The Stone Gallery panorama

"This book celebrates the work of an artist whose work has been overlooked in recent years and reproduces his most impressive work: a panoramic view from the Stone Gallery of St Paul's Cathedral made between 1948 and 1956. Lawrence Wright's limpid watercolours, predominantly in shades of blue and grey, show the City of London after the devastation of the Second World War, but now in sunshine with bombed sites cleared and ready to be redeveloped in the optimistic new Elizabethan era. Hubert Pragnell describes how artists and photographers during the War had portrayed destruction as it happened in far grittier views. Patricia Hardy's essay on Lawrence Wright's career discusses also the important role of W.F. Grimes, then director of the London Museum, who was determined to preserve records of London at this significant moment for its history and topography. Elain Harwood gives a detailed account of the buildings that rose on the bombed sites, many of which have disappeared in their turn as London continues to develop and change."--Front jacket flap.