JOHN SUMMERSON

'Sir John Newenham Summerson' CH CBE (1904-1992) was one of the leading English architectural historians of the 20th century. He wrote mainly about British architecture, especially that of the Georgian era. His ''Architecture in Britain: 1530-1830'' (1st edition 1953; many subsequent editions) remained a standard work on the subject for students and general readers after his death. ''The Classical Language of Architecture'' (1963) is an introduction to the stylistic elements of classical architecture and traces their use and variation in different eras. He also wrote many more specialised works including books about Inigo Jones and Georgian London. He was curator of Sir John Soane's Museum from 1945-1984.
The term Bristol Byzantine, which has influences from Byzantine and Moorish architecture applied mainly to industrial buildings such as warehouses and factories in the city of Bristol, is thought to have been invented by Sir John Summerson.^[1]
Summerson was noted for his somewhat elitist approach, and was not always a consistent friend of the conservation movement. He was hired by the ESB in Ireland to speak in favour of their demolition of sixteen Georgian townhouses in Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin. The doomed terrace, he said, was "simply one damned house after another".

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1. Portrait of Bristol, , Keith, Brace, Robert Hale, 1996,

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