‘Pevsner for the PFI generation’ – from the AJ
October 28th, 2010
Reading today’s email from the AJ, Owen Hatherly struck a chord when he commented on the difference in quality between todays lousy flats (of which I have much to say elsewhere) and the golden age of post war building, in an interview with James Pallister. The article begins as a review of Hatherly’s book A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain.
JP Was there a golden age?
OH No. It’s a terrible cliché but in any given period most architecture is not very good. There are periods when we hit upon a decent standard and I think one was in the late 19th century, as well as the 1950s and 60s.
To a large degree, in terms of hygiene, services, the amount of light and air coming into the flat, the amount of green spaces, the length of tenure, the best public housing built in this country occurred between 1945 and 1970 [despite the fact that] there were some very well-publicised disasters and some very poor planning. A lot of it was mediocre, though it was good mediocrity. But compared to contemporary standards, which is below Parker Morris standards, it was vastly superior. I sincerely believe that.
https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/critics/-pevsner-for-the-pfi-generation/8607518.article
Of all people it’s Boris Johnson who’s doing his level best in conjunction with Alex Ely of MAE llp to bring back some standards into housing, after 30 years of much poorer quality housing in cities.
BBC Open Book 21/8/11 included a section about Pevsner, available here:- Open Book – Pevsner
Pevsner section starts at 1m 15s in, don’t be put off by the unedited section that precedes it.
More on the life of Pevsner here:-