Lost Elysium - Hardcover

Piper, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1857768892 ISBN 13: 9781857768893

Publisher: Book Guild Publishing Ltd, 2005

Synopsis

Lost Elysium? traces the development of six villages in north west Middlesex through contemporary eyes at different periods from the 1870s to WWII, followed by the author's own observations of those villages as they are today. It examines in particular the Metro-land phenomenon, one of the most successful marketing concepts of all time, with its promises of affordable homes in the country, and searches for such of the Middlesex countryside as remains. It is illustrated with stunning new photographs by Greg Ward. The places covered are Wembley, Harrow, Pinner, Eastcote, Ruislip and Ickenham.

About this title

From the Back Cover

In 1932 London and Suburbs Old and New expounds in a way that epitomises the Metro-land dream: Ruislip Manor may justly claim to be the most accessible and least spoiled of the residential districts round London...On all sides are green fields; close at hand are health-giving woods; you will find houses ready to live in which are reasonable in cost, or land for building a house to your own individual taste. In a word, nothing is lacking that is required to make a perfect residential district.

From the Inside Flap

The poet John Betjeman used the expression lost Elysium when describing Middlesex, large parts of which had been transformed by developers into Metro-land, sold as a rural reteat for hard-pressed city dwellers, where the new Tudorbethan houses were within the reach of the middle classes for the first time. The marketing of Metro-land is a fascinating phenomenon, with its suggestion that a country idyll was no longer only available to the aristocracy. But were the original eager Metro-land buyers duped, or did they get exactly what they wanted and deserved? Is it possible to offer homes in the country without destroying the very countryside that is the attraction? Lost Elysium? quotes extensively from contemporary sources of all descriptions and is illustrated in colour with images from the beginnings of Metro-land's development and contemporary photographs of Middlesex today. In addition, following in the footsteps of Nikolaus Pevsner, Richard Piper has trodden the streets and footpaths of six Metro-land villages, recording what he saw there and giving his impressions and opinions.

Edition details

• Publisher: Book Guild Publishing Ltd
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1857768892
• ISBN 13: 9781857768893
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160