Carscapes

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The Motor Car, Architecture, and Landscape in England

Kathryn A. Morrison and John Minnis

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When the motor car first came to England in the 1890s, it was a luxury item with little practical purpose—drivers couldn't travel very far or quickly without paved roads or traffic laws. Thus began a transformation that has affected the architecture, infrastructure, and even the natural environment of the country. Carscapes relates the history of the car's impact on the physical environment of England from its early beginnings to the modern motorway network, focusing especially on its architectural influence.

The authors offer a detailed look at the litany of structures designed specifically to accommodate cars: garages, gas stations, car parks, factories, and showrooms. Presenting a comprehensive study of these buildings, along with highways, bridges, and signage, Carscapes reveals the many overlooked ways in which automobiles have shaped the modern English landscape.

Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

Kathryn A. Morrison and John Minnis are senior investigators at English Heritage.

"A serious and well-researched study of the impact of the car on the physical environment of England. Handsomely produced… Kathryn A. Morrison and John Minnis make good use of the many illustrations to show how much the car has shaped where and how we live." Alan Judd, Literary Review

"The first major study of a subject [Minnis] believes has been overlooked." —Jack Watkins, Country Life

"Kathryn A. Morrison and John Minnis’s grandly handsome Carscapes: The Motor Car, Architecture and Landscape in England does as much for the romance of motoring as several of the most handsome books of railways. Who would have thought that a book of filling stations, car showrooms, production lines, service depots and multistorey car parks could be full of architectural treats? Yet brilliant picture research has yielded a wealth of sites of the order of the Michelin building in Fulham Road and the Wolseley in Piccadilly accompanied by evocative Shell posters and Autocar cover of timbered and tiled country garages."—Marcus Binney, The Times

"Research is exemplary and analysis impressive. Covering 300 pages with 300 photos, the book is crammed, studying how cars have affected buildings and architecture over the past 115 years. An extraordinary publication."—Classic Car Weekly

"A readable and coherent account, supported by well-chosen and illuminating pictures."—Salon: The Society of Antiquaries of London Online Newsletter

"Our car, our roads [Carscapes argues] aren’t just the means by which we get to see our country: they’ve become a crucial part of the British scene… Morrison and Minnis venture beyond the idea of ‘blight’ to consider the car and its ancillary services calmly and steadily as a defining (and by no means detrimental) influence on modern life."—Michael Kerrigan, The Scotsman

"Highly readable… This is social history that is easily accessible, enjoyable to read and beautifully illustrated. It also offers a glimpse into England’s motoring future as much as its past."—Octane

"A truly encompassing history of how much the car has changed England sine the 1890s. Covering 440 pages with 300 photos and illustrations, the book’s research is exemplary and its execution impeccable. It’s the most in-depth study of the way cars have affected building design and architecture over the past 115 years."—Classic Car Weekly

"Throughout the book runs a thread of tension, between modernity and tradition. The adjustment of 20th century England to such an irresistible force was an immense test of nerve. The journey, not yet over, makes an engrossing account." — Gillian Darley, Building Design

Winner of the Peter Neaverson Award for Outstanding Scholarship awarded by the Association for Industrial Archaeology.

Shortlisted for the 2014 Art Book Prize given by the Authors’ Club and supported by The Art Newspaper. The Art Book Prize is awarded annually to the best book on art or architecture.

Winner of the Railway & Canal Historical Society's Transport Book of the Year Awards 2014.

Shortlisted for the Alice Davis Hitchcock 2014 Award sponsored by the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain.

ISBN: 9780300187045
Publication Date: February 5, 2013
Publishing Partner: Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

448 pages, 9 1/2 x 11 1/4
225 color + 75 b/w illus.

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