Sir John Newenham Summerson (25 November 1904 – 10 November 1992) was one of the leading British architectural historians of the 20th century.
Early life
John Summerson was born at Barnstead, Coniscliffe Road,
Darlington. His grandfather worked for the
Darlington and Stockton Railway and founded the family foundry of Thomas Summerson and Sons in Darlington in 1869. After the premature death of his father, Samuel James Summerson, in 1907, Summerson travelled extensively in England and Europe with his mother Dorothea
and then attended a
prep school at
Riber Castle
Riber Castle is a 19th-century Grade II listed country house in the hamlet of Riber on a hill overlooking Matlock, Derbyshire. It is built of gritstone from a local quarry which was pulled up the hill by a series of pulleys.
History
Known loca ...
in
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
before going to
Harrow (1918-1922)
and the
Bartlett School of Architecture
Bartlett may refer to:
Places
*Bartlett Bay, Canada, Arctic waterway
* Wharerata, New Zealand, also known as Bartletts
United States
* Bartlett, Illinois
** Bartlett station, a commuter railroad station
* Bartlett, Iowa
* Bartlett, Kansas
* ...
at
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
, where he gained a bachelor's degree.
Career
After graduation Summerson worked in several junior roles, most notably in the office of
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (9 November 1880 – 8 February 1960) was a British architect known for his work on the New Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, Battersea Power Station, Liverpool Cathedral, and ...
, but architectural practice was not for him and he became a tutor at the
Edinburgh College of Art, School of Architecture in 1929. Hired by the
Modern Architectural Research Group (MARS), a think tank founded by a group of modernist architects, he settled back in London, moving on to a job as an assistant editor for the magazine ''Architect and Building News'' in 1934.
Following the unsuccessful attempts to become a practising architect, and greater success as an architectural journalist, Summerson embarked on his first book, a biography of the architect
John Nash (1752–1835). Published in 1935, it was "outstandingly successful".
He continued to write mainly about British architecture, especially that of the
Georgian era. His ''Architecture in Britain: 1530–1830'' (1st edition 1953; many subsequent editions) remained a standard work on the subject for students and general readers after his death. ''
The Classical Language of Architecture'' (1963) is an introduction to the stylistic elements of classical architecture and traces their use and variation in different eras. He also wrote many more specialised works, including books about
Inigo Jones and ''Georgian London'' (1945) illustrated by Alison Sleigh, as well as ''The Architecture of the Eighteenth Century'' (1986), in which he describes
Boullée in a distinct positive manner, stating that Boullée was clearly the point of departure for one of the boldest innovators of the century,
Claude Nicolas Ledoux. His 1945 book ''Georgian London'' was called "a masterpiece of British art history" by
Simon Jenkins in a ''
Sunday Times'' review of the 1988 edition.
One of the founders of the
National Buildings Record
The Historic England Archive is the public archive of Historic England, located in The Engine House on Fire Fly Avenue in Swindon, formerly part of the Swindon Works of the Great Western Railway.
It is a public archive of architectural and arch ...
(NBR) in 1941, Summerson served as its deputy director yet also took to the streets taking photographs for the organisation.
He was also a Commissioner of the
Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME) for 21 years from 1953 to 1974, writing the introduction to the book celebrating the NBR's fiftieth anniversary in 1991.
[''RCHME Newsletter'' 9. Spring 1993. ISSN 0957-0241] He sat on many other public bodies and committees, including the
Royal Fine Arts Commission
The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) was an executive non-departmental public body of the UK government, established in 1999. It was funded by both the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for C ...
(1947–54) and the
Historic Buildings Council
Three separate historic buildings councils were created by the Historic Buildings and Ancient Monuments Act 1953, one for each of England, Scotland, and Wales. Each Historic Buildings Council advised the relevant government minister on the exercis ...
(1953–78)
and was an early and active member of
The Georgian Group that was founded in 1937.
In 1945 Summerson was appointed Director and curator of
Sir John Soane's Museum, a post he held until his retirement in 1984.
He was
Slade Professor of Fine Art at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
for 1958–59 and Slade Professor at
Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
for the 1966-7 academic year.
He gave the 1964 Master-Mind Lecture on
Inigo Jones. Summerson lectured at
The Courtauld Institute of Art on the history of Georgian architecture in London,
Birkbeck, University of London and the
Architectural Association and became a good friend of his student
Roger Westman, who himself went on to become a noted architect.
Summerson was noted for his somewhat elitist approach, and he was not always a consistent friend of the conservation movement. He was hired by the
ESB in Ireland to speak in favour of their demolition of 16 Georgian townhouses in Fitzwilliam Street,
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...
. The doomed terrace, he said, was "simply one damned house after another".
Honours
Summerson was
knight
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
ed in 1958; was awarded the
Royal Gold Medal of the
Royal Institute of British Architects in 1976; and was created a
Companion of Honour in 1987. He was a Fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries of London
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soci ...
and elected a Fellow of the
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences.
It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars s ...
in 1954.
Legacy
The term
Bristol Byzantine, referring to a style influenced by
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
and
Moorish architecture
Moorish architecture is a style within Islamic architecture which developed in the western Islamic world, including al-Andalus (on the Iberian Peninsula, Iberian peninsula) and what is now Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia (part of the Maghreb). The ...
and applied mainly to warehouses, factories, and other industrial buildings in the city of
Bristol
Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...
, is thought to have been invented by Summerson.
He certainly invented the term
prodigy house for showy Elizabethan and Jacobean courtier houses.
Summerson had many notable students including
Phoebe Stanton,
among others.
There are a number of portraits of Summerson in the collection of the
National Portrait Gallery, London; one in oils by the artist
Leonard Rosoman
Leonard Rosoman (27 October 1913 – 21 February 2012) was a British artist.
Early life
Rosoman was born in London and educated at the Deacon's school, Peterborough, and then at the King Edward VII school of art in Newcastle upon Tyne, under ...
and the others by the photographers,
Walter Stoneman,
Walter Bird, Barry Beattie and Stephen Hyde.
Photographs attributed to Summerson are held in the
Conway Library whose archive, of primarily architectural images, is being digitised under the wider Courtauld Connects project.
In March 2012, an
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
blue plaque commemorating Summerson was erected at his former residence in
Chalk Farm
Chalk Farm is a small urban district of north London, lying immediately north of Camden Town, in the London Borough of Camden.
History
Manor of Rugmere
Chalk Farm was originally known as the Manor of Rugmere, an estate that was mentioned ...
, London,
where he lived with his wife Elizabeth Hepworth, the twin sister of
Barbara Hepworth
Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a lea ...
, the sculptor, and his three sons (b.1947).
Footnotes
References
Sources
*
*
*
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Summerson, John
English architecture writers
English curators
Academics of Birkbeck, University of London
Alumni of University College London
Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour
English architectural historians
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
1904 births
1992 deaths
Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal
People educated at Harrow School
People from Darlington
Academics of the University of Cambridge
20th-century English historians
Slade Professors of Fine Art (University of Oxford)
English male non-fiction writers
Knights Bachelor
People of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England
20th-century English male writers