Book of the Month December 2023: Architecture and the Face of Coal

We're delighted to announce that Architecture and the Face of Coal by Gary A. Boyd is the winner of the SAHGB's Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion 2023! 

To celebrate, we are offering 20% off this book with code MONTH20 until midnight on 31st December 2023.

The judging panel commented:
‘Architecture and the Face of Coal provides an innovative and compelling account of a vanished and ignored built environment. Based on a wealth of primary research, it is the first book to provide a wide-ranging architectural history of an activity which was central to the social and economic life of 20th century Britain. In investigating the impact of coal mining ‘above ground’ the author reframes our understanding of modernism and town planning within an alternative geography and introduces a new discourse to industrial archaeology. Boyd argues that the impressive architecture arising from coal extraction played a key but overlooked role in the development of modern design in Britain. In looking at pithead facilities, particularly baths as well as mining settlements and new towns, the book encompasses histories of health, welfare and housing, which will be of interest to social and cultural historians as well as architectural historians.’

Find out more about the book in this blogpost by the author.