Information about Nikolaus Pevsner

| Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, (January 30, 1902 – August 18, 1983) was a German-born British historian of art and, especially, architecture. He is best known for his 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, The Buildings of England (1951-74), one of the great achievements of 20th-century art scholarship.

Life

The son of a Jewish merchant, Pevsner was born in Leipzig, Saxony. He studied art history at the Universities of Leipzig, Munich, Berlin, and Frankfurt/Main in Germany (PhD 1924), worked at the Dresden Gallery (1924–28) and taught at Göttingen University (1929–33). According to Games (2002), he was an admirer of some of the economic policies of the early Hitler regime, but was caught up in the ban on Jews being employed by the Nazi state shortly after Hitler's accession to power and was required to step down from Göttingen in May 1933. Later that year he moved to England where friends found him a research post at the University of Birmingham^[1]. In the early 1940s he joined the academic staff at Birkbeck College, University of London, becoming a professor, and was later a visiting lecturer at both the University of Cambridge and University of Oxford. He assumed British citizenship in 1946.

As well as The Buildings of England, Pevsner conceived and edited the Pelican History of Art series (1953–), many individual volumes of which are regarded as classics.

In 1958, Pevsner was inivted to become founder chairman of The Victorian Society, the national charity for the study and protection and Victorian and Edwardian architecture and other arts. He was also an early an active member of the Georgian Group founded in 1937.

He died in London in 1983 and his memorial service was held at the Church of Christ the King, Bloomsbury the following December.

Papers

Research papers and correspondence relating to Pevsner's first job in a British university, after leaving Germany, can be found at the University of Birmingham Special Collections but are as yet uncatalogued.

Famous Ideas and Theories

• "A bicycle shed is a building; Lincoln Cathedral is a piece of architecture. Nearly everything that encloses space on a scale sufficient for a human being to move in is a building; the term architecture applies only to buildings designed with a view to aesthetic appeal."

From An Outline of European Architecture, 1943. Pevsner also described the three ways aesthetic appeal could manifest itself in architecture: in a building's façade, the material volumes or the interior.

Selected bibliography

• Academies of Art, Past and Present (1940)
• An Outline of European Architecture (1943)
• Pioneers of Modern Design (1949; originally published in 1936 under the title Pioneers of the Modern Movement)
• The Buildings of England (1951-74)
• The Englishness of English Art (1956)
• The Sources of Modern Architecture and Design (1968)
• A History of Building Types (1976)
• Pevsner on Art and Architecture: the Radio Talks, edited and introduced by Stephen Games, (Methuen, 2003)

The Buildings of England

After moving to England, Pevsner found that the study of architectural history had little status in academic circles, and the amount of information available, especially to travellers wanting to inform themselves about the architecture of a particular district, was limited. He conceived a project to write a series of comprehensive county guides to rectify this, and gained the backing of Allen Lane, founder of Penguin Books, for whom he had written his Outline of European Architecture. Work on the series began in 1945. Lane employed two part-time assistants, both German refugee art historians, who prepared notes for Pevsner from published sources. Pevsner spent the academic holidays touring the country to make personal observations and carry out local research, before writing up the finished volumes. The first volume was published in 1951. Pevsner wrote 32 of the books himself and 10 with collaborators, with a further 4 of the original series written by others. Since his death, work has continued on the series, with several volumes now in their third revision.

The books are compact and intended to meet the needs of both specialists and the general reader. Each contains an extensive introduction to the architectural history and styles of the area, followed by a town-by-town - and in the case of larger settlements, street-by-street - account of individual buildings. The guides offer both detailed coverage of the most notable buildings and notes on lesser-known and vernacular buildings; all building types are covered but there is a particular emphasis on churches and public buildings. Each volume has a central section with several dozen pages of photographs, originally in black and white, though colour illustrations have featured in revised volumes since 2003.

The list below is of the volumes that were in print in 2006. The original volumes are gradually being replaced with new editions in a larger format, updated to reflect architectural-history scholarship since the first publications of the guides and to include significant new buildings. The dates after each title are of the first publication and of any revised edition. All are now published by the Yale University Press. The volumes for Bath, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, the London City Churches, Manchester and Sheffield are part of the parallel "Pevsner City Guides" series, a more heavily illustrated paperback format.

• Bath (2003) (Michael Forsyth) ISBN 0-300-10177-5
• Bedfordshire, Huntingdon & Peterborough (1968) ISBN 0-300-09581-3
• Berkshire (1966) ISBN 0-300-09582-1
• Buckinghamshire (1960;1994) (rev. Elizabeth Williamson) ISBN 0-300-09584-8
• Cambridgeshire (1954;1970) ISBN 0-300-09586-4
• Cheshire (1971) ISBN 0-300-09588-0 (with Edward Hubbard)
• Cornwall (1951;1970) (rev. Enid Radclffe) ISBN 0-300-09589-9
• County Durham (1953;1983) (rev. Elizabeth Williamson) ISBN 0-300-09599-6
• Cumberland & Westmorland (1967) ISBN 0-300-09590-2
• Derbyshire (1953;1978) (rev. Elizabeth Williamson) ISBN 0-300-09591-0
• Devon (1952;1989) ISBN 0-300-09596-1
• Dorset (1972) ISBN 0-300-09598-8 (with John Newman)
• Essex (1954;1965) (rev. Enid Radcliffe) ISBN 0-300-09601-1
• Gloucestershire: The Cotswolds (1970;1999) (David Verey, rev. Alan Brooks) ISBN 0-300-09604-6
• Gloucestershire: The Vale & Forest of Dean (1970;2002) (David Verey, rev. Alan Brooks) ISBN 0-300-09733-6
• The Isle of Wight (2006) ISBN 0-300-10733-1 (with David Wharton Lloyd)
• Hampshire & The Isle of Wight (1967) ISBN 0-300-09606-2 (with David Wharton Lloyd)
• Herefordshire (1963) ISBN 0-300-09609-7
• Hertfordshire (1953;1977) (rev. Bridget Cherry) ISBN 0-300-09611-9
• Kent: North East & East (1969;1983) (John Newman) ISBN 0-300-09613-5
• Kent: West & the Weald (1969;1976) (John Newman) ISBN 0-300-09614-3
• Lancashire: Liverpool & the South-West (2006) ISBN 0-300-10910-5 (with Richard Pollard)
• Lancashire: Manchester & the South-East (2004) ISBN 0-300-10583-5 (with Clare Hartwell and Matthew Hyde)
• North Lancashire (1969) ISBN 0-300-09617-8
• Leicestershire & Rutland (1960;1984) (rev. Elizabeth Williamson) ISBN 0-300-09618-6
• Lincolnshire (1964;1989) (with John Harris, rev. Nicholas Antram) ISBN 0-300-09620-8
• Liverpool (2003) (Joseph Sharples) ISBN 0-300-10258-5
• London 1: The City of London (1997) ISBN 0-300-09624-0 (with Simon Bradley)
• London 2: South (1983) ISBN 0-300-09651-8 (with Bridget Cherry)
• London 3: North-West (1991) ISBN 0-300-09652-6 (with Bridget Cherry)
• London 4: North (1998) ISBN 0-300-09653-4 (with Bridget Cherry)
• London 5: East (2004) ISBN 0-300-10701-3 (with Bridget Cherry and Charles O'Brien)
• London 6: Westminster (2003) ISBN 0-300-09595-3 (with Simon Bradley)
• London City Churches (1998) (Simon Bradley) ISBN 0-300-09655-0
• Manchester (2001) (Clare Hartwell) ISBN 0-300-09666-6
• Norfolk 1: Norwich & North East (1962;1997) (rev. Bill Wilson) ISBN 0-300-09607-0
• Norfolk 2: South & West (1962;1999) (rev. Bill Wilson) ISBN 0-300-09657-7
• Northamptonshire (1961;1973) (rev. Bridget Cherry) ISBN 0-300-09632-1
• Northumberland (1957;1992) ISBN 0-300-09638-0 (with Ian A. Richmond, rev. John Grundy, Grace McCombie, Peter Ryder and Humphrey Welfare)
• Nottinghamshire (1951;1979) (rev. Elizabeth Williamson) ISBN 0-300-09636-4
• Oxfordshire (1974) ISBN 0-300-09639-9 (with Jennifer Sherwood)
• Sheffield (2004) (Ruth Harman and John Minnis) ISBN 0-300-10585-1
• Shropshire (1958;2006) (rev. John Newman) ISBN 0-300-12083-4
• Somerset: North & Bristol (1958) ISBN 0-300-09640-2
• Somerset: South & West (1958) ISBN 0-300-09644-5
• Staffordshire (1974) ISBN 0-14-071046-9
• Suffolk (1961;1974) (rev. Enid Radcliffe) ISBN 0-300-09648-8
• Surrey (1962;1971) (with Ian Nairn, rev. Bridget Cherry) ISBN 0-300-09675-5
• Sussex (1965) ISBN 0-300-09677-1 (with Ian Nairn)
• Warwickshire (1966) ISBN 0-300-09679-8 (with Alexandra Wedgwood)
• Wiltshire (1963;1975) (rev. Bridget Cherry) ISBN 0-300-09659-3
• Worcestershire (1968) ISBN 0-300-09660-7
• Yorkshire: The North Riding (1966) ISBN 0-300-09665-8
• Yorkshire: The West Riding (1959;1967) (rev. Enid Radcliffe) ISBN 0-300-09662-3
• Yorkshire: York & East Riding (1972;1995) (rev. David Neave) ISBN 0-300-09593-7

The Buildings of Scotland

The series continued under Pevsner's name into Scotland. The format is largely similar, however only Lothian was published in the original small volume style. One noticeable difference in the Scottish series is a greater subdivision of the main gazetteer (e.g. in Argyll and Bute mainland Argyll has separate gazetteer from its islands, and Bute similarly is treated on its own). Unlike The Buildings of England, none of the Scottish volumes adopt a hierarchy of ecclesiastical buildings, instead grouping them together. As with the English revisions, several of the volumes are the work of many contributors. As of 2006, the series is four volumes from completion.

• Aberdeen and North-East Scotland (in preparation)
• Argyll and Bute (2000) ISBN 0-300-09670-4 (Frank Arneil Walker)
• Ayrshire and Arran (in preparation)
• Borders (2006) ISBN 0-300-10702-1 (Kitty Cruft, John Dunbar and Richard Fawcett)
• Dumfries and Galloway (1996) ISBN 0-300-09671-2 (John Gifford)
• Dundee and Angus (in preparation)
• Edinburgh (1984) ISBN 014071068X (John Gifford, Colin McWilliam and David Walker)
• Fife (1988) ISBN 0-300-09673-9 (John Gifford)
• Glasgow (1990) ISBN 0-300-09674-7 (Elizabeth Williamson, Anne Riches and Malcolm Higgs)
• Highland and Islands (1992) ISBN 0-300-09625-9 (John Gifford)
• Lothian, except Edinburgh (1978) ISBN 0-300-09626-7 (Colin McWilliam)
• Perth and Kinross (2007) ISBN 0-300-10922-9 (John Gifford)
• Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire (in preparation)
• Stirling and Central Scotland (2002) ISBN 0-300-09594-5 (John Gifford and Frank Arneil Walker)

The Buildings of Wales

The series has also been extended to Wales.

• Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion (2006) ISBN 0-300-10179-1 (Thomas Lloyd)
• Clwyd (1986) ISBN 0-300-09627-5 (Edward Hubbard)
• Glamorgan (1995) ISBN 0-300-09629-1 (John Newman)
• Gwent/Monmouthshire (2000) ISBN 0-300-09630-5 (John Newman)
• Gwynedd (research in progress)
• Pembrokeshire (2004) ISBN 0-300-10178-3 (Thomas Lloyd, Julian Orbach and Robert Scourfield)
• Powys (1979) ISBN 0-300-09631-3 (Richard Haslam)

The Buildings of Ireland

The Irish series is not so far advanced as the others. However the following have been published:

• Dublin (2005) ISBN 0-300-10923-7 (Christine Casey)
• North-West Ulster: the Counties of Londonderry, Donegal, Fermanagh & Tyrone (1979) ISBN 0-300-09667-4 (Alistair Rowan)
• North Leinster (1993) ISBN 0-300-09668-2 (Alistair Rowan and Christine Casey)

Superseded Volumes

The revision of the series has rendered some original volumes obsolete, usually as the area of coverage has expanded. To date the following volumes have been superseded:

• London: the Cities of London and Westminster (1957)
• London, except the Cities of London and Westminster (1952)
• London Docklands (1998) (with Elizabeth Williamson)
• Middlesex (1951)
• South Lancashire (1969) ISBN 0-14-071036-1

In addition, two volumes, North Devon and South Devon were superseded by a single volume covering the entire county.

See also

• Survey of London - an even more detailed but incomplete account of the architecture of London.

Notes

References

• BUZZ (2005) A landlady in a million?, Snapshots of days gone by, Online newsletter 57, University of Birmingham, p. 10 [accessed 1 August 2007]
• Games, Stephen (2002) Pevsner the German, Lecture at Heffers Bookshop, Cambridge 2 December [accessed 1 August 2007]

External links

• Pevsner Architectural Guides
• The Victorian Society
• Nikolaus Pevsner (1902–1983)