Life in the English Country House

“It was a very, very new idea in the 1970s to paint the much-loved English country house as social and architectural histories.” Read more...

The best books on Architectural History

Dan Cruickshank, Architects & Architectural Historian

Written in the 1970s, this book delves into the social and architectural history of the English Country House – who built them, how they were lived in, how the servants operated.  The focus is the 18th century, arguably the heyday of the country house.    The 1920s may have been a more insecure time, but the social structures that existed in the country house – masters and servants – was largely unchanged.

Downton Abbey Books