Re-appraising the Neo-Georgian 1880-1970

An International Conference organised by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, English Heritage, The Open University and the Twentieth Century Society.

Convened by Dr Julian Holder, English Heritage & Dr Elizabeth McKellar, Open University.

The aim of this conference, as the first on the subject to be held in Britain, was to investigate how, where, when and why the neo-Georgian has been represented over the course of the last century and to assess its impact as a broader cultural phenomenon. Different ideologies have been attached to the neo-Georgian at different times and places, particularly notions of home, nation, gender and class. Papers explored the construction, reception and historiography of ‘the Georgian’ throughout the twentieth century in relation to a range of building types, urban planning and interiors. The Georgian became one of the most readily identified and popular historical styles in Britain and America with significant neo-classical revivals in both countries in the early twentieth century. In the 1930s the Georgian became an admired historical style across Europe due to its strong formal similarities with modernism. By the 1960s with the tide turning against modernism and in favour of conservation Georgian towns increasingly became the centres for battles between these two approaches. Thus the Georgian town house as well as the Georgian country house became identified as symbols of certain national and historical values. Re-interpretations and adaptations of the Georgian have been a constant theme over the past century and constitute a powerful and enduring strand in Anglophile culture across the globe. Papers will consider interpretations of the neo-Georgian in places as diverse as Central Europe, Finland and New Zealand as well as Britain and America.

Programme

Day 1: Friday 6 May 2011

Venue: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 16 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3JA

Welcome: Brian Allen, Director of the Paul Mellon Centre Introduction to Conference: Julian Holder & Elizabeth McKellar

Session 1: Establishing the Neo-Georgian: 1880-1939 (Chair: Andrew Saint, English Heritage)

Georgian Revival or Survival? The early years of Neo-Georgian and the Classical re-awakening of the late nineteenth century, 1860-1902
Oliver Bradbury, Independent Scholar

Edwin Luytens (1869-1944): Wrenaissance to Neo-Georgian Margaret Richardson, Independent Scholar Mannerism and Neo-Georgian Design
Alan Powers, University of Greenwich

Passion and Scholarship: A. E. Richardson (1880-1964) and the Neo-Georgian
John Wilton-Ely, University of Hull

Session 2: Developing a New Tradition: Typologies 1900-1950 (Chair: Julian Holder, English Heritage)

Banker’s Georgian: Style and Profit (1914-1939)
Neil Burton, The Architectural History Practice

Quality Street: the sad story of Horace Field (1861-1948)
Timothy Brittain-Catlin, University of Kent

‘Between the Scylla of period reproduction and the Charybdis of modernism’: decorating the walls in Neo-Georgian interiors, c.1910-1945
ClareTaylor, Open University

The civic and university architecture of Emmanuel Vincent Harris, architect, 1876-1971 Nick Holmes, University of Sheffield

Georgian: the other style in British twentieth-century university architecture
William Whyte, Oxford University

Day 2: Saturday 7 May 2011

Venue: The Gallery, 70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ

Introduction: Julian Holder & Elizabeth McKellar

Session 3: Global Neo-Georgian: Negotiating International Contexts: 1900-1950 (Chair: Tim Benton, Open University)

‘Phony Coloney’: the Reception of the Georgian and the Construction of Twentieth-century America
Stephen Hague, Oxford University

Beaux-Arts Urbanism and the Neo-Georgian in New York City
Paul Ranogajec, City University of New York, USA

The Neo-Georgian in New Zealand, 1918-1940
Ian Lochhead, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Um 1800: a continental perspective on the Neo-Georgian
Gerry Adler, University of Kent

Between personal activity and collective creation: Alvar Aalto and the Federal architecture of New England
Harry Charrington, University of Bath

Session 4: Mediating the Neo-Georgian: 1920-1970 (Chair: Elizabeth McKellar, Open University)

‘A live universal language’: The Georgian as Motif in inter-War British Architectural Modernism
Elizabeth Darling, Oxford Brookes University

Victorian Disguised: Picturesque ‘Visual Planning’ and the Post-War Reconstruction of London
Julia Scalzo, Ryerson University, Canada

Nikolaus Pevsner, the Georgian and the neo-Georgian
Susie West, Open University

Discussions from session 3 and 4

Brief discussions featuring speakers and chairs.