Books - The Victorian Society - Campaigning for Victorian and Edwardian Built Heritage

Victorian Architecture and Dynasticism – Studies in Victorian Architecture & Design Volume Nine

Ruth Miller — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 08:05:46 +0000

This volume offers the first critical account of dynasticism in Victorian architecture and design, shedding new light on the cultural dynamics and motivations of the professionals who belonged to the dynasties of the period, including architects, topographical artists, model makers, woodcarvers, and printer-publishers. Although architectural dynasties were defining features of the profession, their significance has been almost entirely overlooked by scholarship. The ninth journal demonstrates that dynasticism was a centrally formative element in the creation of Victorian architecture through six case studies and one interview. This Journal is edited by Dr Joshua Mardell, an architectural historian and lecturer at the Royal College of Art, who is also a member of the Victorian Society Publications Committee.

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Matthew Digby Wyatt by Robert Thorne

Ruth Miller — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 12:06:36 +0000

This latest monography in the Society’s Victorian Architects Series is the first full-length study of Victorian polymath Wyatt’s work.

Matthew Digby Wyatt (1820-77) was a Victorian figure with wide-ranging accomplishments as an architect, administrator, designer, artist, writer and connoisseur. He was a member of the distinguished Wyatt family of architects and artists. He worked with some of the leading figures of his day, including I. K. Brunel, George Gilbert Scott, Herbert Minton and Henry Cole, whilst Owen Jones was a lifelong friend.

From the crucial role he played in project managing the Great Exhibition of 1851 to advising the South Kensington Museum on its collections at the end of his career, Wyatt was at the heart of mid-Victorian developments in architecture, design and museum display.

Author Robert Thorne is a Historian and Consultant at Alan Baxter Ltd. He is an authority on Victorian architecture and construction, especially the building of the Crystal Palace and its influence.

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The Rogue Goths – R.L. Roumieu, Joseph Peacock and Bassett Keeling by Edmund Harris

Marie — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 11:15:21 +0000

Edmund Harris’s book is the first study devoted to a much-discussed yet poorly-covered chapter in British architectural history which produced some of Victorian England’s most striking and dramatic Gothic buildings. The Rogue Goths includes an introduction to this generation of flamboyant and eccentric architects that began to make its mark in the 1860s. There are studies of three architects Robert Lewis Roumieu, Bassett Keeling and a similarly pioneering study of the life and work of Joseph Peacock, architect of St Simon Zelotes, Chelsea, one of Sir John Betjeman’s favourite Victorian churches. The volume is densely illustrated with excellent new photography by Robin Forster, alongside sketches and drawings.

‘Those who have followed Edmund Harris’s progress over recent years – notably his learned blog Less Eminent Victorians – will cheer to discover that some of his knowledge has now crystallised into a book.’ Hugh Pearman, The Victorian

‘Harris is a meticulous scholar and it is obvious that a good part of what is presented here has been unearthed from years of archive riffling.’ Robert Bevan, The Times Literary Supplement

‘Harris illuminates the spectacle of Roguery as vividly as if he were Keeling’s ceiling.’ Hugh Pearman, The Victorian

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Edwin Rickards by Timothy Brittain-Catlin

Kati Lacey — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 10:54:01 +0000

This is the first book devoted to the life and work of the most exuberant, preternaturally confident, and stylish of Edwardian architects. Rickards’ buildings were described by John Summerson, a leading British architectural historian, to effervesce like fine champagne.

Profusely illustrated throughout with stunning new photography by Robin Forster, and by Rickards’ own sketches and drawings, this book portrays his meteoric rise that ended with his early death and his close friendship with the novelist Arnold Bennett who described him, along with H.G Wells, as one of “the two most interesting, provocative, and stimulating men I have yet encountered”.

“a superb tribute to a great architect. And it has fine new photography by Robin Forster. Buy it, read it. Wallow. Enjoy.” Andy Foster, Building Design

‘Brittain-Catlin has done a fine job, erudite and entertaining, informative and perceptive, with a splendid choice of visual matter.’ James Stevens Curl, The Critic

‘Simply titled Edwin Rickards, Brittain-Catlin’s book is a concise architectural biography of an important but widely underappreciated British architect. Beautifully written and engaging throughout, it aims to show that Rickards (1872–1920) was both a and one of British history’s great artist-architects.’
G. A. Bremner, The Burlington Magazine

‘Timothy Brittain-Catlin’s new monograph in The Victorian Society series, published by Liverpool University Press, is a welcome and incisive introduction to the work of this extraordinary figure. Brittain-Catlin deftly deals with the complexity of his character and with the structural and artistic qualities of his architecture, and the book benefits from excellent new photography by Robin Forster which conveys the sheer bravado of these buildings’
Jeremy Musson, The Victorian

‘In this well-illustrated book (the latest in the Victorian Society’s invaluable series on Victorian and Edwardian architects), which includes many high-quality contemporary photographs of Rickards’ buildings, and reproductions of his architectural drawings, caricatures and accomplished watercolours, the author presents an engaging and lively review of Rickards’ professional life; and the book is enhanced by numerous references to his personal interests and friendships, notably his long and enduring one with the novelist, Arnold Bennett… This is a splendid book, with a comprehensive bibliography and a list of all Rickards’ executed works.’
Nicholas Doggett, Context

‘delightful and beautifully illustrated book’ James Stevens Curl, The Critic

‘the photographs by Robin Forster are stupendous’ James Stevens Curl, The Critic

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