One of the great joys has been spending so much time in libraries and archives around the country, where the staff and resources have been amazing, in particular Croydon Local Studies Archive, Plymouth Central Library, Harlow Museum, Southwark Local History Library, the Mitchell Library, Newcastle Central Library, Birmingham Central Library (RIP), the RIBA library and Milton Keynes Local Studies Library.
A great deal of people provided fantastic leads and were hugely supportive along the way, and I must give particular thanks to Matthew Whitfield, Evelyn Cook, Joe Evans, Alex Young, Kirsten Bruce McTighe, Richie McTighe, Richard de Pesando, Topsy Quret, Miles Glendinning, Jo Ellis, Hannah Griffiths, James Bainbridge, Silvia Novak, Kate Murray-Browne, Mary Morris, Susan Le Baigue, Euan Leitch, Stuart Prebble, Dinah Wood, Zoe Burn, Carl Rush, Neil Belton, Julian Loose, Chris Gough, Conrad Westmaas, Sid Fletcher, Will Atkinson, Steve King, Anna Pallai, Barbara Noble, Christian Manley, Eleanor Crow, Marcus Chown, James Hamilton-Paterson, Mary Cannam, Andrew Benbow, Hans Petch, Becky Fincham, Aidan Hicks, June and Michael Hicks, Patrick Gale, Lorna Rees, Frazer Ashford, Jon-Marc Creaney, Ian Martin and Robert Brown. Thanks also to my employer, Faber and Faber, who allowed me to take a three month sabbatical in which to travel and research the book.
There were people who agreed to be interviewed that, for logistical reasons, I just couldn’t get round to meeting, for which I’m very sorry, and apologies too to readers from Northern Ireland, because, for similar reasons of logistics and funds, I was unable to travel there and chose instead to focus on the island of Great Britain. There were many places around the country I wanted to write about, places that say something fascinating about this story, be they Slough, Liverpool, Irvine or Norwich, but their stories escaped me this time.
A work such as this involves a huge amount of reading, both of archive documents and books, and of more recent histories and accounts. I am indebted to the brilliant work of contemporary experts on the field, such as Miles Glendinning, Elain Harwood and John Gold, whose writing I would recommend to anyone interested in finding out more about postwar architecture. I have also found the work, events, tours and magazine of the Twentieth Century Society an amazing source of inspiration www.c20society. org.uk. You can find a more comprehensive list of further reading suggestions on my website dirtymodernscoundrel.com.
Finally, profound thanks to my family and friends for putting up with my prolonged distractedness, absence and stress: Ian and Tracey Grindrod, Paul and Fern Grindrod, and Lily and Daisy; my partner’s family, Ray and Ann Nightingale, and Jane; and finally to Adam Nightingale, who is incredible in so many ways, whose advice has been wise and his ideas inspired, and who has suffered bad jokes about Milton Keynes almost as long as I have about Croydon.
Copyright
First published in 2013
by Old Street Publishing Ltd
Trebinshun House, Brecon LD3 7PX
This ebook edition first published in 2013
All rights reserved
© John Grindrod, 2013
The right of John Grindrod to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly
ISBN 978–1–908699–40–4
Concretopia Page 45