New Publication : Streetscapes: Navigating Historic English Towns

‘Salisbury is included in this new publication, ‘Streetscapes: Navigating Historic English Towns’ by Ptolemy Dean.

Town streetscapes under the microscope: this pertinent, provocative
and insightful new book comes as we enter a period of extreme flux
for the UK’s built environment.

At a time of increased pressure for new urban development, where there is a focus
on either object-based architecture or the rolling out of developer-designed
suburban sprawl, there is a concern that the lessons learned about the creation of a
general attractive ‘townscape’ or ‘streetscape’ have become forgotten or obscured.
Featuring 26 of the most attractive and interesting historic town centres, illustrated
by Ptolemy Dean’s beautiful sketches, this book analyses key routes and the urban
or visual incidents along them and explains why they might provoke different
sensations of joy, interest or containment for the inhabitant or passer-by.
Each of the town studies includes two historical maps – one created by John Speed
in the C16th, which explains the general overall layout of a town, its shape, size,
defensive walls, and river crossings, and the other a first edition OS map from the
late C19th, which reveals the extent that medieval arrangements have survived, or
not.
Key routes within selected towns are then selected and illustrated as a way of
explaining the topography and layout of these towns and how one still experiences
them. In particular, there is the recurring theme about how the town might naturally
draw you through to its centre, the subtlety of character and placing of key buildings
as markers, each of which is uniquely different for each town. The drawings which
illustrated the town studies are not only beautiful, but can be discriminate in aspects
emphasised.
While, individually, the case studies are insightful and full of fascinating history and
detail, as the book moves through these towns, themes, patterns and natural
groupings of towns emerge. Thus, as a whole, the volume allows comparisons and
explores similarities and contrasts which enrich the book’s findings and lessons.

The book can be found on the Lund Humphries website here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ptolemy Hugo Dean OBE is a British architect, television presenter and the 19th
Surveyor of the Fabric of Westminster Abbey. He will be known to some as a historic
buildings adviser on the BBC 2 ‘Restoration’ series. Previous books include Sir John
Soane and London and Sir John Soane and the Country Estate (both with Lund
Humphries).