52 C O N T E X T 1 0 6 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 8 Cheltenham’s Lost Heritage (2004) with another compact volume that gives us a useful tool with which to work on this mainly 18th and 19th century heritage. As he moves from the three squares (Grosvenor, Berkeley and Hanover) to the thoroughfares of Park Lane, Piccadilly and Regent Street by way of the lesser streets, he chronicles growth, re-development and re-re-development over the key 200-year period. With much demolition at the end of the 1930s followed by second world war damage, and then by a further spate of knocking down in the 50s and 60s, as well as aggressively bland replacement structures that failed to contain the high quality of handicraft of their predecessors, it is not surprising that Lost Mansions is something of an elegy. But, in a literary tradition of elegies dating back to Virgil, Bradbury’s book is a fascinating read. It joyfully recalls such vanished pleasures as the icecreams at Gunter’s Tea Shop, Berkeley Square. There, waiters ‘scurried to and fro with trays of ices’ between the shop and the parked horse-carriages from the foundation of the business in 1757 to its end in 1937. This gem comes from Ralph Nevill’s Romantic London, 1928 (it was Nevill who called Mayfair ‘a sort of family living apart from the rest’) and from Adburgham’s Silver Fork Society of 1983. Such wide-ranging research as this is typical of Bradbury.We can use his book both as a jumping-off point into rare sources like these and to remind us of the scale of demolition that happened just before the turning of the tide (which he chronicles) with the Civic Amenities Act of 1967. Graham Tite is a historic buildings advisor for Chichester District Council. Cathedral Communications has just released the 2008 edition of The Building Conservation Directory and, as arranged by IHBC’s membership secretary Jo Evans, each IHBC member who has asked to receive relevant promotional mailings will receive a copy of the directory shortly by post. Members who have asked not to receive promotional material but who would like to receive future Cathedral Communications publications on the historic built environment, including the annual Historic Churches, should e-mail Devon DeCelles at membershipservices@ihbc.org.uk to change the status of their mailing preference on the IHBC membership database. The Building Conservation Directory 2008 steel, which I have not seen bettered elsewhere. In the same volume, Brian Ridout writes seven pages on ‘Understanding decay in building timbers’. Similarly, in Structures and Construction, Ian Hume writes that ‘it is not at all easy to decide to do nothing to the structure, but very easy to advise demolition’. He contributes a whole chapter debunking the idea that road traffic vibration has a seriously detrimental effect on historic buildings. All very worthwhile stuff. On the other hand, there is some very dense reading to be had in the chapter on ‘Basic soil mechanics, foundations and the repair of settlement damage’. And despite the preface, not all of the chapters are complete with a bibliography or other endnotes. But is this not what a multi-authored book is always going to be like? Potential readers will have to sample these volumes for themselves to see if they find them illuminating or baffling. I will be surprised and delighted if, at a future funeral, I learn that any reader has chosen to keep either or both on their bedside table. David Heath, a historic buildings consultant, was formerly chief conservation architect with English Heritage. A family apart The Lost Mansions of Mayfair Oliver Bradbury, Historical Publications, 2008, 255 pp, 231 b&w illustrations, ISBN 978 1 905286 23 2, £24.95 In London today, Mayfair seems more than ever to be a haven of peace and quiet. Now there is little through traffic at its centre, few sirens sound and most things appear to go well. Mayfair is much less commercial than Soho, and more sequestered than the nearby quarters of Belgravia, Marylebone and Bayswater as it is rather distant from the railway termini. There is enough of its past to be interesting, but the area has not by any means preserved all that was built here during its 200 vital years of development between 1700 and 1900. Oliver Bradbury addresses this character and history with gusto. He has produced, with the help of his admirable publishers, a classic of London architectural history. As a local resident, he knows Mayfair and Marylebone well. He follows his
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