JANETTE RAY BOOKSELLERS, 8 BOOTHAM, YORK YO30 7BL Telephone: +44 [0]1904 623088 email:
[email protected] CATALOGUE 16: GAVIN STAMP Preamble By the time I went to look at the books that remained in Gavin’s flat in Forest Hill, London, after his far too early death, many well-known titles had already been removed by friends and relatives who rightly, at Gavin’s request, had the first choice from his library. I met his wife, Rosemary Hill, at the flat. She had the thankless task of sorting out the slide collection which was to be given to Historic England’s National Monuments Record and, on the day I arrived for a first look, was busy doing that with huge dedication. Whilst she sorted and packed, I scanned the shelves. As many well-known titles had already been removed it soon was possible to see that between the gaps that what remained was arguably the essence of the collection; I mean those smaller books and pamphlets that provide the detail on architects, designers and places that reflecting Gavin Stamp’s interest in every conceivable aspect of architecture and design. In these books were many with notes, photocopies and jottings from friends and academics which illuminate detailed queries he had about this and that and which often exploited in his own writings. Books spilled off the shelves on every imaginable building type including telephone boxes, about which he had run a campaign to encourage saving Giles Gilbert Scott’s design. There were booklets on war memorials, reflecting his enduring interest in memorialisation, on European modernism, on neo-classicism and the gothic.