Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (31 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was born in Leipzig, in the Kingdom of Saxony, now Germany.

[3] In 1933, the introduction of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service by the Nazi regime compelled him, on account of his Jewish ancestry, to resign his university office and relocate to England.

Beginning with Cornwall, published in 1951, Pevsner criss-crossed the counties of England; often driven by his wife, Lola Kurlbaum,[5] or by a range of assistants, some of whom, such as John Newman went on to write or revise specific county volumes; visiting buildings during the day, and writing up his notes at night.

2 was not a grand home; running hot water was not installed until three years after the Pevsners moved in, and the house was simply furnished with a mix of Biedermeier and Danish design furniture.

[14] Pevsner permitted himself a little more elaboration in the garden, where he installed an eight-foot high statue of Clio, the muse of history, salvaged from a demolished public house on the Tottenham Court Road.

[12] After suffering a haemorrhage, two strokes and a broken thigh following a fall in 1979, he was unable to walk unaided and required permanent care.