In the introduction to his book The Idea of the Architect (1983), Andrew Saint wrote: “We are at present in the midst of a widespread transformation of ‘architectural history’, with its emphasis on aesthetics, design and authorship, into ‘building history’, which has broader social and economic preoccupations.” Continuing this shift was his life’s work, and Saint, who has died of lymphoma aged 78, also inspired and influenced several generations of writers on buildings and their social contexts.
His first book was Richard Norman Shaw (1976), a brilliant monograph on a late Victorian architect – effectively a doctoral thesis, begun while he was a lecturer at Essex University. The years 1850 to 1914 remained his focus and he had a lifelong involvement with the Victorian Society. He completed the book after joining the Greater London council (GLC) in 1974 to work on the long-running Survey of London project. Originated in 1894, the survey researches London buildings by district, and has so far published 55 volumes.
