The Story of Britain's Best BuildingsBritain is covered with an extraordinary array of fantastic and brilliant buildings. There are more historic buildings of more styles in Britain than even in Italy. And, our favourites occupy a similar place in the national psyche as Robin Hood and Nell Gwynne. Britain's Best Buildings celebrates the bricks-and-mortar icons of our history that are well known and loved beyond all the others: Dan Cruickshank re-visits the stuff of legend but also reveals the stories behind the buildings. Like the life of any human being, there are highs and lows to the story of every building and as even the best-known celebrity has dark corners and secret closets to explore, so do Britain's best-loved buildings. To know a great building is to make it more our own - to know it even more will make us feel we have a stake in its past, present, and future. Each of the buildings is outstanding architecturally, yet each has strong personal stories behind their construction and as a whole they offer a journey through the nation's architecture and psyche from the 12th century to the present day. |
From inside the book
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Page 41
... Virgin Mary , was venerated and worshipped with such a passion that England was generally regarded in Europe as the Virgin's chosen land . These conflicting attitudes to females in the Middle Ages are starkly revealed at Durham for ...
... Virgin Mary , was venerated and worshipped with such a passion that England was generally regarded in Europe as the Virgin's chosen land . These conflicting attitudes to females in the Middle Ages are starkly revealed at Durham for ...
Page 58
... Virgin's robe , so when the Knights of the Garter donned their blue robes , they were cloaking themselves in the colour of their patron . A rare surviving example of English medieval sacred art ( most was destroyed during the ...
... Virgin's robe , so when the Knights of the Garter donned their blue robes , they were cloaking themselves in the colour of their patron . A rare surviving example of English medieval sacred art ( most was destroyed during the ...
Page 67
... Virgin Mary and Arthur's Round Table and expressed through the rituals of the Garter ceremonies ? With this question in mind , the details inside the chapel take on added meaning . At eye level , running around the interior of the nave ...
... Virgin Mary and Arthur's Round Table and expressed through the rituals of the Garter ceremonies ? With this question in mind , the details inside the chapel take on added meaning . At eye level , running around the interior of the nave ...
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abbey aisles apartments arches architect architecture bascules bedrooms Benedictine Blenheim Blenheim Palace Book of Revelation BRITAIN'S building built Burges Bute Cardiff Castle centre century Charles choir Christian church columns completed construction corridor court created crossing decoration duchess duke Durham Cathedral early east Edward engineering England English floor Garter geometry George Gothic groin vault Henry Highpoint Holyrood Holyroodhouse interior iron James John king knights Le Corbusier London Lubetkin Marlborough Mary masons massive medieval metres Midland Grand Hotel modern monarch monks monument natural nave original palace perhaps piers Queen revealed ribs roof royal sacred sacred geometry Sarah Scotland Scott semicircular shrine south transept square St Calais St Cuthbert St George's Chapel St Pancras staircase started stone structure survives symbol Thames Tower Bridge transept Upper Ward Vanbrugh vault vesica piscis Victoria Virgin wall William Windsor Castle Woodstock