London Docklands: An Architectural Guide (The Buildings of England) - Softcover

Williamson, Dr Elizabeth; Pevsner, Nikolaus

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140710965 ISBN 13: 9780140710960

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd, 1998

Synopsis

This definitive guide to the buildings of the Docklands follows the River Thames from Tower Bridge to the Essex marshes on the north bank, and from London to Bermondsey on the south. An essential companion, it explores the exciting new developmentsthat have transformed this vital part of London, as well as the magnificent remains of docks, warehouses and historic riverside communities.

About this title

Synopsis:

Throughout the world in the last thirty years, docks have been closed and docklands redeveloped. This book focuses on London's docklands, regenerated since 1981 with the help of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The gradual growth of Thames-side wharves and the building of the great enclosed docks after 1800 have left a rich legacy of pioneering dock structures grafted on to, and transforming, a venerable riverside pattern. Two Baroque Hawksmoor churches, St George-in-the-East and St Anne, Limehouse, belong to old riverside communities where Victorian warehouses stand cheek-by-jowl with Georgian houses, achools and churches. The great warehouses near Tower Bridge have been imaginatively converted to form new urban quarters enjoyed by tourists and Londoners. Exciting new architecture can be found from Bermondsey, where CZWG's bright-red China Wharf contrast with sensitive infill by Michael Hopkins, to East India Docks, with its high-tech buildings by Rogers and Grimshaw. Over all, the beacon of Cesar Pelli's gleaming tower advertises Canary Wharf, that slice of North America on the Isle of Dogs and a landmark for the whole of the evolving Docklands.

Elizabeth Williamson provides an enlightening record of the historical character of the Docklands as well as describing the new and vital changes in recent architecture. With the aid of numerous text figures and excellent photographs (many of them specially taken by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments), this book provides a valuable and handy guide as well as a reference tool enhanced by extensive indexes and a glossary.

About the Author:

SIR NIKOLAUS PEVSNER (1902-1983) was one of the most learned and stimulating writers on art and architecture this century.

ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON worked for twenty years with The Buildings of England series. She is now the Architectural Editor of the Victoria History of the Counties of England.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0140710965
• ISBN 13: 9780140710960
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320