The Herne Hill Society

Menu

Skip to content
  • News
  • About the Society
    • How to join or renew
    • Excellence Awards
    • Events
    • Committee
    • Minutes
    • Constitution
  • About Herne Hill
    • Short history
    • History Hear
    • First World War
  • Publications
    • Books in print
    • Herne Hill magazine
    • e-Books
  • Blog
  • Donate
  • Contact us

Sunset over Herne Hill

John Ruskin and South London
by Jon Newman and Laurence Marsh

John Ruskin is one of the most closely analysed English writers of the 19th century. Yet this is the first book to look in detail at the importance of South London in shaping his thinking. For all his foreign travels, public lecturing, academic posts at Oxford and work for London’s museums, Herne Hill was the place where Ruskin lived well into old age.

There Ruskin witnessed, with increasing horror, the destruction of the natural environment through railway building and uncontrolled suburban growth. The Crystal Palace, glittering on his skyline, came to exemplify philistine capitalism, while his despair at the builders who traduced his vision for a “moral” Gothic architecture into a form of stick-on ornament is precisely located in South London.

Press release 1 November 2021

Published by The Herne Hill Society in association with Backwater Books
£14.50 | 160 pages | colour illustrated | ISBN 978-0-9540323-4
£17.00 by mail order from us, including £2.50 P&P (UK only)

Trade terms available

Overseas P&P on application – go to Contact us

Order now through PayPal with a credit or debit card. You do not need to create a PayPal account.

“This illuminating and touching book restores John Ruskin to South London” – Andrew Saint, Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London

See all available books in print

Widgets

Recent Posts

  • Brockwell Park Conservation Area
  • Dorchester Court
  • Cleaner, Greener, Safer
  • New Future for Old Dairy
  • Dealing with Local Problems
| The Herne Hill Society is a Registered Charity 1094346 |
  • News
  • About the Society
    ▼
    • How to join or renew
    • Excellence Awards
    • Events
    • Committee
    • Minutes
    • Constitution
  • About Herne Hill
    ▼
    • Short history
    • History Hear
    • First World War
  • Publications
    ▼
    • Books in print
    • Herne Hill magazine
    • e-Books
  • Blog
  • Donate
  • Contact us