Bibliography - Nicholas Antram
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Pevsner Architectural Guides: Brighton and Hove, by Nicholas Antram and Richard Morrice, published 3 November 2008 (256 pp., Yale University Press, ISBN-10: 0300126611 & ISBN-13: 9780300126617) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

This book is the first comprehensive guide to the historic heart of Brighton and Hove, the greatest of England's seaside resorts. A series of walks trace its development from late medieval fishing settlement to the "Queen of the Watering Places," with a lively and critical commentary on its unique architectural character. Few cities can boast such an exotic diversity of buildings, from the outlandish Pavilion, playground of the Prince Regent, to genteel squares and terraces, Victorian architecture both serious and whimsical and landmarks of twentieth century modernism.

This marvellous paperback expands, but also preserves, Pevsner's pioneering guide to inner Brighton and Hove, part of his Sussex volume published in 1965. The authors chart the city's evolving social and economic life, and the architects and developers who responded to it. They examine major monuments - the Pavilion, the Dome, St. Michael's, St Bartholomew's, All Saints, The Pier, Brighton Railway Station and the Jubilee Library. Twelve walks traverse the city roughly to its Edwardian boundaries, from the seafront out to Montpelier, Preston Village, London and Lewes Roads and Queen's Park. Interspersed are discrete paragraphs on Building Materials, Bows and Bays, the West Pier, Orientalism (Chinese and Indian), Sea Bathing, Anglican Ritualism, Magnus Volk etc. All is accurate and acute, succinct and accessible.

Pevsner Architectural Guides - Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove, by Nicholas Antram, published 14 May 2013 (revised edition, xix + 751 pp. & 64 pages of plates, Yale University Press, ISBN-10: 0300184735 & ISBN-13: 9780300184730) accessible at: R.I.B.A. Library & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

The East Sussex volume of The Buildings of England covers an area ranging from the High Weald in the north of the county to the massive ridge of the South Downs and the resort towns and ancient ports of the coast. Its coastal resorts are particularly distinguished, none more so than Brighton and Hove, where John Nash's oriental Pavilion for the Prince Regent sets the tone. Elsewhere castles at Camber, Bodiam and fortified town walls at Rye and Winchelsea attest to its military past and Battle Abbey to its medieval endowments. The towns and villages are especially rich in timber-framed, brick and tile houses for which the county is famous. The twentieth century makes its mark in the exhilarating De La Warr Pavilion at Bexhill, and the uncompromising forms of the 1960s University of Sussex campus.

In 1951 Sir Nikolaus Pevsner (1902-1983) embarked on his landmark Buildings England series. Ever selfeffacing and modest, how pleased he would have been to foresee that in less than three decades his project would be an epic 47-volume collection of unique county guides, going into revised Second Editions.
Having settled in England in 1934, Pevsner was soon writing and publishing serious architectural studies. His dismay on finding that there was no English equivalent to Georg Dehio's portable Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmaler of c1900 drove him to found its equal in England.
On a slender budget with newly-fledged graduates as researchers, he worked tirelessly on a grinding schedule to produce two or even three volumes a year. The first edition of Sussex was published in 1965 and covered East and West Sussex, the authors being Pevsner and Ian Nairn. The present Revised Edition revealed challenges which the author, the late Nicholas Antram, has addressed and has used to produce a superb volume. Wisely, the large county of Sussex is split into two parts, of which this is the first. The successful Brighton and Hove Architectural Guide of 2008 by Antram and Richard Morrice, which used Pevsner's text as their foundation, has been incorporated into this volume. Thereby full attention is given to the magnificent places of worship in Brighton and Hove.
In his foreword Antram explains that Sussex boundary changes, new research and a wave of investigations called for overhaul and expansion of Pevsner's text, without the loss of his substance and character. Charles O'Brien's preface to his Introduction depicts an attractive Sussex with majestic Downs, historic Wealden landscapes, growing coastal towns and a rural spirit intact in many places. Valuable new sections are Geology and Building Stones by Bernard Worssam, Prehistoric, Roman and Pagan Saxon Sussex by David Rudling and background chapters which include an extensive Medieval East Sussex. In the foreword Antram also records his 'biggest debt of gratitude to David and Barbara Martin' for their expertise on East Sussex domestic buildings.The Gazeteer is the core of the book. When dipping at random into sites it is clear that the author has left no stone unturned in his task to collate the best knowledge on any building. Huge amounts of fresh information and new subjects have been incorporated at all levels and in all fields, including church furnishings and modern buildings. The addition to the text of over 60 black and white illustrations of plans, old prints of buildings and maps is attractively laid out and a great asset, as is a re-ordered Glossary with the drawings set together in the middle. Many new colour illustrations vividly display the wide range of Sussex building stones that Dr Bernard Worssam describes.
Sussex: East is a many-faceted guide book. It will be invaluable for the serious scholar, equally right for the armchair traveller or for the explorer arriving in Sussex for the first time. Pevsner's enduring genius lies at its centre; as a true inheritor of Pevsner, Nick Antram, together with his team, has continued the genius.