone who has ever walked through Bloomsbury, Mayfair, or Marylebone and wondered how such elegance came to be, this book provides the answer — and makes the familiar streets of London feel, once again, astonishing.
Author: John Summerson
Format: Paperback
Genre: Architecture
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Yellowed
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Few books have so definitively captured the built environment of a great city as Georgian London, Sir John Summerson's masterful account of the architectural and urban transformation of London between the early eighteenth century and the reign of George IV. With scholarly precision and infectious enthusiasm, Summerson chronicles the grand ambitions of speculative builders, the genius of architects such as Wren, Nash, and Soane, and the organic social forces that shaped the terraces, squares, and parishes we still recognise today. He argues, convincingly, that Georgian London was not the product of a single imperial vision but of a restless, entrepreneurial energy that nonetheless produced one of the most coherent and beautiful urban landscapes in the world. A cornerstone of British architectural historiography since its first publication in 1945, this work stands as a model of lucid, authoritative writing — the prose as well-proportioned as the façades it describes. Summerson illuminates the deep connections between economics, society, and aesthetics, revealing how landlord ambition, aristocratic taste, and the humble speculative lease combined to create streets of enduring grandeur. For anyone who has ever walked through Bloomsbury, Mayfair, or Marylebone and wondered how such elegance came to be, this book provides the answer — and makes the familiar streets of London feel, once again, astonishing.