The Royal College of Physicians in Regent's Park is considered one of the finest 20th Century buildings in London, and architect Denys Lasdun's most successful creation.This beautifully illustrated book describes the building in two parts. The first tells the story of how Lasdun approached the design and building of the College. In accepting the commission, he faced two potentially conflicting demands: to create a radical piece of modern architecture that would also serve as a setting for the centuries-old rituals of College life.The second part is a guide to key areas and rooms of the College, illustrating the remarkable details of its fine design. The book explores the extraordinary ceremonial and functional spaces within the College, alongside Lasdun's struggle and eventual triumph in incorporating these with his own distinctive vision through feats of engineering and lavish materials - the result is a gripping tale.

The Royal College of Physicians celebrates its 500th anniversary in 2018, and to observe this landmark is publishing this series of ten books. Each of the books focuses on fifty themed elements that have contributed to making the RCP what it is today, together adding up to 500 reflections on 500 years. Some of the people, ideas, objects and manuscripts featured are directly connected to the College, while others have had an influence that can still be felt in its work. Written exactly fifty years after the opening of the building in 1964, this first book in the series, Anatomy of a Building, is a meditation on the architecture of the college, focusing particularly on its current home, a Grade 1 listed building, designed by Denys Lasdun.

Volume 4 examines the way in which the Royal College of Physicians has adapted to far-reaching changes in medical knowledge, social attitudes and the organization of health. At the same time it illuminates the history of the NHS and examines controversial public issues such as smoking.

Study of the work of one of Britain's most eminent living architects

TELEGRAPH BOOKS OF THE YEAR and OBSERVER BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2014 'This book is a record of what has moved me between Uxbridge and Dagenham. My hope is that it moves you, too.' Nairn's London is an idiosyncratic, poetic and intensely subjective meditation on a city and its buildings. Including railway stations, synagogues, abandoned gasworks, dock cranes, suburban gardens, East End markets, Hawksmoor churches, a Gothic cinema and twenty-seven different pubs, it is a portrait of the soul of a place, from a writer of genius.

The Royal College of Physicians celebrates its 500th anniversary in 2018, and to observe this landmark is publishing this series of ten books. Each of the books focuses on fifty themed elements that have contributed to making the RCP what it is today, together adding up to 500 reflections on 500 years. Some of the people, ideas, objects and manuscripts featured are directly connected to the College, while others have had an influence that can still be felt in its work. This, the second book in the Reflections series, focuses on the RCP's gardens and their history; important plants and doctors and others involved the gardens' development.