The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of

guide book A guide book or travel guide is "a book of information about a place designed for the use of visitors or tourists". It will usually include information about sights, accommodation, restaurants, transportation, and activities. Maps of varying det ...

s to the

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian

Sir Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, '' The Buildings of England'' ( ...

, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were published between 1951 and 1974. The series was then extended to

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

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. 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 The history of architecture traces the changes in architecture through various traditions, regions, overarching stylistic trends, and dates. The beginnings of all these traditions is thought to be humans satisfying the very basic need of shelt ...

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 Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.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.

Content of the volumes

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-townand in the case of larger settlements, street-by-streetaccount 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 A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

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 Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

since 2003.

Boundaries

The boundaries of each volume do not follow a uniform pattern and have evolved with revisions and expansions. The original intentionCherry (1998) was to maintain whatever boundaries were current at the time of writing; in the first years of the survey these were the traditional counties of England. However, boundary changes to the London area in 1965 and the rest of England in 1974 meant that this was no longer practicable. As such there are now many variants: ''Cumbria'', for example, covers the modern

non-metropolitan county A non-metropolitan county, or colloquially, shire county, is a county-level entity in England that is not a metropolitan county. The counties typically have populations of 300,000 to 1.8 million. The term ''shire county'' is, however, an unoffi ...

excepting the district of

Sedbergh Sedbergh ( or ) is a town and civil parish in Cumbria, England. The 2001 census gave the parish a population of 2,705, increasing at the 2011 census to 2,765. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it lies about east of Kendal, nor ...

which although in modern

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

is included in the volume covering the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

. Conversely, the

Furness Furness ( ) is a peninsula and region of Cumbria in northwestern England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, historically an exclave of Lancashire. The Furness Peninsula, also known as Low Furness, is an area of vill ...

areageographically in Cumbria but traditionally in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

is included, having been omitted from the predecessor volume, ''Cumberland and Westmorland''. The six volumes currently covering London collectively represent the 32 London boroughs plus the

City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

, which constitute the modern Greater London region, rather than earlier divisions. The entire volume on

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

was an early casualty of this rearrangement, as are parts of the revised volumes covering Surrey,

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

and

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. ''Birmingham and the Black Country'' covers the area bounded by the modern

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

metropolitan county, but minus the Metropolitan Borough of

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

and the rural part of

Metropolitan Borough of Solihull The Metropolitan Borough of Solihull is a metropolitan borough in West Midlands county, England. It is named after its largest town, Solihull, from which Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council is based. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region ...

. These appear in the revised ''Warwickshire'' volume, despite no longer being in that county. Hence ''Warwickshire'' now follows the boundary of neither the

traditional A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

nor the modern county. ''The Buildings of Scotland'' similarly features hybrid divisions, with volumes such as ''Fife'' and ''Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire'' reflecting their traditional county boundaries whilst ''Highland and Islands'' corresponds to the modern counterparts. ''The Buildings of Ireland'' has so far broadly corresponded to the traditional provinces of Ireland and is blind to the Border between the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. ''The Buildings of Wales'' largely follows the post-1974 divisions.

Volumes in print and their editions

The list below is of the volumes that are currently in printdates in italics indicate forthcoming editions. 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. To date, the oldest wholly unrevised volume is ''Yorkshire: The North Riding'' (1966). ''Staffordshire'' (1974) is the only other volume currently issued in its unrevised first edition. 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

ISBN The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier that is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency. An ISBN is assigned to each separate edition an ...

s 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 have been reprinted in the original, smaller format (marked with an asterisk in the table below). All editions are now published by

. Where revisions have been spread over more than one volume, the preceding edition remains in print until the whole area has been revised.

Notes

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. *''Bath'' (2003) (Michael Forsyth) *''Birmingham'' (2005) (Andy Foster) *''Brighton and Hove'' (2008) (Nicholas Antram and Richard Morrice) *''Bristol'' (2004) (Andrew Foyle) *''Hull'' (2010) (David Neave and Susan Neave) *''Leeds'' (2005) (Susan Wrathmell) *''Liverpool'' (2003) (Joseph Sharples) *''Manchester'' (2001) (Clare Hartwell) *''Newcastle and Gateshead'' (2009) (Grace McCombie) *''Nottingham'' (2008) ( Elain Harwood) *''Sheffield'' (2004) (Ruth Harman and John Minnis) Two supplementary worksthus far the only of their typewere 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)

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. 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 2022. 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). *''Aberdeenshire: North and Moray'' (2015) (David W. Walker and Matthew Woodworth) *''Aberdeenshire: South and Aberdeen'' (2015) (Joseph Sharples, David W. Walker and Matthew Woodworth) *''Argyll and Bute'' (2000) (

Frank Arneil Walker Frank Arneil Walker OBE is a Scottish architectural academic and writer. He is emeritus professor of architecture of the University of Strathclyde. He writes regularly on architectural and urban history, is author of ''The South Clyde Estuar ...

) *''Ayrshire and Arran'' (2012) (Rob Close and Anne Riches) *''Borders'' (2006) (Kitty Cruft, John Dunbar and Richard Fawcett) *''Dumfries and Galloway'' (1996) (John Gifford) *''Dundee and Angus'' (2012) (John Gifford) *''Edinburgh'' (1984) (John Gifford,

Colin McWilliam Colin McWilliam (1928–1989) was a British architecture academic and author. Career Born in London, he graduated from the University of Cambridge and became Director of the Scottish National Buildings Record, then the Assistant Secretary of ...

and David Walker) *''Fife'' (1988) (John Gifford) *''Glasgow'' (1990) (Elizabeth Williamson, Anne Riches and Malcolm Higgs) *''Highland and Islands'' (1992) (John Gifford) *''Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire'' (2016) (Rob Close, John Gifford and Frank Arneil Walker) *''Lothian, except Edinburgh'' (1978) (Colin McWilliam) *''Perth and Kinross'' (2007) (John Gifford) *''Stirling and Central Scotland'' (2002) (John Gifford and Frank Arneil Walker)

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.

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. *''Belfast, Antrim and County Down'' (in preparation)Mackay (2012) *''Connacht/Connaught'' (in preparation) *''Cork: City and County'' (2020) (Frank Keohane) *''Dublin'' (2005) (Christine Casey) *''Dublin: County'' (in preparation) *''Munster, except Cork'' (in preparation) *''North West Ulster: the Counties of Londonderry, Donegal, Fermanagh and Tyrone'' (1979) ( Alistair Rowan) *''Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly'' (2019) (Andrew Tierney) *''North Leinster'' (1993) (Alistair Rowan and Christine Casey) *''South Leinster'' (in preparation) *''South Ulster: the Counties of Armagh, Cavan and Monaghan.'' (2013) (Kevin Mulligan)

Crown dependencies

Pevsner did not make any moves to extend the series to the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

. However, a volume covering the Isle of Man is to be published in early 2023. * ''Isle of Man'' (2023) (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.

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

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: *''Argyll, Bute and Stirling''Cherry (1998) *''Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire'' *''Dublin: City and County'' *''London III'' *''South Strathclyde''

Related works

In 1995 Penguin, in conjunction with

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 ...

, 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. In 1995 a CD-ROM entitled ''A Compendium of Pevsner's Buildings of England'' was issued by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 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 The Penguin Collectors Society (PCS) is a charity based in the United Kingdom. Its main purpose is to promote the study and research of all aspects of Penguin Books, the publishing company founded by Allen Lane in 1935. History The PCS was starte ...

. 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 Vernacular architecture is building done outside any academic tradition, and without professional guidance. This category encompasses a wide range and variety of building types, with differing methods of construction, from around the world, bo ...

Celebratory volumes

In 1986, Penguin published an anthology from Pevsner's volumes edited by

Bridget Cherry Bridget Cherry OBE, FSA, Hon. FRIBA (born 17 May 1941) is a British architectural historian who was series editor of the Pevsner Architectural Guides from 1971 until 2002, and is the author or co-author of several volumes in the series.

and John Newman, ''The Best Buildings of England'', . 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. 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

''Travels with Pevsner''

In 1997, the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

broadcast a series of documentaries''Travels with Pevsner'' (BBC site)
/ref> 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

*Norfolk ( Dan Cruikshank) *North Yorkshire ( Janet Street-Porter) *Dorset ( Patrick Wright) *County Durham (

Lucinda Lambton Lady Lucinda Lambton, also known as Lady Lucinda Worsthorne (born 10 May 1943) is an English writer, photographer, and broadcaster on architectural subjects. Life Lucinda Lambton was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, the eldest child of the Conservati ...

) *Warwickshire (

Germaine Greer Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and public intellectual, regarded as one of the major voices of the radical feminist movement in the latter half of the 20th century. Specializing in English and women's literat ...

) *Surrey ( Michael Bracewell)

Series Two

*Derbyshire (

Joan Bakewell Joan Dawson Bakewell, Baroness Bakewell, (''née'' Rowlands; born 16 April 1933), is an English journalist, television presenter and Labour Party peer. Baroness Bakewell is president of Birkbeck, University of London; she is also an author a ...

) *Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (

Philip Hoare Philip Hoare (born Patrick Kevin Philip Moore, 1958) is an English writer, especially of history and biography. He instigated the Moby Dick Big Read project. He is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Southampton and Leverhulme a ...

) *Worcestershire (

Jonathan Meades Jonathan Turner Meades (born 21 January 1947) is an English writer and film-maker, primarily on the subjects of place, culture, architecture and food. His work spans journalism, fiction, essays, memoir and over fifty highly idiosyncratic tele ...

) *Suffolk ( Craig Brown) *Northumberland ( John Grundy) *Bristol and Somerset ( Philippa Gregory) In both series, extracts from Pevsner's text were read by

Benjamin Whitrow Benjamin John Whitrow (17 February 1937 – 28 September 2017) was an English actor. He was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor for his role as Mr Bennet in the 1995 BBC version of ''Pride and Prejudice'', and voiced the role of Fo ...

Notes

{{notelist

References

External links

Pevsner Architectural Guides
Yale University Press

Architecture books Architecture in the United Kingdom Architectural history Series of non-fiction books 1940s establishments in the United Kingdom Publications established in the 1940s

Origin and research methods

Content of the volumes

Boundaries

Volumes in print and their editions

Notes

City Guides

Buildings of Scotland

Buildings of Wales

Buildings of Ireland

Crown dependencies

Treatment of bridges

Superseded and unpublished volumes

Related works

Celebratory volumes

''Travels with Pevsner''

Series One

Series Two

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links