Gavin Stamp

Gavin Stamp
Born	(1948-03-15)15 March 1948
Died	30 December 2017(2017-12-30)(aged 69)
Pen name	Piloti
Occupation	Architectural historian teacher writer conservation activist commentator
Nationality	British
Education	Dulwich College
Alma mater	Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

Gavin Mark Stamp(15 March 1948 – 30 December 2017) was a British writer, television presenter andarchitectural historian.

Education

Stamp was educated atDulwich Collegein South London from 1959 to 1967 as part of the "Dulwich Experiment",then atGonville and Caius College, Cambridge,where he obtained aPhDin 1978 with a thesis entitledGeorge Gilbert Scott, junior,architect, 1839–1897.

Life and career

Stamp's career was one of largely independentjournalism,writing, lecturing and polemic on architectural topics. Under thepseudonym"Piloti", he wrote the "Nooks & Corners" architecture criticism column inPrivate Eyefrom 1978 until his death,including giving theHugh Casson Awardfor worst new building of the year.He regularly contributed essays on architecture to the fine arts and collector's magazineApollo.From 1990 he taught architectural history, latterly as Professor, at theMackintosh School of Architectureat theGlasgow School of Art.He bought and restored a terrace house thatAlexander "Greek" Thomsondesigned for a local builder in Moray Place,Glasgow.In 2003, he resigned from the school and reverted to being an independent scholar and was widely invited as a guest lecturer.

He was a long-standing trustee and for a time chairman of theTwentieth Century Society,a registered charity which promotes the appreciation of modern architecture and the conservation of Britain's architectural heritage.He was also active in theVictorian Societyin various capacities over five decades. He lent his support as lecturer, journalist and lobbyist to a wide range of architectural conservation causes on behalf of buildings in many styles, especially those he felt were "worthy but unpopular causes". As such, he was prominent in campaigns to save buildings such asBattersea Power StationandBankside Power Station(nowTate Modern) which were threatened with destruction.

Television appearances

Stamp presented a number of programmes about architecture forChannel 5.In 2005 he presentedPevsner's Cities: LiverpoolandPevsner's Cities: Newcastle,and in 2006Pevsner's Cities: Oxford;each programme profiled the cities with reference to the writings of architectural historianNikolaus Pevsner.In 2007 he presented a five-part architectural travel seriesGavin Stamp's Orient Express,in which he travelled by train along the originalOrient Expressroute, stopping off to look at architecture and to see how the history of Eastern Europe is told in its buildings.

Stamp regularly made television appearances as an expert interviewee: in 1986 he appeared inA Sense of the Past,a 6-part series for schools produced byYorkshire Televisionabout the relationship between buildings and local history; in 1990 he was interviewed forDesign Classics: The Telephone Box,a favourite subject of Stamp's and one he wrote about (he inspired thelistingof manytelephone kiosks); in 1995 he appeared as guest expert in an episode ofOne Foot in the PastaboutIsambard Kingdom Brunel;and in 2003 he was interviewed byPaul Binskifor an episode of Channel 5'sDivine Designswhich profiledAlexander "Greek" Thomson'sSt. Vincent Street Free Churchin Glasgow.

Oral history interview

National Life Storiesconducted an oral history interview (C467/48) with Stamp in 2000 for its Architects Lives' collection, now held by theBritish Library.

Personal life

Stamp was the son of Norah and Barry Stamp (the last Chairman ofCave Austin and Company). He was married to Alexandra Artley from 1982 until 2007. Their daughter Cecilia is a jewellery designer,and their other daughter, Agnes, works forCountry Life.

He married his second wife,biographerand cultural historianRosemary Hill,on 10 April 2014.

Stamp was a life-long member of theChurch of Englandand loved its traditional forms of liturgy and architecture. In his last years he worshipped at St Hilda's church,Crofton Parkin South London.

Stamp was diagnosed withprostate cancerand underwent a course ofchemotherapyin 2017.He died on 30 December 2017.

Books

• Temples of Power: Architecture of Electricity in London(1979). London: Gardners.ISBN978-0-9502154-9-5
• Britain in the Thirties(1979). London: Architectural Design.ISBN978-0-8478-5311-3
• (with Colin Amery)Victorian Buildings of London, 1837–1887: An Illustrated Guide(1980). London: Architectural Press.ISBN978-0-85139-500-5
• Amery, Colin; Richardson, Margaret; Stamp, Gavin (1981).Lutyens: The Work of the English Architect Sir Edwin Lutyens.Arts Council of Great Britain.ISBN9780728703032.
• The Great Perspectivists(1982). London: Trefoil.ISBN978-0-86294-002-7
• The Changing Metropolis: Earliest Photographs of London 1839–1879(1984). London: Viking.ISBN978-0-670-80058-2
• (with Andre Goulancourt)The English House, 1860–1914: The Flowering of English Domestic Architecture(1986). London: Faber.ISBN978-0-571-13047-4
• Telephone Boxes(1989). London: Chatto & Windus.ISBN978-0-7011-3366-5
• (with Sam McKinstry)"Greek" Thomson: Neo-Classical Architectural Theory, Buildings and Interiors(1993). Edinburgh University Press.OCLC80434139
• Personal and Professional Recollections ofGeorge Gilbert Scott(1995). Stamford: Paul Watkins.ISBN978-1-871615-26-5
• (with Phil Sayer)Alexander "Greek" Thomson(1999). London: L. King.ISBN978-1-85669-161-1
• Edwin Lutyens:Country Houses(2001). London: Aurum.ISBN978-1-85410-763-3
• An Architect of Promise:George Gilbert Scott, Jr.(2002). Donington: Shaun Tyas.ISBN978-1-900289-51-1
• (co-editor, with Andrew Hopkins)Lutyens Abroad: The Work of Sir Edwin Lutyens outside the British Isles(2002). London: The British School at Rome.ISBN9780904152371
• The Memorial to the Missing of the Somme(2006). London: Profile.ISBN978-1-86197-811-0
• Britain's Lost Cities(2007). London: Aurum.ISBN978-1-84513-264-4
• Anti-Ugly: Excursions in English Architecture and Design[collected writings first published inApollomagazine] (2013). London: Aurum.ISBN9781781311233
• Gothic in the Steam Age(2015). London: Aurum.ISBN978-1-78131-124-0
• Interwar: British Architecture 1919–39(2024). London: Profile Books.ISBN9781800817395

Articles

• (with André Goulancourt)The English House 1860–1914Catalogue to an exhibition at The Building Centre, co-publishedInternational Architectand Building Centre Trust, 1980
• Robert Weir Schultz – Architect – and his work for the Marquesses of Bute – An Essay,Mount Stuart, 1981
• (Foreword)The Architecture of the Halifax Piece Hall 1775–1779,Phillip Smithies, Halifax, 1988
• (Contributor & Introduction)Owen Williams Projects, Comentari sobre l'exposico: Craig Ellwood, Carlo Mollino, Jean Prouve, Owen Williams,Pares Department de Projectes d'Arquitectura, Catalunya, April 1995
• "Sacred Architecture in a Secular Century" inThe Twentieth Century Church,ed. Jeffery, Twentieth Century Society, London 1998
• (Preface)The Cathedrals of Englandthree volumes, The Folio Society, London, 2005
• "Ian Nairn" inThe Heroic Period of Conservation,ed. Harwood, Powers, Twentieth Century Society, London 2004
• "An architect of the Entente Cordiale: Eugene Bourdin (1870–1916)" inArchitectural Heritage XV,Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2004
• (Preface)The Cathedrals of Englandthree volumes, The Folio Society, London, 2005
• Edwin Lutyens: Profilo di un Architteto,Umberto Allemandi & Co, Torino, 2008
• "Suburban Affinities" inThe Seventies – Rediscovering a lost decade of British Architectureed. Cherry, The Twentieth Century Society, London 2012

Further reading

• Jack, Ian(7 January 2018)."Gavin Stamp obituary".The Guardian.Retrieved20 January2018.
• Powers, Alan(8 January 2018)."Obituary: Gavin Stamp, 1948–2017".Architects' Journal.Retrieved24 January2018.
• Waite, Richard; Hurst, Will (2 January 2018)."Tributes pour in for 'elegant and opinionated' Gavin Stamp".Architects' Journal.Retrieved2 January2018.

External links

• Gavin Stamp archiveat thePaul Mellon Centre