JOHN BETJEMAN FIRST AND LAST LOVES
Dedicated to the memory of GERALD HAYNES Schoolmaster of Lynam’s, Oxford, who first opened my eyes to architecture
CONTENTS
Title Page
Dedication
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
LOVE IS DEAD
1 WINTER AT HOME
2 BOURNEMOUTH
3 CHELTENHAM
4 ABERDEEN GRANITE
5 LEEDS—A CITY OF CONTRASTS
6 THE ISLE OF MAN
7 ANTIQUARIAN PREJUDICE
8 THE ARCHITECTURE OF ENTERTAIN MENT
9 LONDON RAILWAY STATIONS
10 NONCONFORMIST ARCHITECTURE
11 1837–1937
THE DRIFT TOWARDS UGLINESS
THE LAST DAYS OF TRADITION
THE MORRIS MOVEMENT
12 VICTORIAN ARCHITECTURE
ILLUSTRATED NOTES TO VICTORIAN ARCHITECTURE
13 THREE CHURCHES
BLISLAND, CORNWALL
MILDENHALL, WILTS
ST. MARK’S, SWINDON
14 COAST AND COUNTRY
VENTNOR
IN AND AROUND FRESHWATER, I.O.W.
HAYLING ISLAND
LYNDHURST
WEYMOUTH
SIDMOUTH
LOOE
ST. ENDELLION
PORT ISAAC
PADSTOW
ILFRACOMBE
CLEVEDON
HIGHWORTH
INDEX
About the Author
Copyright
ILLUSTRATIONS
Cheltenham Panorama by John Piper
Nonconformist Chapels by John Piper
1 Friars’ Street, Ipswich
2 Underbank Stennington, nr Sheffield
3 Unitarian Chapel, Bury St Edmunds
4 Cote Baptist Chapel, nr Bampton, Oxon
5 Lady Huntingdon Chapel, Worcester
6 Louth, Lincolnshire, Methodist
7 Blockley, Gloucestershire
8 Swaffham, Norfolk
9 Market Harborough, Leicestershire
10 Oundle
11 Donhead, Wiltshire
12 Blaenconin
13 Belgelley, Pembrokeshire
14 Between Cardigan and Aberayron
15 Kilgelley, Pembrokeshire
16 Near Cardigan
17 Mawgan-in-Meneage, Cornwall, exterior
18 Mawgan-in-Meneage, Cornwall, interior
19 Tisbury, Wiltshire
20 Louth, Lincolnshire, Congregational
21 Legbourne, Lincolnshire
22 Broad Town, Wiltshire
23 Great Yarmouth
South London, 1872, from Gustave Doré’s London (1872)
King’s Cross Station, 1851, from Fergusson’s History of the Modern Styles of Architecture (3rd edition, Murray, 1891)
York Central Station, c. 1890, from an old photograph
St. George’s Hall, Liverpool, 1841, from Monumental Classical Architecture in Great Britain and Ireland by A. E. Richardson (Batsford, 1914)
National Provincial Bank, Sunderland, 1878, from the Building News (1879)
Catholic Apostolic Church, Gordon Square, London, 1855, from The Catholic Apostolic Church, Gordon Square by J. Malcolm Lickfold (1935)
Lancing Chapel, Sussex, 1854–1870, from the Building News (1877)
The Rathaus, Hamburg, 1878, by Sir Gilbert Scott, from the Building News
Alternative Design for the Rathaus, Hamburg, by Sir Gilbert Scott, from the Building News
St. John the Evangelist, Red Lion Square, London, 1874–1878, from the Building News (1879)
University Museum, Oxford, 1852–1855, from The History of the Gothic Revival by C. Eastlake (1872)
Drawings for Cardiff Castle, 1865, from Transactions of the R.I.B.A. (vol. 1, New Series, 1885)
William Burges’s House, Melbury Road, Kensington, 1870–1881, from The House of William Burges by R. P. P. Pullan (1883)
All Saints, Margaret Street, London, 1849–1850, from The Builder
Drawing for Keble College Chapel, Oxford, 1876.A drawing from Butterfield’s office, by permission of the Warden and Fellows of Keble College
St. Columba’s, Haggerston, London, 1867–1869, from the Building News
Cuddesdon Theological College, Oxford, 1853–1854, from the Building News
Sketch of Saint-Julien, Brioude, France, by G. E. Street, from The Transactions of the R.I.B.A. (1889)
Bristol Cathedral, restored 1868–1888, from The Builder (1878)
Manchester Town Hall, 1877, from New Town Hall, Manchester, ed. William E. A. Axon (1878)
New Zealand Chambers, London, 1872, from the Building News (1873)
Design for Devonshire Street, E.C.2, 1877, from the Building News
Charlemont House, Dublin, c.1773, from Views of the most remarkable Public Buildings, Monuments and other Edifices in the City of Dublin by Robert Pool and John Cash (1780)
“Wispers,” Midhurst, Sussex, 1875, from Transactions of the R.I.B.A. (vol. 1, 1885)
House in North Oxford, 1870, from the Building News (1870)
Hostelry, Bedford Park, London, 1878, from the Building News (1880)
Cottage at Rochdale, 1895, from Academy Architecture
St. Agnes, Kennington, 1877, from The Builder
Mission Church, 1875, from the Building News
Church of the Holy Angels, Hoar Cross, 1877, from The Builder (1877)
Church of the Holy Redeemer, Clerkenwell, 1888, drawing by Gerald Horsley from In Memoriam J. D. Sedding (1892)
Design for a Church by Edgar Wood, from Architecture (1897)
St. Wilfrid’s, Harrogate, 1909, from the Building News (1910)
Westminster Cathedral, designed 1895, drawing by J. F. Bentley from the Librarian of the R.I.B.A.
Examination Schools, Oxford, 1876, from the Building News
Royal Holloway College, Englefield Green, Surrey, finished 1886, from the Transactions of the R.I.B.A. (vol. 3, New Series, 1887)
Design for “A West End Club House,” 1880, from the Building News (1882)
The Hill House, Helensburgh, 1906, drawing by C. R. Mackintosh from Academy Architecture
Design for a Market Hall, 1901, from the Architectural Review
St. Cyprian’s, Baker Street, 1900, photograph by Dell and Wainwright
St. Philip’s, Cosham, 1937, photograph by J. Bucknall
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I AM greatly indebted to Myfanwy Piper for making this collection of essays and talks about architecture and places. She read through many pages of dead papers, yellowing typescripts and periodicals, and with her sure critical perception weeded out much that was topical, sentimental, journalistic, pretentious and dull. Even so she has left you with plenty to complain about. But that is my fault, not hers. On reading through the page proofs, I was horrified at the patronising way I have written about Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, some of whose work I am only just beginning to appreciate. I must explain too that the overlapping which occurs in the articles “Victorian Architecture” and the “Illustrated Notes” which follow was not an oversight. It was not possible to cut either without altering what little meaning they have. So readers should read one or the other, but not necessarily both.
I am very grateful to my friend Mr. Piper for doing the illustrations for the Nonconformist Chapels and for making a drawing of his lithograph of Cheltenham, both tasks specially undertaken for this book. The Editors of the Architectural Review, Signature, The Studio, Vogue and World Review kindly gave me permission to reprint certain articles. The
