Building Bridges: George Godwin and Architectural Journalism
'Art offers itself as a social ' bridge of no ordinary size and strength.’ The career and campaigns of George Godwin centred on his editorship of The Builder - a tireless commitment to painstaking professionalism mixed with social concern for Victorian architects as problem-solvers and reformers.
If there were any direct relationship between the quality of a nation's architecture and the number of its architectural magazines English architecture would be in a flourishing state. The coverage of architecture in national newspapers and on radio and television, though it has recently increased and improved, is still mean and unoriginal, but within the specialist press the subject is generously provided for, at least in comparison with other countries. Of four weekly architectural magazines published in Europe, three are produced in London. One of them, now called Building but known for most of its life as The Builder, can claim a pedigree going back to the origins of professional journalism in the early Victorian period. After a slightly shaky start in 1842-43 it got into its stride in 1844 and has been published weekly ever since.
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