Past Events

'Oxfordshire: Oxford and the South-East' Virtual Book Launch (Pevsner)

Lecture – Simon Bradley, Geoffrey Tyack, James Davies

  • 2 November 2023
  • 6:00 – 7:30 pm
  • Online

Simon Bradley, series editor of the Pevsner Architectural Guides, will discuss the latest volume in the series with Geoffrey Tyack of Kellogg College, Oxford. The book addresses half a century of change and development since the original edition of 1974 by Nikolaus Pevsner and Jennifer Sherwood, completing the revision of Oxfordshire initiated with Alan Brooks's North and West volume of 2017. Fresh accounts are provided of the many ambitious new buildings for the university and its colleges, familiar landmarks such as the Bodleian Library and the Radcliffe Camera are reinterpreted and the many renovations and extensions are described and assessed. Oxford’s commercial buildings, suburbs and houses are explored in depth, including much that is published here for the first time.

The accompanying county area extends from the outskirts of Oxford to Henley-on-Thames, following the historic Thames-side boundary of Oxfordshire and taking in the hills of the southern Chilterns. Here the volume includes enhanced accounts of major country houses such as Nuneham Courtenay and Thame Park, new assessments of church restorations, furnishings and stained glass, more inclusive coverage of post-war buildings and a fuller selection of vernacular and rural architecture across the whole of this attractive and rewarding quarter of rural England.

The evening will also include a contribution from James O. Davies, who will talk about the challenges and rewards of taking photographs of the region's best buildings for the new volume.

Yale University Press is delighted to offer attendees of the virtual launch a special discount price for the new Pevsner guide to Oxfordshire. Attendees will receive a discount code with their Eventbrite confirmation email.

Tickets: Online only.

Image caption: Wyfold Court, Rotherfield Peppard, by George Somers Clarke, 1873-6

Book cover of Oxfordshire: Oxford and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)

Oxfordshire, Oxford and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)

About the speakers

  • Head and shoulders portrait of Simon Bradley.

    Simon Bradley FSA joined the Pevsner series in 1994. His own revised volumes include London 1: The City of London, London 6: Westminster, Cambridgeshire and Oxfordshire: Oxford and the South East. He has also published on the Gothic Revival, drawing on his PhD thesis, and on railways and railway buildings including St Pancras Station (2006), The Railways: Nation, Network and People (2015) and Bradley's Railway Guide: A Journey Through Two Centuries of British Railway History, 1825–2025 (2024). 

  • Head and shoulders photo of Geoffrey Tyack

    Geoffrey Tyack is Fellow Emeritus of Kellogg College, Oxford, where he has taught urban and architectural history for many years. He is co-author of the Pevsner Architectural Guides' Berkshire volume, and has also published widely on 19th- and 20th-century architectural subjects. His recent books include The Historic Heart of Oxford University (2022).

  • James Davies has worked as an architectural photographer for thirty years. He has published widely, with books on English prisons, tin mining, post-war buildings, Stonehenge, and many Pevsner volumes, as well as in magazines including Wallpaper, World of Interiors, Country Life, and Blueprint.