Simon Vickery

Simon’s doctoral research examines literary representations of London’s architectural spaces in the twentieth century, looking at three distinct historical moments: the inter-war period that has for many come to define architectural modernism; the catastrophic years of Second World War bombing; and the post-war years, in which Britain had to rebuild itself architecturally, politically, socially and psychologically. Across these decades the city was subjected to a cycle of destruction and reconstruction that led to architecture being unusually implicated in the lives of Londoners. Texts of this period, both fictional and critical, reflect and engage with this dynamic. Architectural space is imbued with great power and agency. In reading fiction alongside and as a part of contemporaneous architectural discourses, Simon’s thesis will endeavour to recognise the centrality of architecture to the experience, and writing, of London at these particular moments in history.

Simon is co-convenor, with Jo Robinson, of City-Centric, a multidiscplinary urban studies reading group based within the department.