Steven Brindle Awarded Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion for Architecture in Britain and Ireland, 1530–1830

On Friday, 6 December 2024, the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain jointly awarded its prestigious Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion to Steven Brindle for his book Architecture in Britain and Ireland, 1530–1830, published by the Paul Mellon Centre, and to Robyne Calvert for The Mack: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow School of Art, published by Yale University Press.

Awarding the prizes, the judges noted that Steven Brindle’s Architecture in Britain and Ireland, 1530–1830, “based on John’s Summerson’s 1953 survey, … offers an updated and revised account through a new emphasis on factors including social context, building production, technology and the importance of early nineteenth-century developments in British architectural culture. As its title suggests Brindle’s book also deploys an expanded notion of Britishness with coverage of Scottish and Irish architecture throughout the period. The judges praised its interweaving of individual case studies and themes within the broader historical sweep of the narrative which combine to produce a compelling account of early modern British architecture.”

Likewise, they applauded Robyne Calvert’s research – supported by a Paul Mellon Centre Research Continuity Fellowship (2021) and Publication Grants (2019 and 2023) – for “a remarkable new history of this most iconic of buildings through a forensic analysis of the new data gained from the many research projects undertaken after the first fire. This new evidence provides the empirical foundation of the book which includes the many insights revealed, not just through the old structure, but also in its re-making. Calvert is also concerned to uncover the emotional history of the building which introduces a welcome new strand to the biography of the site. In examining the life and death of a building the author raises important issues about the social meaning of conservation and restoration which resonate far beyond the Mack alone.”

We extend our congratulations to both authors on this achievement and are proud to have supported their important contributions to architectural scholarship.