The Modern British City 1945-2000

Simon Gunn, Peter Mandler, Otto Saumarez Smith

$208

Hardback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

QTY:

English

Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd
28 November 2025

History of architecture; British & Irish history; Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000; Social & cultural history

Bringing together architectural, urban and social historians, this book charts the extraordinary changes that took place in British cities between the end of the Second World War and the early 21st century. This ambitious volume captures something of the diversity of the modern British city through a multi-disciplinary approach, exploring gentrification and multiculturalism, shopping and night life, as well as demography and statistics.

For much of the first two-thirds of the 20th century, ‘modern’ in the British urban context meant the purging of the Victorian past. Even so, much of the terraced housing and the monumental architecture of city centres still dated from the 19th century. Disdained by architectural critics in the first half of the 20th century, structures like Covent Garden’s Market Building, Manchester’s Royal Exchange and Liverpool’s Albert Dock would become pivots of the conservation and restoration movement which accompanied Britain’s ‘urban renaissance’ from the 1970s onwards.

As this book shows, after 1950 a series of long-term historical processes combined to transform the British city. Mass automobility brought with it motorways, underpasses and flyovers. Deindustrialisation left a profound mark on large areas of urban Britain, with enduring consequences for the communities affected. Immigration not only brought more diverse people and voices to British cities than ever before, but with them, a fresh variety of stores, restaurants, places of worship and venues for entertainment. Likewise, urban planning and the fruits of consumerism left their mark in the ubiquitous presence of civic centres, shopping malls and cultural quarters. The book shows how these processes did not operate separately, but in complex inter-relationship with one another, often producing unintended outcomes.

The result was cities where the past and the present were juxtaposed, adding to rather than diminishing their sense of place. This book will enrich our understanding of why British cities are as they are today, in all their messiness and mutability.

Edited by: Simon Gunn, Peter Mandler, Otto Saumarez Smith
Imprint: Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 250mm, Width: 190mm, Spine: 33mm
ISBN: 9781848227293
ISBN 10: 1848227299
Pages: 496
Publication Date: 28 November 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Simon Gunn is Emeritus Professor of Urban History at the University of Leicester. Peter Mandler is Professor of Modern Cultural History at the University of Cambridge and Bailey Lecturer in History at Gonville and Caius College. Otto Saumarez Smith is Associate Professor of Architectural History at the University of Warwick.

Reviews for The Modern British City 1945-2000

In a series of beautifully presented essays, The Modern British City 1945-2000 shows how changes to the urban environment crucially affect our lived experience and our emotional lives. Filled with trenchant argument and fascinating detail, it will be a standard text for years to come. - Joe Moran, Professor of English and Cultural History, Liverpool John Moores University