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Cargando... England's Lost Houses: From the Archives of Country Lifepor Giles Worsley
   Ninguno Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro.   ) Fliss88 | Jul 22, 2010 |  Anyone who's had a look at my book catalog on Library Thing can see that books on historical architecture take up a chunk of space on my shelves. I've always been interested in architecture: houses and the way people lived in them--especially the houses that no longer exist. I think of the stories that died with the houses, I suppose. Country houses were an integral part of life in England, so this book was a natural for me. In 1897 when the magazine Country Life started featuring a British country house in each issue, the way of life such houses represented was at its height. In the following decades as social change convulsed the country, more than a thousand stately homes were destroyed, and these photographs are in some cases the only pictorial record. Worsley's account avoids sentimentality as it details both the various economic factors that caused the decline and the often surprisingly pragmatic attitudes of aristocratic owners. Yet the pictures leave a forlorn impression. The magazine's custom of photographing houses empty of people makes them seem like ghosts already-a kaleidoscope of opulent drawing rooms, abandoned terraces, and silent staircases. I think one of the vanished houses that made the biggest impression on me was Dawpool in Cheshire. Built for Thomas Ismay, owner of the White Star Line, Dawpool was put together with brass screws--not a single nail in the entire structure. When it was torn down, they had to use quite a bit of dynamite. If Ismay had put the same thought into the building of the Titanic as he did Dawpool.... This was an interesting book to read. Country houses in England are protected now, and instead of their disappearance what seems to be vanishing now are substantial London private houses and the middle-class suburban villas set in their own grounds. As the country becomes more crowded, smaller homes have to be packed into smaller and smaller plots of land, and the country homes now remain for people to visit as some sort of time warp, allowing glimpses into the lives people used to live. (  ) cathyskye | Apr 24, 2008 | sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
Of all the photographs in the Country Life archive, none are more poignant than the images of houses that have been lost through demolition or fire. In a great number of cases, the photographs taken by the magazine for their weekly feature on country houses are the only record of many of the most important houses and interiors that were destroyed. From Uffington House, Lincolnshire, a fine Restoration house burnt in 1904, to the Rococo magnificence of Nuthall temple, Nottinghamshire, its site now buried under the M1 motorway, this book provides a moving testimony to one of the saddest chapters in English 20th century history. Giles Worsley's incisive text makes this more than just an elegy for lost glories. By studying the circumstances behind one hundred houses that have gone, he is able to explain why such a large number were destroyed in the last century. He explains how many houses were lost as great landowners, responding to economic and political changes, sold off secondary estates and demolished palatial houses of the nineteenth century. He also examines how chance played its part, with fire emerging as one of the chief causes of destruction. As the twentieth century recedes into history the story of the country house over the past hundred years becomes increasingly fascinating. England's Lost Houses is essential reading for all those seeking to understand what really happened. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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