Osbert Lancaster

Osbert Lancaster

Sir Osbert Lancaster, CBE was an English cartoonist, author, art critic and stage designer, best known to the public at large for his cartoons published in the Daily Express.-Biography:Lancaster was born in London, England...

's Drayneflete Revealed (1949, published in the US as There'll Always be a Drayneflete 1950), is an illustrated book on architectural style.

It takes the form of a parody

Parody

A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...

 of an antiquarian study of an imaginary English town's development. This moves from its muddy Saxon origins — the Fleet River is the ancient river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

 that runs in sewers

Sanitary sewer

A sanitary sewer is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to treatment or disposal. Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas also carry industrial wastewater...

 under the City of London

City of London

The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

— and is profusely illustrated at each turn with Lancaster's caricature architectural views, always showing the same corner of Drayneflete, as it appears through history. Lancaster follows the changing fortunes of the architectural development from village to small city, and wittily captures the foibles and fashions of the inhabitants, all rendered in flawlessly deadpan camp

Camp (style)

Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...

.

Lancaster's Drayneflete may have taken its initial hints from a public lecture delivered in 1947 by Sir John Summerson

John Summerson

Sir John Newenham Summerson CH CBE was one of the leading British architectural historians of the 20th century....

 outlining the issues in historic preservation

Historic preservation

Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...

 that underlie Lancaster's comedy. Summerson described tongue-in cheek the typical English village's "laminations of architecture which would take a whole library of Mumfords

Lewis Mumford

Lewis Mumford was an American historian, philosopher of technology, and influential literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a writer...

 to describe in detail:"

"The 'matrix' is medieval and a few Tudor gables jut out in the High Street

High Street

High Street, or the High Street, is a metonym for the generic name of the primary business street of towns or cities, especially in the United Kingdom. It is usually a focal point for shops and retailers in city centres, and is most often used in reference to retailing...

; the one where Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

 is conclusively proved not to have slept is an antique shop; another is the Nell Gwynne Cakery. These are the much-photographed 'old bits' The remainder of the High Street is 70 per cent Georgian

Georgian architecture

Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...

—I should, perhaps, say 35 per cent, because the shopfronts have eaten up half the façades and sash windows peer over the enormous flashing fascias of the chain stores..."

Drayneflete is a fairly high-toned joke, that any reader with some experience of English architecture and the English county way-of-life and the style of English antiquarian notes about parish church

Parish church

A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

es and curious village harvest traditions and the like will recognize. The sensibility resurfaced in Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...

's famous 1964 Partisan Review

Partisan Review

Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003, though it suspended publication between October 1936 and December 1937.-Overview:...

essay

Essay

An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...

 and was broadened for general public consumption.

Drayneflete rated an entry in Robert Cowan's Dictionary of Urbanism. 2005 ISBN 0-9544330-0-9

The esthetic of this haphazard jumble of a collage

Collage

A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....

 as an art in its own right, though seen in American contexts, was first set out by Robert Venturi

Robert Venturi

Robert Charles Venturi, Jr. is an American architect, founding principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, and one of the major figures in the architecture of the twentieth century...

 and Robert A. M. Stern

Robert A. M. Stern

Robert Arthur Morton Stern, usually credited as Robert A. M. Stern, is an American architect and Dean of the Yale University School of Architecture....

 in the 1970s and has provided part of the context of post-Modernism.