The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were published between 1951 and 1974. The series was then extended to Scotland, Wales and Ireland in the late 1970s. Most of the English volumes have had subsequent revised and expanded editions, chiefly by other authors.
The final Scottish volume, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, was published in autumn 2016.[1] This completed the series' coverage of Great Britain, in the 65th anniversary year of its inception. The Irish series remains incomplete.
Origin and research methods
After moving to the United Kingdom from his native Germany as a refugee in the 1930s, Nikolaus Pevsner found that the study of architectural history had little status in academic circles, and that the amount of information available, especially to travellers wanting to inform themselves about the architecture of a particular district, was limited. He conceived a project to write a series of comprehensive county guides to rectify this, and gained the backing of Allen Lane, founder of Penguin Books, for whom he had written his Outline of European Architecture.
Work on the series began in 1945. Lane employed two part-time assistants, both German refugee art historians, who prepared notes for Pevsner from published sources. Pevsner spent the academic holidays touring the country to make personal observations and to carry out local research, before writing up the finished volumes. The first volume was published in 1951.
Pevsner wrote thirty-two of the books himself and ten with collaborators, with a further four of the original series written by others: the two Gloucestershire volumes by David Verey, and the two volumes on Kent by John Newman. Newman is the only author in the series to have written a volume and revised it three times.
Since Pevsner's death, work has continued on the series, with several volumes now in their third revision, and three in their fourth editions.
Buildings of England
The books are compact and intended to meet the needs of both specialists and the general reader. Each contains an extensive introduction to the architectural history and styles of the area, followed by a town-by-town – and in the case of larger settlements, street-by-street – account of individual buildings. These are often grouped under the heading Perambulation, as Pevsner intended the books to be used as the reader was walking about the area. The guides offer both detailed coverage of the most notable buildings and notes on lesser-known and vernacular buildings; all building types are covered but there is a particular emphasis on churches and public buildings. Each volume has a central section with several dozen pages of photographs, originally in black and white, though colour illustrations have featured in revised volumes published by Yale University Press since 2003.
Boundaries
The volumes originally used the boundaries of the historic counties of England, which were current at the time of writing.[2] They largely continue to use the historic boundaries, but have been partially updated to reflect changes in London, Birmingham and the Black Country, and Cumbria. The volume on the historic county of Middlesex, for example, has been superseded by three of the six volumes covering the Greater London area, whereas Tyne and Wear, which was established from parts of County Durham and Northumberland in 1974, is covered in the volumes about those two counties.
Volumes in print and their editions
The list below is of the volumes that are currently in print.
Since 1962, the guides have undergone a gradual programme of updating to reflect architectural-history scholarship and to include significant new buildings. Pevsner left virtually all the revisions to others, acting as supervisor only. He ultimately revised only two of his original editions alone: London 1: The Cities of London and Westminster (1962) and Cambridgeshire (1970). Both were later revised again by others. The programme of revision of first editions was completed in 2024 with publication of the second edition of Staffordshire, first published fifty years earlier.
Until 1953, all volumes were published in paperback only, after which both hardback and paperback versions were issued. The revision of London: 1 in 1962 was the first volume to be issued in hardback alone, and no further paperbacks were issued after 1964. Until 1970 volumes bore a sequential BE reference number, with Cornwall being BE1. The last volume to be so numbered was Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and the Forest of Dean (BE41). Thereafter ISBNs identify each volume. Beginning in 1983, a larger format was introduced, and all subsequent new editions have been issued in this format. Volumes revised pre-1983 were reprinted in the original, smaller format. As of 2023, Staffordshire is the last remaining edition to be available in this smaller format. All editions are now published by Yale University Press.
Where revisions have been spread over more than one volume, the preceding edition remains in print until the whole area has been revised.
| Title of current edition | First edition | Co-author(s) or[lower-alpha 1] sole author | Second edition | Co-author(s) or[lower-alpha 1] sole author | Third edition | Co-author(s) or[lower-alpha 1] sole author | Current ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire and Peterborough[lower-alpha 2] | 1968 | 2014 | Charles O'Brien | 978-0-300-20821-4 | |||
| Berkshire | 1966 | 2010 | Geoffrey Tyack, Simon Bradley | 978-0-300-12662-4 | |||
| Birmingham and the Black Country | 1966–1974[lower-alpha 3] | 2022 | Andy Foster | 978-0-300-22391-0 | |||
| Buckinghamshire | 1960 | 1994 | Elizabeth Williamson | 978-0-300-09584-5 | |||
| Cambridgeshire | 1954 | 1970 | 2015 | Simon Bradley | 978-0-300-20596-1 | ||
| Cheshire | 1971 | Edward Hubbard | 2011 | Clare Hartwell, Matthew Hyde | 978-0-300-17043-6 | ||
| Cornwall | 1951 | 1970 | Enid Radcliffe | 2014 | Peter Beacham | 978-0-300-12668-6 | |
| County Durham | 1953 | 1983 | Elizabeth Williamson | 2021 | Martin Roberts | 978-0-300-22504-4 | |
| Cumbria | 1967[lower-alpha 4] | 2010 | Matthew Hyde | 978-0-300-12663-1 | |||
| Derbyshire | 1953 | 1978 | Elizabeth Williamson | 2016 | Clare Hartwell | 978-0-300-21559-5 | |
| Devon | 1952[lower-alpha 5] | 1991 | Bridget Cherry | 978-0-300-09596-8 | |||
| Dorset | 1972 | John Newman | 2018 | Michael Hill | 978-0-300-22478-8 | ||
| Essex | 1954 | 1965 | Enid Radcliffe | 2007 | James Bettley | 978-0-300-11614-4 | |
| Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds | 1970[lower-alpha 1] | David Verey | 1979[lower-alpha 1] | 1999[lower-alpha 1] | Alan Brooks | 978-0-300-09604-0 | |
| Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and Forest of Dean | 1970[lower-alpha 1] | David Verey | 1976[lower-alpha 1] | 2002[lower-alpha 1] | Alan Brooks | 978-0-300-09733-7 | |
| Hampshire: South | 1967[lower-alpha 6] | David W. Lloyd | 2018 | Charles O'Brien, Bruce Bailey | 978-0-300-22503-7 | ||
| Hampshire: Winchester and The North | 1967[lower-alpha 7] | David W. Lloyd | 2010 | Michael Bullen, John Crook, Rodney Hubbuck | 978-0-300-12084-4 | ||
| Herefordshire | 1963 | 2012 | Alan Brooks | 978-0-300-12575-7 | |||
| Hertfordshire | 1953 | 1977 | Bridget Cherry | 2019 | James Bettley | 978-0-300-09611-8 | |
| Isle of Wight | 1967[lower-alpha 8] | David W. Lloyd | 2006 | David W. Lloyd | 978-0-300-10733-3 | ||
| Kent: North East and East | 1969[lower-alpha 1] | John Newman | 1976[lower-alpha 1] | 1983[lower-alpha 1] 2013 (4th)[lower-alpha 1] | 978-0-300-18506-5 | ||
| Kent: West and the Weald | 1969[lower-alpha 1] | John Newman | 1976[lower-alpha 1] | 2012[lower-alpha 1] | 978-0-300-18509-6 | ||
| Lancashire: Liverpool and the South West | 1969[lower-alpha 9] | 2006 | Richard Pollard | 978-0-300-10910-8 | |||
| Lancashire: Manchester and the South East | 1969[lower-alpha 9] | 2004 | Clare Hartwell, Matthew Hyde | 978-0-300-10583-4 | |||
| Lancashire: North | 1969 | 2009 | Clare Hartwell | 978-0-300-12667-9 | |||
| Leicestershire and Rutland | 1960 | 1984 | Elizabeth Williamson | 978-0-300-09618-7 | |||
| Lincolnshire | 1964 | John Harris | 1989 | Nicholas Antram | 978-0-300-09620-0 | ||
| London 1: The City of London | 1957[lower-alpha 10] | 1962[lower-alpha 10] | 1973[lower-alpha 10] 1997 (4th)[lower-alpha 11] | Bridget Cherry Simon Bradley | 978-0-300-09624-8 | ||
| London 2: South | 1951–1976[lower-alpha 12] | 1983 | Bridget Cherry | 978-0-300-09651-4 | |||
| London 3: North West | 1951–1952[lower-alpha 13] | 1991 | Bridget Cherry | 978-0-300-09652-1 | |||
| London 4: North | 1951–1952[lower-alpha 13] | 1998 | Bridget Cherry | 978-0-300-09653-8 | |||
| London 5: East | 1952–1965[lower-alpha 14] | 1998[lower-alpha 15] | Elizabeth Williamson | 2005 | Bridget Cherry Charles O'Brien | 978-0-300-10701-2 | |
| London 6: Westminster | 1957[lower-alpha 10] | 1962[lower-alpha 10] | 1973[lower-alpha 10] 2003 (4th)[lower-alpha 11] | Bridget Cherry Simon Bradley | 978-0-300-09595-1 | ||
| Norfolk 1: Norwich and North East | 1962 | 1997 | Bill Wilson | 978-0-300-09607-1 | |||
| Norfolk 2: North-west and South | 1962 | 1999 | Bill Wilson | 978-0-300-09657-6 | |||
| Northamptonshire | 1961[lower-alpha 16] | 1973[lower-alpha 17] | Bridget Cherry | 2013 | Bruce Bailey | 978-0-300-18507-2 | |
| Northumberland | 1957 | (Ian A. Richmond)[lower-alpha 18] | 1992 | John Grundy, Grace McCombie Peter Ryder, Humphrey Welfare | 978-0-300-09638-5 | ||
| Nottinghamshire | 1951 | 1979 | Elizabeth Williamson | 2020 | Clare Hartwell | 978-0-300-24783-1 | |
| Oxfordshire: North and West | 1974[lower-alpha 19] | Jennifer Sherwood | 2017[lower-alpha 1] | Alan Brooks | 978-0-300-20930-3 | ||
| Oxfordshire: Oxford and the South East | 1974[lower-alpha 19] | Jennifer Sherwood | 2023 | Simon Bradley | 978-0-300-20929-7 | ||
| Shropshire | 1958 | 2006 | John Newman | 978-0-300-12083-7 | |||
| Somerset: North and Bristol | 1958 | 2011 | Andrew Foyle | 978-0-300-12658-7 | |||
| Somerset: South and West | 1958 | 2014 | Julian Orbach | 978-0-300-20740-8 | |||
| Staffordshire | 1974 | 2024[3] | Christopher Wakeling | 978-0-300-21835-0 | |||
| Suffolk: East | 1961[lower-alpha 20] | 1974 | Enid Radcliffe | 2015 | James Bettley | 978-0-300-19654-2 | |
| Suffolk: West | 1961[lower-alpha 20] | 1974 | Enid Radcliffe | 2015 | James Bettley | 978-0-300-19655-9 | |
| Surrey | 1962 | Ian Nairn | 1971 | Bridget Cherry | 2022 | Charles O'Brien | 978-0-300-23478-7 |
| Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove | 1965[lower-alpha 21] | (Ian Nairn)[lower-alpha 22] | 2013 | Nicholas Antram | 978-0-300-18473-0 | ||
| Sussex: West | 1965 | Ian Nairn | 2019 | Elizabeth Williamson, Tim Hudson, Jeremy Musson | 978-0-300-22521-1 | ||
| Warwickshire | 1966 | Alexandra Wedgwood | 2016[lower-alpha 23] | Chris Pickford | 978-0-300-21560-1 | ||
| Wiltshire | 1963 | 1975 | Bridget Cherry | 2021 | Julian Orbach | 978-0-300-25120-3 | |
| Worcestershire | 1968 | 2007 | Alan Brooks | 978-0-300-11298-6 | |||
| Yorkshire: The North Riding | 1966 | 2023 | Jane Grenville | 978-0-300-25903-2 | |||
| Yorkshire: The West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North | 1959[lower-alpha 24] | 1967[lower-alpha 24] | Enid Radcliffe | 2009 | Peter Leach | 978-0-300-12665-5 | |
| Yorkshire: The West Riding: Sheffield and the South | 1959[lower-alpha 24] | 1967[lower-alpha 24] | Enid Radcliffe | 2017 | Ruth Harman | 978-0300-22468-9 | |
| Yorkshire: York and The East Riding | 1972 | 1995 | David Neave | 978-0-300-09593-7 |
Notes
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Pevsner is not credited as author in these editions
- ↑ Peterborough previously included in the 1962 edition of Northamptonshire
- ↑ First published across three volumes: Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and Staffordshire
- ↑ First published as Cumberland and Westmorland – see Superseded and unpublished volumes.
- ↑ First published as two volumes: North Devon and South Devon – see Superseded and unpublished volumes.
- ↑ First published as Hampshire and the Isle of Wight
- ↑ First published as Hampshire and the Isle of Wight
- ↑ First published as Hampshire and the Isle of Wight
- 1 2 First published as Lancashire 1: The Industrial and Commercial South – see Superseded and unpublished volumes.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 First published in London: The Cities of London and Westminster – see Superseded and unpublished volumes.
- 1 2 Not identified as a Fourth Edition in the text but as a "successor volume".
- ↑ First published across four separate volumes: Middlesex, London, except the Cities of London and Westminster, Surrey and Kent: West and the Weald
- 1 2 First published in two separate volumes: Middlesex and London, except the Cities of London and Westminster – see Superseded and unpublished volumes.
- ↑ First published in two separate volumes: London, except the Cities of London and Westminster and Essex
- ↑ Docklands area only – See Superseded and unpublished volumes.
- ↑ Including Peterborough.
- ↑ Excluding Peterborough – see Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire and Peterborough above.
- ↑ Ian Richmond credited as a contributor rather than co-author.
- 1 2 First published as Oxfordshire – see above.
- 1 2 First published as Suffolk – see Superseded and unpublished volumes.
- ↑ First published as Sussex – see above.
- ↑ Ian Nairn was only indirectly involved in the text under revision in this volume.
- ↑ Excluding Birmingham and the Black Country – see above.
- 1 2 3 4 First published as Yorkshire: The West Riding – see Superseded and unpublished volumes
City Guides
The first of the paperback City Guides, covering Manchester, appeared in 2001. It featured a new format with integrated colour illustrations. In most cases the City Guides have preceded a revision of the county volume in which they are located, although they do go into greater detail than the county volumes and have more illustrations. Thus the Birmingham guide completely supersedes the central Birmingham section of the Warwickshire volume, which is now almost fifty years old. Two of the guides, covering Newcastle and Gateshead and Hull, are more recent than the hardback editions for the surrounding counties, and therefore update as well as expand the coverage of those cities. This series appears to be on a hiatus, with no new volumes published since 2010 and none confirmed as in planning.
| Title of current edition | First edition | Co-author(s) or sole author | Second edition | Co-author(s) or sole author | Third edition | Co-author(s) or sole author | Current ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bath | 2003 | Michael Forsyth | 978-0-300-10177-5 | ||||
| Birmingham | 2005 | Andy Foster | 978-0-300-10731-9 | ||||
| Brighton and Hove | 2002 | Nicholas Antram, Richard Morrice | 978-0-300-12661-7 | ||||
| Bristol | 2008 | Andrew Foyle | 978-0-300-10442-4 | ||||
| Hull | 2010 | David Neave, Susan Neave | 978-0-300-10702-9 | ||||
| Leeds | 2005 | Susan Wrathmell | 978-0-300-14172-6 | ||||
| Liverpool | 2003 | Joseph Sharples | 978-0-300-10258-1 | ||||
| Manchester | 2001 | Clare Hartwell | 978-0-300-09666-8 | ||||
| Newcastle and Gateshead | 2009 | Grace McCombie | 978-0-300-12664-8 | ||||
| Nottingham | 2008 | Elain Harwood | 978-0-300-12666-2 | ||||
| Sheffield | 2004 | Ruth Harman, John Minnis | 978-0-300-10585-8 | ||||
Two supplementary works – thus far the only of their type – were published in 1998, one covering London's City Churches and the other the Docklands area (see London Docklands in Superseded and unpublished volumes below). Both were issued in the format of the main series rather than the City Guides. However, unlike the Docklands edition which represented preliminary work for an expanded main volume, the City Churches volume augmented the text in London 1: The City, published the previous year. The continued development of the Docklands area meant that the volume was superseded when London 5: East was published seven years later, but the City Churches volume remains current and was reissued by Yale in 2002.
- London City Churches (1998) (Simon Bradley) ISBN 978-0-300-09655-2
Buildings of Scotland
The series continued under Pevsner's founding editorship into Scotland. The format is largely similar; however, only Lothian was published in the original small volume style. The series uses hybrid divisions, with volumes such as Fife and Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire following the historic county boundaries whilst Highland and Islands corresponds to the current council areas.
One noticeable difference in some of the Scottish series is a greater subdivision of the main gazetteer (e.g. in Argyll and Bute mainland Argyll has separate gazetteer from its islands, and Bute similarly is treated on its own). Unlike The Buildings of England, none of the Scottish volumes adopts a hierarchy of ecclesiastical buildings, instead grouping them together. As with the English revisions, several of the volumes are the work of many contributors. The series was completed with Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, published in November 2016. A new edition of Lothian is in preparation, set to be published in 2024.[4]
The volumes on Glasgow and Edinburgh are, with Dublin (see below) the only Pevsner volumes outside London to focus exclusively on a city. These volumes should not be confused with the City Guide format (see above).
| Title of current edition | First edition | Co-author(s) or sole author | Second edition | Co-author(s) or sole author | Third edition | Co-author(s) or sole author | Current ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aberdeenshire: North and Moray | 2015 | David W. Walker, Matthew Woodworth | 978-0-300-20428-5 | ||||
| Aberdeenshire: South and Aberdeen | 2015 | Joseph Sharples, David W. Walker, Matthew Woodworth | 978-0-300-21555-7 | ||||
| Argyll and Bute | 2002 | Frank Arneil Walker | 978-0-300-09670-5 | ||||
| Ayrshire and Arran | 2012 | Rob Close, Anne Riches | 978-0-300-14170-2 | ||||
| Borders | 2006 | Kitty Cruft, John Dunbar, Richard Fawcett | 978-0-300-10702-9 | ||||
| Dumfries and Galloway | 1996 | John Gifford | 978-0-300-09671-2 | ||||
| Dundee and Angus | 2012 | John Gifford | 978-0-300-14171-9 | ||||
| Edinburgh | 1984 | John Gifford, Colin McWilliam, David Walker | 978-0-300-09672-9 | ||||
| Fife | 1988 | John Gifford | 978-0-300-09673-6 | ||||
| Glasgow | 1990 | Elizabeth Williamson, Anne Riches, Malcom Higgs | 978-0-300-09674-3 | ||||
| Highland and Islands | 1992 | John Gifford | 978-0-300-09625-5 | ||||
| Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire | 2016 | Rob Close, John Gifford, Frank Arneil Walker | 978-0-300-21558-8 | ||||
| Lothian, except Edinburgh | 1978 | Colin McWilliam | 2024[lower-alpha 1] | Jane Geddes, Ian Gow, Aonghus Mackechnie, Chris Tabraham | 978-0-300-09626-2 | ||
| Perth and Kinross | 2007 | John Gifford | 978-0-300-10922-1 | ||||
| Stirling and Central Scotland | 2002 | John Gifford, Frank Arneil Walker | 978-0-300-09594-4 |
Notes
- ↑ The revision is simply entitled Lothian, with no reference to Edinburgh
Buildings of Wales
The series has also been extended to Wales, and was completed with the issue of Gwynedd in 2009 (although this initial survey had taken seven years longer than Pevsner's first complete survey of England). Only the first volume, Powys (edited by Richard Haslam, and published in 1979), appeared in the original small format style; and this volume has now been superseded by a revised large-format edition, published in 2013. This is the first (and to date only) guide outside The Buildings of England series to be revised. The volumes of the series are organised using a combination of the current principal areas (e.g. Pembrokeshire), the preserved counties (e.g. Gwynedd), and the historic counties (e.g. Glamorgan).
| Title of current edition | First edition | Co-author(s) or sole author | Second edition | Co-author(s) or sole author | Third edition | Co-author(s) or sole author | Current ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion | 2006 | Thomas Lloyd, Julian Orbach, Robert Scourfield | 978-0-300-10179-9 | ||||
| Clwyd (Denbighshire and Flintshire) | 1986 | Edward Hubbard | 2003 | Edward Hubbard | 978-0-300-09627-9 | ||
| Glamorgan | 1995 | John Newman | 978-0-300-09629-3 | ||||
| Gwent/Monmouthshire | 2000 | John Newman | 978-0-300-09630-9 | ||||
| Gwynedd | 2009 | Richard Haslam, Julian Orbach, Adam Voelcker | 978-0-300-14169-6 | ||||
| Pembrokeshire | 2004 | Thomas Lloyd, Julian Orbach, Robert Scourfield | 978-0-300-10178-2 | ||||
| Powys: Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire and Breconshire | 1979 | Richard Haslam | 2013 | Robert Scourfield and Richard Haslam | 978-0-300-18508-9 |
Buildings of Ireland
The Irish series is incomplete, with six volumes being published between 1979 and 2020. Research for some of the remaining five volumes is underway. The series generally uses the provinces and counties of Ireland as its boundaries and ignores the Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border.
| Title of current edition | First edition | Co-author(s) or sole author | Second edition | Co-author(s) or sole author | Third edition | Co-author(s) or sole author | Current ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belfast, Antrim and County Down | in preparation | ||||||
| Connacht/Connaught | in preparation | ||||||
| Cork: City and County | 2020 | Frank Keohane | 978-0-300-22487-0 | ||||
| Dublin | 2005 | Christine Casey | 978-0-300-10923-8 | ||||
| Dublin: County | in preparation | ||||||
| Munster, except Cork | in preparation | ||||||
| North West Ulster: the Counties of Londonderry, Donegal, Fermanagh and Tyrone | 1979 | Alistair Rowan | 978-0-300-09667-5 | ||||
| Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly | 2019 | Andrew Tierney | 978-0-300-23204-2 | ||||
| North Leinster | 1988 | Alistair Rowan, Christine Casey | 978-0-300-09668-2 | ||||
| South Leinster | in preparation | ||||||
| South Ulster: the Counties of Armagh, Cavan and Monaghan | 1992 | Kevin Mulligan | 978-0-300-18601-7 | ||||
Crown dependencies
Pevsner did not make any moves to extend the series to the Isle of Man or Channel Islands. However, a volume covering the Isle of Man was published in early 2023.[4]
- Isle of Man (2023) ISBN 978-0-300-22502-0 (Jonathan Kewley)
Treatment of bridges
A number of bridges connect areas covered by different volumes. However, there is no single approach for which volume should include the structure in its main gazetteer. In some cases, one volume refers the reader to the other, and in other cases only a few lines appear in one volume and a fuller entry appears in the other. In a very few cases (listed below) a full entry appears in both volumes.
| Bridge | Connection | Volume(s) of main entry |
|---|---|---|
| Coldstream Bridge | Berwickshire–Northumberland | Borders Northumberland |
| Erskine Bridge | Renfrewshire–Dunbartonshire | Stirling and Central Scotland Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire |
| Forth Bridge Forth Road Bridge | West Lothian–Fife | Lothian |
| Humber Bridge | Lincolnshire–Yorkshire | Lincolnshire |
| Kincardine Bridge | Stirlingshire–Fife | Fife |
| Queen Elizabeth II Bridge | Essex–Kent | Essex Kent: West and the Weald |
| Severn Bridge | Monmouthshire–Gloucestershire | Gloucestershire 2 |
| Second Severn Crossing | Monmouthshire–Gloucestershire | Gwent/Monmouthshire |
| Tamar Bridge | Devon–Cornwall | Cornwall |
| Tay Bridge Tay Road Bridge | Dundee–Fife | Dundee and Angus |
Superseded and unpublished volumes
The revision of the series has rendered some original volumes obsolete, usually as the area of coverage has changed. For example, the county of Cumbria was created after the publication of Cumberland and Westmorland and North Lancashire, leading to the merger of material from both volumes in a single volume Cumbria, a revision with a new geographical focus. To date the following volumes have been entirely superseded:
- Cumberland and Westmorland (1967)
- London: the Cities of London and Westminster (1957, rev. 1962 and 1973)
- London, except the Cities of London and Westminster (1952)
- London Docklands (1998) (with Elizabeth Williamson)
- Middlesex (1951)
- North Lancashire (1969)
- South Lancashire (1969)
- Suffolk (1961, rev. Enid Radcliffe 1974)
- Yorkshire: The West Riding (1959, rev. Enid Radcliffe 1967)
In addition, two volumes, North Devon and South Devon (1952) were superseded by a single volume covering the entire county. Parts of the original Hampshire & the Isle of Wight and Yorkshire: the West Riding volumes have been superseded by revised volumes.
In some published volumes and in advance publicity, certain titles were announced which were ultimately never published. A number of factors accounted for this, including the readiness of parts of the text covering certain areas and the anticipated size of the volumes. Unpublished titles included:
Related works
In 1995 Penguin, in conjunction with English Heritage, released a publication based on the guides entitled Looking at Buildings. Focusing on the East Riding of Yorkshire volume, Pevsner's text was adapted as an introduction, with a greater number of illustrations than the main guides. No further print publications were issued, but the title survives as an introductory website to architectural terms and selected buildings which feature in the Pevsner guides.[8]
In 1995 a CD-ROM entitled A Compendium of Pevsner's Buildings of England was issued by Oxford University Press, designed as a searchable database of the volumes published for England only. A second edition was released in 2005. Bibliographies of the guides themselves were published in 1983, 1998 and 2012 by the Penguin Collectors Society.
In 2016, Yale University Press published three volumes, each serving as an introduction to some of the buildings and the architectural terms mentioned in the text of the guides. Published as Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions these are: an architectural glossary (also available as an app), a volume focusing on church buildings and another on dwelling houses (including vernacular architecture).
Celebratory volumes
In 1986, Penguin published an anthology from Pevsner's volumes edited by Bridget Cherry and John Newman, The Best Buildings of England, ISBN 0-670-81283-8. It has an introduction by Newman assessing Pevsner's aims and methods. In 2001, the Penguin Collectors Society published The Buildings of England: a Celebration, edited by Simon Bradley and Bridget Cherry, fifty years after BE1 was published: it includes twelve essays and a selection of text from the series.[9] In 2012, Susie Harries, one of Pevsner's biographers, wrote The Buildings of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales: A Sixtieth Anniversary Catalogue of the Pevsner Architectural Guides, which was published in a limited edition of 1,000 copies by the Penguin Collectors Society.[10]
Travels with Pevsner
In 1997, the BBC broadcast a series of documentaries[11] entitled Travels with Pevsner, in which six writers and broadcasters travelled through a county which had particular significance to them. They revisited buildings mentioned by Pevsner, critically examining his views on them. A further series was broadcast in 1998. John Grundy, who presented the programme on Northumberland, was one of the revisers of that county volume. Both series were accompanied by booklets published by the BBC, describing the buildings featured in the programmes and suggesting others to explore. The counties visited and the travellers were:
Series One
|
Series Two
|
In both series, extracts from Pevsner's text were read by Benjamin Whitrow.
See also
- Survey of London – an even more detailed but incomplete account of the architecture of London
- The Penguin Collectors Society for the Pevsner Memorial Trust
- The King's England
- Victoria County History
- Buildings of the United States – a series inspired by the Buildings of England
References
- ↑ "Pevsner Architectural Guides: Newsletter". Yale University Press. 2015. Retrieved 25 June 2016 – via Issuu.com.
volume 2015/16
- 1 2 3 Cherry 1998, p. ?.
- ↑ "Staffordshire". Yale University Press. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
- 1 2 "Pevsner Architectural Guides". Yale University Press. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
- ↑ Announced in the Dumfries and Galloway volume (1996)
- ↑ Announced in the first edition of the West Kent volume (1969)
- ↑ Announced in the Fife volume (1992)
- ↑ "Looking at Buildings". Pevsner Architectural Guides. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
- ↑ Cherry & Bradley 2001, Introduction.
- ↑ Harries & Mackay 2012, p. 2.
- ↑ Travels with Pevsner (BBC site)
Sources
- Cherry, Bridget (1998). The Buildings of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales: a short history and bibliography. London: Penguin Collectors' Society. ISBN 978-0-952-74011-7.
- Bridget Cherry; Simon Bradley, eds. (2001). The Buildings of England: A Celebration. London: Penguin Collectors' Society. ISBN 978-0-952-74013-1.
- Susie Harries; James Mackay, eds. (2012). The Buildings of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales: A Sixtieth Anniversary Catalogue. London: Penguin Collectors' Society. ISBN 978-0-955-83955-9.
External links
- Pevsner Architectural Guides, Yale University Press
- Looking at Buildings website