tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post4949683659875851909..comments2024-03-27T06:20:06.991+00:00Comments on fantastic journal: the london ian nairn knewCharles Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08749776401395551607noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-79061742098547496002011-02-20T22:44:32.381+00:002011-02-20T22:44:32.381+00:00Gillian, thanks for your comment and the link. I a...Gillian, thanks for your comment and the link. I admit to not having read much of Nairn so my comments were based only on his London guide. Which I loved, but which surprised me in a lot of its choices.<br /><br />On the subject of subtopia I probably instinctively side with him which makes me nervous! This 'problem' with suburbia that it removes difference needs more serious and open-minded investigation than it gets I feel.Charles Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08749776401395551607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-70225559616877369642011-02-19T14:46:13.598+00:002011-02-19T14:46:13.598+00:00I agree with Owen Hatherley, scratch around and yo...I agree with Owen Hatherley, scratch around and you'll find Nairn airing some surprisingly positive responses to some surprising buildings and places - even in his journalism. Cumbernauld, the Strathclyde Hotel in Corby and, more mainstream, the Cummins factory, Darlington, all spring to mind. With David McKie I've a Nairn book project afoot, and so have begun immersion in his wider writings (it's true, he's for writers not architects) which could well be titled On a Good Day (but won't be...) Anyway here's a link, http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog (17 Feb.)....early days.<br />Gillian DarleyGillian Darleynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-52128239446356962852011-01-21T19:32:51.837+00:002011-01-21T19:32:51.837+00:00Excellent discussion. Charles, try to get hold of ...Excellent discussion. Charles, try to get hold of RIBA's journal of june 1966. It contains an article by Malcom MacEwen called MacEwen's guide to Nairn. Also in RIBA's journal (july 1966) there's Nairn's anwer to this article and other letters. It's hugely entertaining of course but I think it also clarifies some of your issues regarding the selection of buildings contained in Nairn's London. I've read everything (literally) that Nairn has written and I'm still confused regarding the suburbia issue. It's not that simple. Subtopia and suburbia are not the same as many think.<br />LorenzaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-44426569101776728202010-12-18T17:44:41.627+00:002010-12-18T17:44:41.627+00:00Quick off the draw!
Reading it back I think my po...Quick off the draw!<br /><br />Reading it back I think my post was more critical sounding than I meant it to be. Or at least there's not much in the way of outright praise in it. I should say therefore that I think Nairn's a) a brilliant writer and that b) I've still only read one of his books. But I think I was trying to add to the conversation initiated on the twitter and to Dan's excellent post over at COS, and avoid simply repeating how good he was. Because some of the descriptions in London are breathtaking - the one about Soane's house particularly springs to mind. <br /><br />As for the specific points, I have to plead a certain amount of ignorance although I agree that he's definitely no fogey in the Ingrams/Brooker mould. And I definitely want to and will read the other books. As for suburbia, well I think the way that line of thinking degenerated into the complacent snobbery of the '80's and '90's is hardly Nairn's fault.Charles Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08749776401395551607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-83328290560584937992010-12-18T15:37:00.304+00:002010-12-18T15:37:00.304+00:00Nice; but as one of the interpellated Nairn fans I...Nice; but as one of the interpellated Nairn fans I'm going to be a bit pernickety. <br /><br />Firstly, re: suburbia, he's actually very keen on certain bits of it, if you delve into the more obscure bits of Nairn's London there's praise for Wembley and all sorts of similarly metroland places - but what he does stay pretty scathing about is the new towns, rightly or wrongly. <br /><br />But cf your video clip, it's interesting to compare <em>Nairn's London</em> with Geoffrey Fletcher's <em>The London Nobody Knows</em> book (as opposed to the film), cos the latter really, really has no interest in modernism whatsoever, and feels much more of a piece with a certain post-60s fogeyism - it's all much more Private Eye and Christopher Booker. But conversely, you get the sense that Nairn wants to like modernism but finds it all too bloody tasteful, and what he <em>does</em> like, much more than Ham Common, is Brutalism at its most tasteless, like Owen Luder - he devotes high praise in <em>London</em> to Eros House, and was similarly rapturous elsewhere over the Tricorn and Gateshead. If you can get hold of them - and I strongly recommend you do! - it's worth comparing <em>London</em> with <em>Britain's Changing Towns</em> and <em>Modern Buildings In London</em>, which both came out a couple of years earlier (published, respectively and in proper hauntological fashion, by the BBC and London Transport). He's especially keen on Park Hill and Castle Market in Sheffield, and strangely, the Bullring in Birmingham; and throughout all of these books he's very big on power stations. I think modernism-as-purism is what bored and infuriated Nairn, and although he has some scorn-for-recent-past problem with the 30s, it's a position I obviously have a certain sympathy with - and similarly, think that's actually the reason why he's venerated more by writers than architects - cos he's fundamentally not talking to them. (anyway, I'm in hock to Nairn to an embarrassing extent, hence my slight defensiveness)owen hatherleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943115307136493045noreply@blogger.com