Architects and Architecture of London

London's Architectural Geography is a pocket-sized guide to the current and historical patterns that make London such a fascinating urban and architectural experience. It introduces the reader to the capital's most significant urban features, its best buildings and the architects who have made London such a vibrant architectural scene. It highlights old and new as a lively and vibrant pattern of continuing creative activity rooted in established urban patterns. It explains why London is the way it is. It helps orient the visitor and enthusiast to link the historical and contemporary into a single pattern of significant places, spaces and buildings. It names the most famous and creative architects and describes notable buildings that can be visited and experienced.

Architects and Architecture of London is a visual, highly illustrated guide to London’s greatest historic buildings and the lives of the architects who designed them.

Read about the architectural forefathers of London, such as Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher Wren, Nicholas Hawksmoor, Robert Adam and John Nash, Butterfield and Street, Blomfield and Lutyens. Learn about those who, in the twentieth century, have helped to form the London we now know, right up to familiar names such as Rogers and Foster. And then there are the others who, in amongst the great and remembered architects, stand as the forgotten majority: talented architects such as Arthur Davis, who designed the Ritz hotel. In the constantly changing patterns of London’s architecture, why do some buildings stand as testament to their architect(s), while others obscure their names from history?

The book is organised by architect, to provide an easy point of reference for today’s designers and students and all those interested in the architectural history of London. Architects and Architecture of London illuminates the city’s two thousand year architectural history, through the lives and works of historic architects who remain salient and significant in London’s contemporary architectural geography.

What the press said about Ken Allinson's London's Contemporary Architecture: An Explorer's Guide:

'Highly recommended . . . the book is crammed with maps and colour pictures with clear explanations about the design of the buildings.'
Evening Standard

'The perfect accompaniment to a walk around the capital.'
Homes and Gardens

He is the co-founder of Architectural Dialogue, a research consultancy that organizes architectural study visits, is the author of two books on the architectural profession and design management, three editions of a guide to London's Contemporary Architecture and is responsible for the Meetings with Buildings web site