A Lust for Window Sills: A Lover's Guide to British Buildings from Portcullis to Pebble Dash

by HarryMount (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2008

  $3.36

  Ever wondered why the floors in our terraced houses are different heights? Or what the landscape round where you live looked like before it was built on? And did you know you can date a building by its window sills? A LUST FOR WINDOW SILLS tells us why and how. Harry Mount takes us on an engrossing tour of the nation's architecture, exploring the quirks, foibles and tiny details that make our buildings unique, and revealing the fascinating stories and anecdotes behind them along the way. We see every historic building style in Britain in one hour's walk across London, from the Norman apse of St Bartholomew's in Smithfield to the National Gallery's Sainsbury Wing, via Gothic in Holborn, Sir Christopher Wren in the City and the Knights Templar at Temple. A trip up the M4 reveals some of our greatest country houses, while a visit to Stonehenge, Avebury and Silbury Hill is a journey back to the Bronze Age. This book is a lively, entertaining and affectionate portrait of our history and the Britain we live in today.