John Summerson

He also wrote many more specialised works, including books about Inigo Jones and Georgian London (1945) illustrated by Alison Sleigh, as well as The Architecture of the Eighteenth Century (1986), in which he describes Boullée in a distinct positive manner, stating that Boullée was clearly the point of departure for one of the boldest innovators of the century, Claude Nicolas Ledoux.

His 1945 book Georgian London was called "a masterpiece of British art history" by Simon Jenkins in a Sunday Times review of the 1988 edition.

[7] One of the founders of the National Buildings Record (NBR) in 1941, Summerson served as its deputy director yet also took to the streets taking photographs for the organisation.

[3] He was also a Commissioner of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME) for 21 years from 1953 to 1974, writing the introduction to the book celebrating the NBR's fiftieth anniversary in 1991.

[8] He sat on many other public bodies and committees, including the Royal Fine Arts Commission (1947–54) and the Historic Buildings Council (1953–78)[5] and was an early and active member of The Georgian Group that was founded in 1937.

[1] Photographs attributed to Summerson are held in the Conway Library whose archive, of primarily architectural images, is being digitised under the wider Courtauld Connects project.