Document generated on 09/26/2021 4:33 p.m. Urban History Review Revue d'histoire urbaine Tyack, Geoffrey. Sir James Pennethorne and the Making of Victorian London. (Cambridge Studies in the History of Architecture.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Pp. xvi, 336. 6 Colour Plates, 127 Black-and-white Plates, Bibliography, Index. $150.00 (cloth) Malcolm Thurlby Volume 22, Number 1, October 1993 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1016732ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1016732ar See table of contents Publisher(s) Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine ISSN 0703-0428 (print) 1918-5138 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this review Thurlby, M. (1993). Review of [Tyack, Geoffrey. Sir James Pennethorne and the Making of Victorian London. (Cambridge Studies in the History of Architecture.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Pp. xvi, 336. 6 Colour Plates, 127 Black-and-white Plates, Bibliography, Index. $150.00 (cloth)]. Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine, 22(1), 63–64. https://doi.org/10.7202/1016732ar All Rights Reserved © Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine, 1993 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ Book Reviews / Comptes rendus refute the conventional belief that be recommended unreservedly as a first- street architecture would be quite new Whickham was "the habitat of a savage rate analysis of the impact of early indus• and have a fine effect" (pp. 11-12). This & brutalized plebeian population that trialization on an urbanizing community. Italian experience provided Pennethome had slipped the bridle of control" (p.306). with a deep grasp of the vocabulary and The widespread notion of marital endog• IAN J. GENTLES design principles that made him a lead• amy among coalminers is also shown to Department of History ing classical architect of the period. be a myth. Glendon College, York University Back in Nash's office in 1826, Pen• nethome was involved in plans to link the The coalminers' self-respect is most southern end of Regent Street to White• clearly demonstrated, the authors argue, Tyack, Geoffrey. Sir James Pennethome hall and the Strand. Specifically he in the mass strikes that they mounted in and the Making of Victorian London. worked on the building of Carlton House both 1731 and 1765. Foreshadowing the (Cambridge Studies in the History of Terrace and the layout of St. James's organized activities of the nineteenth-cen• Architecture.) Cambridge: Cambridge Park, an experience significant for his tury working class, these collective work University Press, 1992. Pp. xvi, 336. 6 subsequent career. In 1830 Nash retired stoppages prevented the coal owners Colour Plates, 127 Black-and-white leaving Pennethome in charge of the from increasing workloads and curbing Plates, Bibliography, Index. $150.00 practice. In 1839 Pennethome was the right of pitmen to switch employers at (cloth). appointed joint architect and surveyor for will. Accompanied by remarkably little Metropolitan Improvements to the Com• violence, the strikes illustrate the growth Although this new series of Cambridge missioners of Woods and Forests, the of a disciplined class consciousness, Studies in the History of Architecture is beginning of a government career the dif• and underline the authors' point that the "meant primarily for professional histori• ficulties and disappointments of which participants were not " 'a rabble of coal- ans of architecture and their students," are so sensitively charted by Tyack heavers' ... they were pitmen, and they Dr. Tyack has succeeded in creating a throughout the book. also conceived themselves to be free- volume that will interest a much broader born Englishmen." group, not least the Urban Historian. The chapters on Metropolitan Tyack's research is meticulous and the Improvements (#2), Parks for the People My only criticism of this book concerns it text so well-written that the book is diffi• (#3) and The Rebuilding of Whitehall focus. Not intended as a work of urban cult to put down. The design of the book (#8), probably have the greatest interest history, The Making of an Industrial Soci• helps; it has footnotes rather than end• for the Urban Historian. The former paints etyis really an intensive study of a small notes and high-quality illustrations inte• a vivid picture of the social and traffic locality in north-eastern England. Except grated with the text—except the colour problems in early Victorian London, and for the last fifty pages its main subject is plates—so that the reader does not have Pennethorne's proposed schemes for the coalminers and their families who in to flip back and forth between text, notes improvement that were so often thwarted the mid-eighteenth century comprised and illustrations as often happens with by government. The social benefits of the only about half the population of the par• architectural history volumes. urban park are highlighted in Parks for ish of Whickham. Not until the two final the People. Pennethome played an chapters does the adjacent city of New• The book does not present a strictly important role in the creation of several castle—one of England's major cities chronological discussion of Pennethome urban parks in London of which Victoria both then and now—figure prominently in and his works. It is divided into ten chap• Park in the East End and Battersea Park the account. In describing the collective ters, seven of which (#2 to #8) are were the most successful. Pennethorne's activities of the coalminers of the Wear arranged thematically. Tyack opens with architectural dreams and disappoint• and Tyne coalfields between 1730 and a detailed examination of Pennethorne's ments are vividly expressed in schemes 1765, Levine and Wrightson almost aban• training in the office of John Nash, from for the rebuilding of Whitehall. Here don Whickham so as to treat the Durham 1820, and his studies in Rome and else• Tyack makes a very important contribu• coalfield as a whole. At this point the where in Italy, starting in 1824. In Rome, tion to the background of the "Battle of book stops being an intensive socio-eco• Pennethome recorded "that instead of the Styles" in the design of the Foreign nomic study of one community, and turns measuring minutely each celebrated Office. He shows the negative attitude of into a piece of labour history, although a building I have visited all the remains" the First Commissioner, Sir Benjamin fascinating one. Apart from this slight (p.8), and told Nash that "the introduction Hall, toward Pennethome, and that Hall problem of focus, however, the book can of the Italian style of Palace into our was the prime mover in instituting the 63 Urban History Review/Revue d'histoire urbaine Vol XXII, No. 1 (October, 1993) Book Reviews / Comptes rendus competition for the building. Furthermore, In sum, this study is warmly recom• become interested in describing and he sees Pennethorne's scheme in a new mended to urban and architectural histo• interpreting the urban form. Reflecting light and suggests that "Pennethorne rians. In particular, the careful this interest, Urban Landscapes con• should have been allowed to design the consideration of the relationships tains nine papers, with an editorial intro• Foreign Office" (p.258). between the architect/planner and the duction and a concluding prospectus, patron, and the sorts of compromise nec• most of which were presented at an Complications in dealing with govern• essary in creating the final design, bear international conference held in Bir• ment are further highlighted in chapter 4, on architectural/urban studies well out• mingham in 1990. Architecture and Politics, but in spite of side the period of this book. the often difficult relations much good The editors acknowledge a debt to the was to come from Pennethorne. Chapter MALCOLM THURLBY ideas of M.R.G. Conzen but, as they 5, Public Offices, discusses some memo• Department of Art History emphasize, contributors draw upon a rable works, not least the Public Record York University variety of intellectual traditions. Following Office. This Gothic design betrays the the introduction, Anngret Simms notes symmetry and order of Pennethorne's Conzens's distinction between the three classical leaning, while the walls of brick- Whitehand, J.W.R. and P.J. Larkham, basic elements of urban morphology: clad iron and brick-arch floors, and the Eds. 1991. Urban Landscapes. Interna• town plan, building fabric, and land use. truthful use of structural ironwork in the tional Perspectives London and New She argues that for the analysis of medi• Round Room, leave no room to doubt York: Routledge. Pp. xvii, 333. eval European towns, the town plan is in Tyack's assertion that the "Public Record Illustrations, index. $81.50 Cdn (cloth). many respects the most enduring and Office ... was one of the most forward- significant feature. Looking at medieval looking buildings of its age" (p.160). The The most striking, and the most endur• English towns, N.J. Baker and T.R. Slater Ordnance Office extension is a classic of ing, feature of any city is its built environ• take a similar point of view, and build on the palazzo manner, while Tyack regards ment. We cannot think of Paris without its Conzen by describing how they devel• the extension to Somerset House as one boulevards, of Toronto without its brick oped a "precise, verifiable and repeat- of Pennethorne's most successful facades, of Jericho without its walls.