Architecture and Urbanism in the British Empire

Edited by G. A. Bremner

Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series

First comprehensive volume on the history of British imperial and colonial architecture
Extensive coverage from seventeenth century through to the mid-twentieth century
Contributions from leading historians of architecture and urbanism
Thematic as well as regional focus

Architecture and Urbanism in the British Empire

Edited by G. A. Bremner

Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series

Description

Throughout today's postcolonial world, buildings, monuments, parks, streets, avenues, entire cities even, remain as witness to Britain's once impressive if troubled imperial past. These structures are a conspicuous and near inescapable reminder of that past, and therefore, the built heritage of Britain's former colonial empire is a fundamental part of how we negotiate our postcolonial identities, often lying at the heart of social tension and debate over how that identity is best represented.

This volume provides an overview of the architectural and urban transformations that took place across the British Empire between the seventeenth and mid-twentieth centuries. Although much research has been carried out on architecture and urban planning in Britain's empire in recent decades, no single, comprehensive reference source exists. The essays compiled here remedy this deficiency. With its extensive chronological and regional coverage by leading scholars in the field, this volume will quickly become a seminal text for those who study, teach, and research the relationship between empire and the built environment in the British context. It provides an up-to-date account of past and current historiographical approaches toward the study of British imperial and colonial architecture and urbanism, and will prove equally useful to those who study architecture and urbanism in other European imperial and transnational contexts.

The volume is divided in two main sections. The first section deals with overarching thematic issues, including building typologies, major genres and periods of activity, networks of expertise and the transmission of ideas, the intersection between planning and politics, as well as the architectural impact of empire on Britain itself. The second section builds on the first by discussing these themes in relation to specific geographical regions, teasing out the variations and continuities observable in context, both practical and theoretical.

Architecture and Urbanism in the British Empire

Edited by G. A. Bremner

Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series

Introduction
Architecture, Urbanism, and British Imperial Studies, G. A. Bremner
PART I: Themes in British Imperial and Colonial Architecture and Urbanism
1:Beginnings: Early Colonial Architecture, Daniel Maudlin
2:Urbanism and Master Planning: Configuring the Colonial City, Robert Home and Anthony D. King
3:Stones of Empire: Monuments, Memorials, and Manifest Authority, G. A. Bremner
4:The Metropolis: Imperial Buildings and Landscapes in Britain, G. A. Bremner
5:Propagating Ideas and Institutions: Religious and Educational Architecture, G. A. Bremner and Louis P. Nelson
6:Imperial Modernism, Mark Crinson
Part II Regional Continuity, Divergence, and Variation in the British World
7:British North America and the West Indies, Harold Kalman and Louis P. Nelson
8:South and Southeast Asia, Preeti Chopra
9:The Australian Colonies, Stuart King and Julie Willis
10:New Zealand and the Pacific, Ian Lochhead and Paul Walker
11:Sub-Saharan Africa, Iain Jackson and Ola Uduku
12:Egypt and Mandatory Palestine and Iraq, Samuel D. Albert

Architecture and Urbanism in the British Empire

Edited by G. A. Bremner

Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series

Author Information

Edited by G. A. Bremner, Senior Lecturer in Architectural History, University of Edinburgh

G. A. Bremner is Senior Lecturer in Architectural History at the University of Edinburgh. He researches the history and theory of Victorian architecture, specialising in British imperial and colonial architecture and urbanism. He has published widely on these subjects in a range of scholarly journals, including The Historical Journal, Architectural History, The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Modern Intellectual History, and The Journal of Historical Geography. His first book, Imperial Gothic: Religious Architecture and High Anglican Culture in the British Empire, c.1840-1870 (2013) was a ground-breaking study on the significance of ecclesiastical architecture in the formation of colonial society and culture, winning the 2013 Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion from the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain.

Contributors:

Samuel D. Albert, Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York
G. A. Bremner, University of Edinburgh
Preeti Chopra, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Mark Crinson, Birkbeck College, London
Robert Home, Anglia Ruskin University
Iain Jackson, University of Liverpool
Harold Kalman, principal of Commonwealth Historic Resource Management
Anthony D. King, Emeritus, State University of New York
Stuart King, University of Tasmania
Ian Lochhead, University of Canterbury, Christchurch
Daniel Maudlin, Plymouth University
Louis P. Nelson, University of Virginia
Ola Uduku, University of Edinburgh
Paul Walker, University of Melbourne
Julie Willis, University of Melbourne

Architecture and Urbanism in the British Empire

Edited by G. A. Bremner

Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series

Reviews and Awards

"The authors demonstrate how the British used the forces of urbanism and architecture to assert control over the empire, and the continued presence of many of these buildings today symbolises the permanence of British Influence ... launching new ventures into a huge field of study." - Graham Tite, Context

"this collection contains some stunning essays." - Tristram Hunt, Times Literary Supplement

"Bremner offers an invaluable and unprecedented survey of a new and exciting field of imperial history that should mark its coming of age. The volume's importance for many will be as an entry point to this almost endlessly rich arena of study: it surely contains the seeds of hundreds of dissertation topics. Bremner and his contributors have given us a dazzling and abundant survey. The full importance of the field they have delineated will only become clear in the years to come." - Tim Livsey, Leeds Beckett University, Journal of British Studies