Architecture of British Transport in the Twentieth Century

Holder Julian, Parissien Steven

Transport buildings – railway stations, airport terminals, bus and coach stations, motorway service areas, filling stations, and garages – are such a part of everyday scenery they are easily overlooked. This book is the first to take a close look at the architecture of British transport buildings of the twentieth century, a period during which transportation systems, methods, and even purposes underwent enormous change. The contributors to the book consider transport buildings both well-known and unfamiliar from a variety of intriguing viewpoints. They explore the design and promotion of the London Underground, the battle between road and rail, the intentions of architects – to glamourise travel, to calm fears, to accommodate huge numbers of travelers – and the political and cultural significance of the transport buildings that have become a major part of modern life.

About the Author

Julian Holder is Director of the Scottish Centre for Conservation Studies, Edinburgh College of Art School of Architecture. He writes regularly in the architectural press, and was a contributor to the "Pevsner Architectural Guide to Manchester" (Yale University Press, 2002). He is the author of studies of the Arts and Crafts Movement architect W. R. Lethaby, and British Modernism.

Steven Parissien is Dean of Arts at the University of Plymouth and formerly assistant director of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. He is the author of books on Georgian architecture and George IV.

Reviews

"[A] stimulating and well-written book" – The New Statesman

Back to the list of books