Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
London’s blighted skyline
Despite its anti-socialist bias, JOHN GREEN recommends a new survey of British architecture that seeks to educate and provoke
MISUNDERSTOOD BRUTALIST GENIUS: Gordon Benson and Alan Forsyth of the London Borough of Camden's Architects' Department, 1974-6, Grade II listed in 2010 - ‘Camden have arguably succeeded in building some of the highest quality council accommodation in the country' [George Rex/CC]

A Short History of British Architecture - from Stonehenge to the Shard
Simon Jenkins, Penguin Viking, £26.99

 

SIMON JENKINS is one of our last remaining journalists of the old school – he writes with passion as well as compassion, perceptively and rationally, in a style that combines articulateness, erudition and accessibility. 

Jenkins has been deputy chair of English Heritage and today is chair of the National Trust. Although he is a conservative with a small “c” and despises many of those with a capital “C”, his commentaries are always provocative and apposite. This, his latest book, will enlighten and entertain, as it will undoubtedly annoy some of our more extremist architectural iconoclasts. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
soul
Film of the week / 28 August 2025
28 August 2025

Despite the primitive means the director was forced to use, this is an incredibly moving film from Gaza and you should see it, urges JOHN GREEN

fotw
Film of the Week / 7 August 2025
7 August 2025

JOHN GREEN recommends an Argentinian film classic on re-release - a deliciously cynical tale of swindling and double-cross

earthquakes
Books / 18 July 2025
18 July 2025

JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a very readable account of Britain’s involvement in South America

metamorf
Exhibition review / 16 July 2025
16 July 2025

JOHN GREEN is stirred by an ambitious art project that explores solidarity and the shared memory of occupation

Similar stories
church
Books / 4 July 2025
4 July 2025

HENRY BELL notes the curious confluence of belief, rebuilding and cheap materials that gave rise to an extraordinary number of modernist churches in post-war Scotland

DISTINGUISHED: Portrait of Hans Hess c1962 (photographer unk
Features / 20 June 2025
20 June 2025

NICK MATTHEWS previews a landmark book launch taking place in Leicester next weekend

future
Book Review / 9 May 2025
9 May 2025

HENRY BELL is provoked by a book that looks toward, but does not fully explore the question of who gets to imagine the shapes of cities to come

Culture / 12 December 2024
12 December 2024
Two books and a film that examine cultural excavation and the impact of place on behaviour