Paul Knox: London, heritage and capital.

About this episode

Ambrose Gillick interviews Paul Knox about his book on the significance of ordinary buildings in London's architectural history.

In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, I spoke with Paul Knox, University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, about his 2025 book, Lost London: From Crystal Palace to Heston Airport, a History in 25 Missing Buildings , published by Yale University Press in April this year. Lost London’s provocative move is to insist that ordinary buildings — a pub in Poplar, a roadhouse on a bypass, a block of council flats in Hackney — deserve the same analytical attention as a Wren church or a Robert Adam terrace. As one perhaps should expect from an urban geographer, this pushes back against the exquisite art-historical approach, which treats buildings as art objects and thereby frames architectural history around consecrated geniuses and great buildings. It is a seductive approach, for sure, but perhaps troubling in a different way. If everything means something to someone, how can we knock anything down at all? Paul is not much online, the lucky fella. You can find him on Grokipedia though. The book is linked above. If you want and can, please support the A is for Architecture Podcast by listening in and sharing it, or by either subscribing on Patreon or making a gift…

People in this episode

Host: Ambrose Gillick

Guest: Paul Knox

Topics covered

• architecture
• urban geography
• heritage
• missing buildings
• cultural analysis

Keywords

• architecture
• London
• heritage
• urban geography
• missing buildings
• Paul Knox
• Yale University Press

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Virginia Tech, Yale University Press

Books & works: Lost London: From Crystal Palace to Heston Airport, a History in 25 Missing Buildings

Places: London, Poplar, Hackney, Heston Airport

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