Ian Nairn’s amusing and acerbic postwar guide to the capital’s buildings is a classicBefore all the architecture types pile in with their encomia,I want to wish Nairn’s London a very joyful 50th birthday. Written by Ian Nairn, the angry young man who in 1955 coined the word “subtopia” to recount Britain’s bland and badly planned suburbs, and who thereafter spent most of his all-too-brief career fighting its destructive sprawl (he died from cirrhosis in 1983 aged 52),this brilliantly concise book is still the best guide to the capital’s buildings that I know. amusing and poetic, highly subjective and slightly crazy, and Nairn’s great gift is for rendering the familiar unfamiliar. Read him on the Houses of Parliament (“stage scenery which takes itself seriously”) or Westminster Abbey (“delivered with the incisive (clear and sharp in analysis or expression) acerbity which only civil servants can do really well”),andyou’ll never think of either in the same way again.amusing and poetic, highly subjective and slightly crazy, or Nairn's gift is for rendering the familiar unfamiliarContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com