Gothic for the Steam Age
An Illustrated Biography of George Gilbert Scott
Published on 24. September 2015
Book
Hardback
208 pages
978-1-78131-124-0 (ISBN)
Description
George Gilbert Scott was the most prolific and most famous of Victorian architects. For many, however, blinded by prejudice to the merits of Victorian architecture and the Gothic Revival, he was the most notorious. The rehabilitation of his reputation after a century of abuse is symbolised, above all, by the magnificent restoration of one of his best-known buildings (once seriously threatened with demolition), the hotel at St Pancras Station in London. He was the founder of the greatest architectural dynasty in British history, a dynasty which still flourishes in the fourth and fifth generation. Scott ran the largest architectural office of its time and it produced designs for some seven or eight hundred buildings (estimates vary). Only a limited selection can therefore be illustrated here, but all of his major secular works are represented, whether by old or new photographs, original drawings and prints, along with the best and most significant of his many churches. The first in what is a long-overdue illustrated biography of Sir Gilbert Scott, Gavin Stamp has trawled tirelessly through the archives, trying to piece together the life of this great Victorian architect. The sheer scale of Scott's work and the foundations of an architectural empire has amassed a huge portfolio. Within these pages is a celebration of his work.
Reviews / Votes
"No book this year has provided me with such interest and visual delight as Gavin Stamp's superb Gothic for the Steam Age... Stamp is the finest architectural historian of the Victorian era and his evocation of Scott - architect and human being - is a masterpiece, accompanied by superb illustrations." "Gavin Stamp's beautifully illustrated book begins to fill a huge gapEUR| What is needed now is a comprehensive life and work of Scott, whose funeral in Westminster Abbey was the grandest ever accorded to any British architect. Steeped in the works of the Scott dynasty, Stamp possesses the sensitivity, perspicacity, intelligence and sound judgements to make him the ideal candidate to write it." "This book offers a brilliant overview of Scott's achievements. The pictures, accompanied by discursive captions, are beautifully chosen. Dr Stamp writes about his subject succinctly with authority, verve and clarity. ...he does something that lifts this book far above the ordinary as a work of architectural history. The result is that Dr Stamp has not just informed me of the fact that Scott was a great architect; he has fully persuaded me." "This excellent book gives us a Scott for our age, as Scott gave us Gothic for the Steam Age. Scott lacks a full scale biography but, as author Gavin Stamp says, the sheer scale of his work, embracing some 800 buildings and designs, makes this an impossible task; in any case we have Scott's autobiography Personal and Professional Recollections. What Stamp gives us instead is much more interesting...""This book offers a brilliant overview of Scott's achievements. The pictures, accompanied by discursive captions, are beautifully chosen. Dr Stamp writes about his subject succinctly with authority, verve and clarity. ...he does something that lifts this book far above the ordinary as a work of architectural history. The result is that Dr Stamp has not just informed me of the fact that Scott was a great architect; he has fully persuaded me."
"Gavin Stamp's beautifully illustrated book begins to fill a huge gap... What is needed now is a comprehensive life and work of Scott, whose funeral in Westminster Abbey was the grandest ever accorded to any British architect. Steeped in the works of the Scott dynasty, Stamp possesses the sensitivity, perspicacity, intelligence and sound judgements to make him the ideal candidate to write it."
"No book this year has provided me with such interest and visual delight as Gavin Stamp's superb Gothic for the Steam Age... Stamp is the finest architectural historian of the Victorian era and his evocation of Scott - architect and human being - is a masterpiece, accompanied by superb illustrations." "In the context of Stamp's work with the Victorian Society and his vocal presence as a campaigner for Britain's nineteenth-century architecture, this book compels readers to act as well as to admire. Its well-illustrated essay demonstrates the remarkable extent to which Scott and Victorian architecture were practically synonymous. With its substantial essay and gazetteer, Gothic for the Steam Age may point to new routes for further research on this most prolific and influential of architects."
* Burlington Magazine *
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Quarto Publishing PLC
Dimensions
Height: 286 mm
Width: 214 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-78131-124-0 (9781781311240)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
GAVIN STAMP is an architectural historian and writer, who for many years was chairman of the Twentieth Century Society. His other books include Lost Victorian Britain, Britain's Lost Cities and Edwin Lutyens Country Houses (all published by Aurum), as well as The Memorial to the Missing of the Somme and The Changing Metropolis: Earliest Photographs of London 1839 - 1879.