Anti-Ugly

Excursions in English Architecture and Design

Gavin Stamp

• Publisher: Aurum
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781781311233
• eBook ISBN: 9781781312179
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture Criticism

Since 2004 Gavin Stamp, one of Britain’s most eminent and readable architectural historians, has written a monthly column for Apollo, the esteemed architecture and fine art magazine. The subject is simply whatever in design or architecture happens to take his fancy. It might be the splendid reopening of the magnificent Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras Station, or the dilapidation of a little-known church in Eastbourne; the much-lamented demise of the original Routemaster bus, or the colossal majesty of the airship sheds that housed the R.101.

But while these pieces display a wonderful range and variety, they are unified by Stamp’s wider quest: to explore, define and champion the very Englishness of English architecture and design. When fine examples are preserved and restored, he celebrates; when they fall victim to philistine neglect – or, worse, demolition – he mourns. And when the elegant is overshadowed by the merely modish, he deplores.

In Anti-Ugly, Stamp has selected the best of these ‘excursions’, producing a compulsively readable collection that builds into an eloquent, learned, trenchant and often indignant portrait of our national design heritage.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. The cover of Wiltshire in the Vision of England series published by Paul Elek in 1949.

2. An ‘Anti-Ugly’ recommendation card issued by the New Architecture Group in 1962.

3. The title page of Andrea Palladio’s Quattro Libri published in 1570.

4. Heathcote at Ilkley by Edwin Lutyens: photo by the author, 2000.

5. The report on preserving Monkton by SAVE Britain’s Heritage and the (then) Thirties Society issued in 1986.

6. The Guinness Brewery at Park Royal, since demolished: photo by the author, 2005.

7. The Commonwealth Institute in Kensington: photo by the author, 1990.

8. The cover of How we celebrate the Coronation by Robert Byron published in 1937.

9. The dust-jacket for Osbert Lancaster’s Pillar to Post, published in 1938.

10. Sir John Betjeman looking at the proofs of Temples of Power: photo by the author, 1979.

11. Christ Church, Spitalfields: photo by the author, 2011.

12. Seaton Delaval by Vanbrugh: photo by the author, 2013.

13. Ashridge Park by James Wyatt: photo by the author, 2009.

14. Moggerhanger Park by Sir John Soane: photo by the author, 2006.

15. The frontispiece to Pugin’s Apology for the Revival of Christian Architecture, 1843.

16. The interior of the former Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras: photo by the author, 2011.

17. The Wharncliffe Viaduct at Hanwell: lithograph by J.C. Bourne from his History & Description of the Great Western Railway, 1846.

18. The Hall of the Watermen’s Guild at Ghent: etching by Ernest George c.1878.

19. The Horniman Free Museum by Harrison Townsend as illustrated in The Studio in 1901.

20. The interior of Coventry Cathedral: photo by the author, 1989.

21. ‘Lord of the Tournament’: lithograph by J.H. Nixon from his Series of Views representing the Tournament held at Eglinton Castle..., 1843.

22. The Wills Tower by Sir George Oatley: photo from University of Bristol 1925.

23. Highfort Court at Kingsbury, Middlesex, by Ernest Trobridge: photo by the author, 2005.

24. The font designed by William Burges in St Peter’s Church, Draycott, Somerset: photo by courtesy of the Victorian Society.

25. The ivy-clad Charterhouse: photo from St John Adcock, ed., Wonderful London, c.1926.

26. Design for the crossing tower of Bury St Edmunds Cathedral by S.E. Dykes Bower, Warwick Pether & Hugh Matthew.

27. ‘Christ Asleep’ from Emblems of the Christian Life by W. Harry Rogers, 1862.

28. The east end of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, from an early 20th century postcard.

29. The tomb of the Duke of Clarence in St George’s Chapel, Windsor: photo by Hollyer from Isabel McAllister, Alfred Gilbert, 1929.

30. The statue of W.E. Gladstone in the Aldwych, London: photo by the author.

31. Alexander Stoddart in his former studio in Paisley: photo by the author, 1991.

32. The Artillery Memorial at Hyde Park Corner by C.S. Jagger: photo by the author, 2010.

33. The Bomber Command Memorial in Piccadilly: photo by the author, 2012.

34. The Memorial to the Missing of the Somme in Thiepval, France, by Edwin Lutyens: photo by the author, 1990.

35. The Doric propylaeum at Euston Station under construction in c.1837 drawn by J.C. Bourne: from A. & P. Smithson, The Euston Arch..., 1968.

36. W.H. Barlow’s train shed after conversion as St Pancras International: photo by the author, 2009.

37. King’s Cross Station as depicted in The London Alphabet of the 1850s.

38. The Rotunda at Woolwich by John Nash drawn by Barbara Jones, 1952.

39. Sandycombe Lodge at Twickenham: engraving by William Havell, c.1814.

40. A villa at the top of Sydenham Hill overlooking Crystal Palace High Level Station, since demolished: photo by the author, 1968.

41. The former Post Office in central Bath: photo by the author, 2010.

42. The New City Prison, Holloway: engraving in Tallis’s Illustrated London..., 1851,

43. The Great Roman Bath and Bath Abbey: photo from The Book of Bath, c.1930.

44. The airship sheds at Cardington, Bedfordshire: photo by the author, 1969.

45. A London Transport RT bus outside the Cloth Hall at Ypres: photo by the author, 1988.

46. The railings outside the British Museum: photo by the author, 2013.

47. St Mary’s, Nottingham: etching by F.L. Griggs, 1929.

48. The Albert Dock and the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool: photo by the author, 2009.

49. Margate: a postcard of the 1960s.

50. Lululaund at Bushey by H.H. Richardson: photo in A.L. Baldry, Hubert von Herkomer, R.A.: a Study and a Biography, 1901.

First published in 2013

by Aurum Press Ltd, 74–77 White Lion Street, London N1 9PF

www.aurumpress.co.uk

This eBook edition first published in 2013

All rights reserved

Copyright © Gavin Stamp 2013

Gavin Stamp has asserted his moral right to be identified as the Author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly

eBook conversion by CPI Group

ISBN 978 1 78131 217 9

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• A Vision of England
• Anti-Ugly
• The Curse of Palladio
• Palladian Games
• Surreal Recall
• Guinness isn’t Good for You
• Keeping an Open Mind
• Robert Byron
• Cartoon History
• Betjemanic
• Hawksmoor Redivivus
• Shakespeare in Stone
• The Destroyer
• Slightly Subhuman?
• God’s Architect
• Midland Grand Hotel
• The Second Greatest Briton?
• The Spirit of Ernest George
• Forgotten Prophet
• Spence’s Charm
• Knight’s Tale
• Dreaming Towers
• Englishmen’s Castles
• Flogging Off the Silver
• Nature Versus Culture
• Gothic Revival
• Inspired Patronage
• Sell the Rubens
• A Tomb for a King
• The Empty Plinth
• A Canova for Today
• Too Many Memorials
• The War Goes On
• Tragic Triumph
• Steam Ahead
• Long Journey’s End
• Battlebridge
• Tent for a Prince
• An Artist’s Villa
• Villa Frankenstein
• Post-Haste to Closure
• In Carceri
• Taking the Plunge
• Aerial Travellers
• Streamlined
• Bring Back the Railings
• Out With the Old
• Looking After Liverpool
• Dreamland
• Lost Lululaund
• List of Illustrations
• Copyright