Families Lived in These
The Story of the English House. By Hugh
Braun, F.S.A., (Batsford, 10s. 6d.).
Reviewed by JOAN MORRIS
THE English House, the "Home," is
a very typical feature of our nation and demonstrates visually our love for individuality and democracy, for nowhere else has the small man had the luxury of a little dwelling all to himself as in England. It is also intensely Christian for it allows the family its fullest expression.
Alas! the row of houses all alike in towns, also demonstrates how far we have lost our ideals threugh the industrial systern. It is as well to reflect on our heritage from the past, 50 that we can conserve those things that are worthy, and improve on those things that are lacking THE Story of the English House, by Hugh
Braun, is an account of house-building in England from the Dark Ages upwards. The development of the forms of construction are explained and the effect of social and political factors on architecture are emphasized. There are a great number of fine reproductions taken from photographs of our manor houses, farm houses, country residences and town dwellings of different periods from all over the country.
Modern architecture is despised by the author and so the new form of reinforced concrete house receives little attention. This greatly ksaens the value of the book as an historical account. The subject is an inspiring one, but it has not been made as interesting as it might have been.
I_r is a strange thing that house architecture is not taken as a subject in schools, as every student will one day be confronted with the running of a house or a part of a one. House architecture would also have a suitable place among the courses of domestic science, for it is the " home." More women architects should come to the fore, as they would best understand along which lines improvements could be made.