Back in 1997, New Labour came to power amid much talk of regenerating the inner cities left to rot under successive Conservative governments. Over the next decade, British cities became the laboratories of the new enterprise economy: glowing monuments to finance, property speculation, and the service industry-until the crash. In A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain, Owen Hatherley sets out to explore the wreckage-the buildings that epitomized an age of greed and aspiration. From Greenwich to Glasgow, Milton Keynes to Manchester, Hatherley maps the derelict Britain of the 2010s: from riverside apartment complexes, art galleries and amorphous interactive centers,A" to shopping malls, call centers and factories turned into expensive lofts. In doing so, he provides a mordant commentary on the urban environment in which we live, work and consume. Scathing, forensic, bleakly humorous, A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain is a coruscating autopsy of a get-rich-quick, aspirational politics, a brilliant, architectural 'state we're in.'
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In this angry, fiercely funny book, Owen Hatherley steps forward as the Pevsner of the PFI generation, an erudite, urbane guide to the Ballardian wreckage of millennial Britain. Essential reading for anyone who ever feels their blood start to boil when they hear the word 'regeneration'. --Hari Kunzru, author of My Revolutions
An exhilarating book. Owen Hatherley brings to bear a quizzing eye, venomous wit, supple prose, refusal to curry favour, rejection of received ideas, exhaustive knowledge and all-round bolshiness. This book is as much a marker for an era as English Journey and Outrage were. --Jonathan Meades
An exhilarating book. Owen Hatherley brings to bear a quizzing eye, venomous wit, supple prose, refusal to curry favour, rejection of received ideas, exhaustive knowledge and all-round bolshiness. This book is as much a marker for an era as English Journey and Outrage were. --Jonathan Meades
About the Author
Owen Hatherley is the author of the acclaimed Militant Modernism, a defense of the modernist movement. He writes on architecture, urbanism and popular culture for Building Design, Frieze, the Guardian and New Statesman. He blogs on political aesthetics at nastybrutalistandshort. blogspot.com. He lives in London.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
71 of 72 people found the following review helpful
By WALSHY
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Review - "A guide to the new ruins of Great Britain" - Owen Hatherley.
It is a simple statement that the buildings around us are expressive of the period in which they were built, and reflect of the values and politics of that period.
That is as true of the smallest country cottage as it is of a Georgian terrace, or for a Victorian textile mill as it is of a grey logistics shed sited off an M6 slip road.
British political and economic history and the values of the powerful permeate our architecture - for good or ill. And history passes verdict, sometimes alarmingly quickly, on what is built.
Those verdicts too, are political. Hatherley is a unrepentant modernist. And his modernism is of the classic period of that genre. He is also a Socialist in the original sense of the term.
His target in this architectural round tour of British cities is a precise one - it is the built form which he describes as being part of the 'urban renaissance', in his words the streetscene of the government funded development of our cities under New Labour.
He describes accurately the ubiquitous lottery built centres, entertainment and cultural venues and shopping, hotel and eating complexes built round disused waterfronts, the 'gated' apartment flats, Academy schools, privatized council estates, areas of cities redesignated as 'quarters' and all topped off with generous lashings of public artworks.... Read more ›
It is a simple statement that the buildings around us are expressive of the period in which they were built, and reflect of the values and politics of that period.
That is as true of the smallest country cottage as it is of a Georgian terrace, or for a Victorian textile mill as it is of a grey logistics shed sited off an M6 slip road.
British political and economic history and the values of the powerful permeate our architecture - for good or ill. And history passes verdict, sometimes alarmingly quickly, on what is built.
Those verdicts too, are political. Hatherley is a unrepentant modernist. And his modernism is of the classic period of that genre. He is also a Socialist in the original sense of the term.
His target in this architectural round tour of British cities is a precise one - it is the built form which he describes as being part of the 'urban renaissance', in his words the streetscene of the government funded development of our cities under New Labour.
He describes accurately the ubiquitous lottery built centres, entertainment and cultural venues and shopping, hotel and eating complexes built round disused waterfronts, the 'gated' apartment flats, Academy schools, privatized council estates, areas of cities redesignated as 'quarters' and all topped off with generous lashings of public artworks.... Read more ›
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
By A. Wells
Format:Hardcover
A bit of a curate's egg this one. Hatherley is an entertaining writer but when I reach the end of a chapter, Im left with the impression that Ive read the thesis of an over-enthusiastic student, too eager to impress. This guy frequently uses five words when two would do; drops in the sort of references to other work which are a necessary part of an academia but not this; scatters -isms like confetti and generally seems to be aiming for an A grade in big words. HOWEVER, I confess to finding the book often difficult to put down well past my bed-time. Also, I have got to the end feeling rather disappointed that its all over. So much so that Ive ordered Militant Modernism here on Amazon.
Mind you, having ordered Militant Modernism, I am still grappling with the differences betweeen Hatherley's continual references to Modernism, Post-modernism, neo-modernism, post-punk modernism and pseudo-modernism.
I recommend it because, actually behind all the verbage, not only is he often right but he's persuasive. I like being persuaded.
Mind you, having ordered Militant Modernism, I am still grappling with the differences betweeen Hatherley's continual references to Modernism, Post-modernism, neo-modernism, post-punk modernism and pseudo-modernism.
I recommend it because, actually behind all the verbage, not only is he often right but he's persuasive. I like being persuaded.
25 of 28 people found the following review helpful
By Stephen
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
Anyone buying this book should be aware of what they will get. The author is an unreconstructed sentimental socialist who seems to think we should all live in council high-rise flats and manufacture things, preferably out of iron. He spends a lot of space (perhaps too much) on Southampton, where he grew up, and Greenwich, where he lives. He thinks that buildings constructed of beton brut are not necessarily a blight on the landscape. He is (I think) very well informed about pop music. He requires you to know your Brutalism from your Constructivism. He quite likes Milton Keynes. His most insulting epithets are 'Thatcherite' and (even worse) 'Blairite'.
All this means that I would not have expected to like this book. But I did. I enjoy informed vituperation, and there's plenty of that. The author has a winning turn of phrase. He sees through the pretensions of (very) modern architects in a most refreshing way. As someone else has said, it's not clear what he actually favours, but he makes a devastating case against the buildings he homes in on. He is not hostile to good buildings from the past, such as Grainger and Dobson's Newcastle city centre, and the good bits of Liverpool.
I would actually have given the book five stars had it not been for the illustrations. I am afraid the photographs are unimpressive. A good book on architecture needs effective visuals, and the pictures here are small, muddy and printed on text paper, itself not very good. It's quite hard to tell what some of them represent. The book would have been even more effective if you had been able to see better pictures of what the author is criticising.
All this means that I would not have expected to like this book. But I did. I enjoy informed vituperation, and there's plenty of that. The author has a winning turn of phrase. He sees through the pretensions of (very) modern architects in a most refreshing way. As someone else has said, it's not clear what he actually favours, but he makes a devastating case against the buildings he homes in on. He is not hostile to good buildings from the past, such as Grainger and Dobson's Newcastle city centre, and the good bits of Liverpool.
I would actually have given the book five stars had it not been for the illustrations. I am afraid the photographs are unimpressive. A good book on architecture needs effective visuals, and the pictures here are small, muddy and printed on text paper, itself not very good. It's quite hard to tell what some of them represent. The book would have been even more effective if you had been able to see better pictures of what the author is criticising.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Gingerdad
Format:Paperback
This is an excellent, highly readable and entertaining book. As others have noted, the photos are poorly reproduced and reinforce the impression that the author doesn't want to give these cities and buildings a chance. It's easy to take bad photos of buildings and edge of town environments and even easier to reproduce them badly. This is a lazy way of supporting the central thesis - that almost everything built in our cities in the past 15 years is cr*p. The same criticisms were made of Militant Modernism and Hatherley should be asking his publisher to sort this out for any future publications.
Although constantly entertained I can't help feel that in his obsessive conviction that Thatcher changed everything, Hatherley is missing underlying continuities in our approach to our urban environment. He often seems to think that the redevlopments of the 60s and 70s were entirely the product of 'socialism', when in reality dodgy developers and cynical politicans were already working together in wrecking historic city centres and forcing through top-down 'urban regeneration'. The huge slum-clearance and social housing projects pushed through by Harold Macmillan's government (a Tory - shock, horror) was lobbied for vociferously (and profited from) by the big private developers.
The car-dominated, nowhere places that define post-Thatcherite Britain were already well in evidence during the 60s and 70s. Modernist planning paved the way for developers to ignore pedestrians and build huge, faceless slabs in acres of undefined space. Huge, hideous, hermetically sealed, privately owned shopping centres, obliterating indegenous streets and economies were not invented in 1979. They already had a strong presence in pre-Thatcher Britain.... Read more ›
Although constantly entertained I can't help feel that in his obsessive conviction that Thatcher changed everything, Hatherley is missing underlying continuities in our approach to our urban environment. He often seems to think that the redevlopments of the 60s and 70s were entirely the product of 'socialism', when in reality dodgy developers and cynical politicans were already working together in wrecking historic city centres and forcing through top-down 'urban regeneration'. The huge slum-clearance and social housing projects pushed through by Harold Macmillan's government (a Tory - shock, horror) was lobbied for vociferously (and profited from) by the big private developers.
The car-dominated, nowhere places that define post-Thatcherite Britain were already well in evidence during the 60s and 70s. Modernist planning paved the way for developers to ignore pedestrians and build huge, faceless slabs in acres of undefined space. Huge, hideous, hermetically sealed, privately owned shopping centres, obliterating indegenous streets and economies were not invented in 1979. They already had a strong presence in pre-Thatcher Britain.... Read more ›
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining and thought provoking.
Apart from being printed on bog paper,which renders the deliberately artless photos even more soulless, this passionate attack on mediocre architecture is well worth the... Read more
Published 2 months ago by P. HEATH
1.0 out of 5 stars
Awful, truly awful
This is a truly awful book. I have to confess I have not read much of it. I tried. I felt I ought to read at least the intro and a chapter. I managed the intro and a few pages. Read more
Published 20 months ago by JL Holt
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hatherley, The New Ruins of Great Britain
With wonderful hard-hitting prose Owen Hatherley provides a succintly argued and devastating critique of post-war planning and development in the UK. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Mr. Keith P. Povey
5.0 out of 5 stars
a guide to the new ruins of great britain by Owen Hatherley
One of the most interesting books i have ever read. If your city is not in there its probably on his blog. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Keith Robertson
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wanders off topic, but enjoyably so - a first-class read
This was an amazingly enjoyable book, which I whizzed through far more quickly than I expected. The writing style is very quirky and wryly humorous. Read more
Published on 9 Jan 2011 by Gołębnik
4.0 out of 5 stars
A building too far?
This is a book that looks at modern British architecture, mainly in the last decade, but with a nod to the last 100 years. Read more
Published on 25 Nov 2010 by Michael Jones
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great passionate polemic - but lay off Manchester!
With a title like this I expected strong opinions from architect Owen Hatherley about the so called regeneration of our cities - and he does not disappoint. Read more
Published on 6 Nov 2010 by J. Coulton
3.0 out of 5 stars
Spoilt by its photographs
Lively text which reads compellingly, albeit rather wordy in the first introductory chapter. It is illustrated comprehensively but the quality of the photographs is appalling. Read more
Published on 22 Oct 2010 by enthusiast
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