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Survey of London Exhibition

29 April 2014

survey of london

The Survey of London are showcasing a selection of architectural and topographical studies documenting the history of London's built environment in a new exhibition at The Bartlett School of Architecture open until Friday 9 May.

Survey of London has been providing detailed studies of London’s streets in a series of published volumes for over 100 years. To date it has covered almost half of inner London’s built fabric while also dealing with the expansion of the city and its extensive urban redevelopment. Its volumes are of exceptional depth and breadth in their analyses of London’s buildings, and are a well-respected and authoritative reference point for planners, architects, historians and local residents.

The series is renowned not only for its scholarship and lucidly written text, but also for its illustrations – a mix of photographs (archive and modern) and specially created maps and architectural drawings – and it is these that form the basis of the current exhibition. It includes images with notes and commentary from the Survey of London's most recent studies: of Clerkenwell (vols 46 & 47, 2008), The Charterhouse (monograph 18, 2010), Woolwich (vol. 48, 2012) and Battersea (vols 49 & 50, 2013). The Battersea volumes were the subject last week of a glowing The Times Literary Supplement review by respected London historian Jerry White.

Now, as part of The Bartlett School of Architecture, the Survey of London will continue to research and produce its detailed studies of the capital and its staff will also contribute to the faculty’s teaching and research in architecture, planning and cultural heritage. Bartlett Vice-Dean of Research Murray Fraser said at the time of the Survey of London's transfer: "The addition of the Survey of London enables us to expand UCL’s expertise in the field of cultural heritage and to engage more closely with its local urban environment as a focus for research".

The Survey of London Exhibition is on show in The Lobby Gallery, Wates House, 22 Gordon Street, WC1H 0QB until Friday 9 May.

Image: St Mary’s Church spire, with the Richard Rogers Partnership’s Montevetro apartments (1990s) rising behind