Philip Davies, an architectural historian, spent seven years trawling through the photographs, compiling the best 1,500 into a 558-page book titled Lost England. He said: “Many of the buildings are beautiful, but if this book does anything, it challenges the Downton Abbey myth of a Victorian golden age. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Birmingham Small Arms Company in 1917. Photograph: Lost England/Rex/Shutterstock“I was also struck at how contemporary so many of the issues were: immigration, housing, poverty, urban sprawl, employment conditions. The photographs in the book are drawn from Historic England’s archive of more than 9m images.

Source: The Guardian November 27, 2016 18:10 UTC