Deep dive index
Biographies of individual buildings: who built them and why? How did people respond to it, use it? These long-form essays - or deep dives - are researched and sourced.
The deep dive emails explore a single building. Who built it, and why? How did people respond to it? What does the future hold for it?
Click on an image to read the deep dives.
Tinside Lido, Plymouth (John Wibberley, 1935)
In 1928, Plymouth's chief engineer John Wibberley set out to create a new, healthier city, and his masterpiece at Tinside is still visible beneath the post-war plans.
Our Lady of the Portal and St Piran, Truro (John Taylor?, 1973)
How do you balance tradition and modernity? One Cornish Brutalist church is the story of those contradictions, and how one woman spent her life balancing them.
Saltash Library, Saltash (Royston Summers, 1963)
Saltash’s miniature Brutalist gem is an exploration of what libraries mean to people, and a history of the mid-century social contract.
The Amulet, Shepton Mallet (Terry Hopegood et al, 1975)
In 1971, Shepton Mallet's town centre was dying. One man, with a vision and a fawn, stepped in to rebuild it. And in the process created one of the most unique 1970s buildings in the country.
Lys Kernow (New County Hall), Truro (FK Hicklin, 1966)
A very Cornish brutalism sits just outside Truro. I take a look at the ambitious work of a County Architect who had a vision of the future.
Burgh Island Hotel, Devon (Matthew Dawson, 1929)
The story of Burgh Island Hotel is the story of Art Deco itself. Then I started to dig, and discovered something that didn't fit.
Civic Hall, Totnes (Geoffrey Jellicoe, 1960)
Exploring the history of G A Jellicoe's Civic Hall for Totnes. Includes a fire, post-punks and pilotis.
Rennes House, Exeter (Fitzroy Robinson and Partners, 1968)
“We used to call it the Mary Mungo and Midge flats.” Taking a look at Rennes House, Exeter’s only council high rise tower block. It’s coming down in 2025, nearly sixty years after it went up.
A journey around modernist buildings in the West Country.