The author offers his personal list of the best sights in London, including many lesser-known attractions, and provides suitable comments for each one

Nairn's London: Revisited by Peter Gasson

Travel

Nairn, Ian

Europe

Penguin??Books

Surrey's architecture is a constantly surprising mix of the rural and urban with many of its most important buildings, such as 17th century Ham House, found amongst the outgrowth of London itself. The landscape gardens of Painshill and Claremont attest to Surrey's popularity in the 18th century and the county's enthusiasm for follies and remarkable garden buildings. More recent architecture includes notable early works by Lutyens, with gardens by Gertrude Jekyll, inspired by the rich stock of late medieval farmhouses and tile-hung cottages in the county's southern villages. Among inter-war suburban housing there are some exceptional Modernist homes, such as The Homewood by Patrick Gwynne. Church architecture in Surrey includes work by all of the great names of the Gothic Revival; not least of its surprises is the luminous and spacious interior of Guildford Cathedral.

Surrey

PEVSNER, Nikolaus

Nairn, I. A.

Sports & Outdoors

Penguin Uk

Sussex turns away from nearby London, towards the sea and the massive ridge of the South Downs. Its coastal resorts are particularly distinguished, nowhere more so than at Brighton where Nash's orientalizing Pavilion sets the tone. Elsewhere castles and fortified town walls along the coast attest to Sussex's military past; Chichester cathedral and Battle Abbey to its medieval endowments. In East Sussex, 12th century churches are important survivals in villages also rich in the timber-framed houses for which Sussex is famous. On a grander scale, there are atmospheric country houses such as Petworth House and Uppark. The 20th century makes its mark in the sober and dignified Festival Theatre at Chichester, the exhilarating De la Warr Pavilion at Bexhill, and the uncompromising forms of the University of Sussex campus.

Sussex

TELEGRAPH BOOKS OF THE YEAR and OBSERVER BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2014 'This book is a record of what has moved me between Uxbridge and Dagenham. My hope is that it moves you, too.' Nairn's London is an idiosyncratic, poetic and intensely subjective meditation on a city and its buildings. Including railway stations, synagogues, abandoned gasworks, dock cranes, suburban gardens, East End markets, Hawksmoor churches, a Gothic cinema and twenty-seven different pubs, it is a portrait of the soul of a place, from a writer of genius.

Penguin Modern Classics Nairn's London

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Penguin Classic

Surrey's architecture is a constantly surprising mix of the rural and urban with many of its most important buildings, such as the seventeenth-century Ham House, found amongst the outgrowth of London itself. The landscape gardens of Painshill and Claremont attest to Surrey's popularity in the eighteenth century and the county's enthusiasm for follies and remarkable garden buildings. More recent architecture includes notable early works by Lutyens, with gardens by Gertrude Jekyll, inspired by the rich stock of late medieval farmhouses and tile-hung cottages in the county's southern villages. Among interwar suburban housing there are some exceptional Modernist homes, such as The Homewood by Patrick Gwynne. Church architecture in Surrey includes work by all of the great names of the Gothic Revival; not least of its surprises is the luminous and spacious interior of Guildford Cathedral.

Surrey (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)

Cherry, Bridget

Architecture

Yale University Press

Sussex turns away from nearby London, towards the sea and the massive ridge of the South Downs. Its coastal resorts are particularly distinguished, nowhere more so than at Brighton where Nash's orientalising Pavilion sets the tone. Elsewhere castles and fortified town walls along the coast attest to Sussex's military past; Chichester cathedral and Battle Abbey to its medieval endowments. In East Sussex, twelfth-century churches are important survivals in villages also rich in the timber-framed houses for which Sussex is famous. On a grander scale, there are atmospheric country houses such as Petworth House and Uppark. The twentieth century makes its mark in the sober and dignified Festival Theatre at Chichester, the exhilarating De la Warr Pavilion at Bexhill, and the uncompromising forms of the University of Sussex campus.

Sussex (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)

This volume covers some of the finest landscape and architecture in southern England, much of it set within the South Downs National Park. The county’s small towns and villages feature a pleasing mix of stone, timber, and brick houses of every period. Among numerous atmospheric country houses are the Tudor ruins of Cowdray, the Elizabethan mansion at Parham, and the French-inspired Petworth in its great park, famously captured in Turner’s paintings. On the grandest scale is the mighty Arundel Castle, seat of the Duke of Norfolk, while Chichester, the only city in West Sussex, boasts one of the country’s most important 12th-century cathedrals. Among many major ecclesiastical and educational establishments built in the 19th century, none is more impressive than Lancing College set high above the coast. New research accompanies 130 specially commissioned color photographs in this authoritative and expert guide.

Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)

Musson, Jeremy

Williamson, Elizabeth

Hudson, Tim

A newly expanded volume on England’s preeminent “Home County,” exploring its mix of rural and urban architecture as well as its many major historic buildings\nSurrey, originally published in 1962, was the first Buildings of England volume that Pevsner shared with another author, and Ian Nairn’s brilliant, provocative descriptions have been treasured by many ever since. For centuries Surrey has been the playground for London, and home to thousands of its commuters. Yet much of the county is still deeply wooded or surprisingly bucolic. This fully revised and enhanced edition, the first since 1971, is packed with new information on its major historic buildings – Waverley Abbey, Farnham Castle, Sutton Place and Loseley Park among others – and much-expanded accounts of its Victorian set pieces – Royal Holloway College, Holloway Sanatorium and Charterhouse School – alongside fresh appreciation of the twentieth century, including its principal monument, Guildford’s cathedral. To the fore in Surrey is domestic architecture: medieval farmhouses, seventeenth-century gentry houses in the Artisan Classical style, eighteenth-century country houses, Victorian and Edwardian businessmen’s residences, designed most famously by Norman Shaw, Lutyens and Voysey, and high-class suburban estates. Into this small county is fitted architecture of endless variety, ranging from Georgian designed landscapes to military cemeteries, from seminaries to shooting clubs, and from lime kilns to lunatic asylums.

O’Brien, Charles

This, and Without the City Wall: An Adventure in London Street Names, are the first two volumes in A Common Reader’s new London Library series for serious lovers of London.

Nairn's London

Akadine Pr

50th Anniversary of original publication; this is a unique Paris guidebook from the late, great, architecture and travel writer Ian Nairn. Illustrated with the author's black and white snaps of the city, Nairn shows his eye for detail - whether it is stonework on an archway, shadows cast by a railing, or an empty chair in a Paris park, in this book which celebrates the City of Light. Nairn's Paris captures the city on the cusp of great changes and provides a glimpse of a city that is about to disappear. Here is an idiosyncratic and unpretentious portrait of the 'collective masterpiece' that is Paris. Introduced by writer and BBC presenter Andrew Hussey, author of the popular Paris: The Secret History. 'About one third of the book is discovery, in the sense that I came upon the sites by accident or by following a topographical hunch. There must be many more, and all you need for the search is the ability to turn off the main road, switch on your antennae and respond. Good luck.' - Ian Nairn

Nairn's Paris

Reference

Notting Hill Editions

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Nairn, Ian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Nairn, Ian

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Nairn, Ian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Nairn's London: Revisited by Peter Gasson

Surrey

Sussex

Penguin Modern Classics Nairn's London

Surrey (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)

Sussex (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)

Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)

Surrey (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)

Nairn's London

Nairn's Paris