THE END OF PEVSNER

The monumental work of maintaining a live record of the architecture of the UK and Ireland is in danger of being abandoned

CHARLES SAUMAREZ SMITH

I WAS GIVEN MY FIRST COPY OF NIKOLAUS Pevsner’s Buildings of England in the summer of 1967 when I was going off to boarding school and my kind Aunt Margaret gave me the Wiltshire volume, which had been published in 1963. My first weekend I cycled off to see the church at Clyffe Pypard, which strictly was out-of-bounds, with Pevsner in my pocket. I have been accompanied by copies of Pevsner and his fatter successors on trips to churches, towns and, more recently, modern buildings ever since, although, truth-to-tell, as they have become bigger and more comprehensive, they have become more like works of reference to be consulted at home, rather than used as guidebooks in one’s pocket. I REMEMBER VIVIDLY WHEN THE FIRST SERIES CAME to an end with the publication…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, February 2024

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