Part 1 – The Edwardian Period and the Grand Manner Tradition

Lecture Summary:

In this inaugural lecture, Alex will provide an overview of civic/state and commercial architecture from about c.1890-c.1920, with an emphasis on the Edwardian years. This is the ‘scene’ that preceded the interwar years. If there is one, relatively consistent quality that characterised civic and commercial architecture at this time it was the so-called ‘grand manner’, which was a term used at the time by the likes of Blomfield, Belcher, and Baker, among others.

Speaker: Alex Bremner

Biography

Alex Bremner is Professor of Architectural History at the University of Edinburgh. He specialises in the history of Victorian architecture, with a particular interest in British imperial and colonial architecture. Hi books include Imperial Gothic: Religious Architecture and High Anglican Culture in the British Empire, c.1840-1870 (2013), and Building Greater Britain: Architecture, Imperialism, and the Edwardian Baroque Revival, c.1885-1920 (2022). He is currently working on a new history of Victorian architecture for Oxford University Press.

Interlocutor: Alan Powers

Biography

Alan Powers is a leading historian of twentieth century British architecture, art and design. He was Chairman of the Twentieth Century Society 2007-12, and currently a Trustee and co-editor of its journal, Twentieth Century Architecture, and the monograph series, Twentieth Century Architects, published by Liverpool University Press. He is History Leader at the London School of Architecture, and also teaches for New York University, London, and the University of Kent. His books include Modern, the Modern Movement in Britain (20005), Britain – Modern Architectures in History (2007) and Bauhaus Goes West (2019).