Download or read book How We Built Britain written by David Dimbleby and published by Bloomsbury Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this meticulously researched and stunningly illustrated book, David Dimbleby tells the dramatic and heroic story of Britain's architecture - the extraordinary buildings that define a nation and which grew out of the experiences and beliefs of the British people. How did we get from the fortified tower to the grand open mansion and back again to the gated communities of today? How did we lose the marketplace to the out-of-town shopping mall? When did it become so important how libraries and prisons look? What does the way we arrange our city centres say about us? Can architecture really make a difference to our quality of life? This fascinating and authoritative account of a thousand years of change in Britain's buildings tackles these questions and many more.