It really irks me when a Pevsner guide strays into the subjective. It spends forever being precious about the minutiae of wave mouldings and capitals, or recording every mundane and minor Victorian church, then drops something in like "all bad".
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You two are pros, I'm just an amateur, so I quite like a bit of guidance. Ian Nairn, who is ridiculously opinionated, always very binary, is my real favourite.
They're often *very* interesting (and not actually 'bad' - even it's only on the basis of keeping water on the outside which an awful lot of 'good' buildings by 'respected' architects suffer from).
I like to get enthusiastic about conventionally "bad" buildings, but there really are so many that are genuinely bad. Unfortunately most of that category appear to come from the last decade. Was there ever a moment in time where so much architecture was thought of as bad before even being built?
I love Nairn, too. And the subjective? Well, it’s art history, so part of the game. But pro or not, I’m not a buildings person, and when something in an original Pevsner is ‘bad’ there’s every chance it’s not there now, or that views have changed. But ‘bad’ doesn’t tell you what you’re looking for.
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Also, I want a set just for the west country but I simply don't have £300+ to drop on them.