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Outrage

By Ian Nairn

Reissued for the first time since 1955 and introduced by Travis Elborough.

In 1955, Britain’s most prestigious architectural magazine, The Architectural Review, published a special issue featuring a single essay by Ian Nairn, a famously opinionated (and untrained) architectural critic. Based on observations made on a journey he took across the UK in a Morris Minor, Outrage is a searing critique of urban sprawl, or ‘Subtopia’. In this manifesto, Nairn warns that ‘if what is called development is allowed to multiply at the present rate’, Britain’s natural – and urban – landscapes will lose their individuality and spirit.

A call-to-arms against the ‘greying out’ of our towns and countryside before it’s too late, Outrage is widely considered to be his masterpiece.

Contains over fifty of Nairn’s original black-and-white photographs.

London, 2025, 19 x 12 cm, 192pp. illustrated, Hardback.

£16.99