Heritage Now #10

IN CONVERSATION

In conversation

Paul Holden talks to Simon Bradley of Yale University Press about the success, evolution and legacy of the Pevsner brand.

Revising the Buildings of England series has been a mammoth endeavour which draws to a close with the newly published revision of Staffordshire. How do you reflect on such a remarkable achievement? Nikolaus Pevsner always intended his guides to achieve comprehensive coverage and we can be proud that the Buildings of England series has now hit that target twice over. Pevsner also realised quite early on that he wouldn’t be able to complete the series single-handed, so he brought in younger au thors or co-authors for 12 of the original 46 volumes. That proved to be a far-sighted decision, not least because it introduced some writers who later contributed to the revised series. But all of us who have written for the final cycle of revised volumes have had the huge advantage of starting with an existing text and most of those older entries were written by Pevsner him

Christ Church Cathedral choir, c. 1160-70. From Oxfordshire: Oxford and the South East (2023) by Simon Bradley, Nikolaus Pevsner and Jennifer Sherwood. (James O. Davies) RIGHT TOP: Hertford College, Old Buildings Quad, Oxford. Stair tower by T. G. Jackson, 1887-8. (James O. Davies) RIGHT BOTTOM: Heath Town almshouses, Wolverhampton by Edward Banks, 1850. Featured on the cover of Birmingham and the Black Country (2022) by Andy Foster, Nikolaus Pevsner and Alexandra Wedgwood. (James O. Davies)

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HISTORIC BUILDINGS & PLACES