His best-known and most influential book is The Pattern of English Building (1962) (ISBN0-571-14890-5), an examination of the architectural vernacular. It orders its subject according to the building materials and methods used in England. Two of his other books are studies of ecclesiastical architecture: The Cathedrals of England and English Parish Churches as Works of Art. Along with Nikolaus Pevsner (to whose Buildings of England series he was a contributor) and John Betjeman, Clifton-Taylor is considered one of the three most significant figures in the study of English churches.[2]
Television work
Clifton Taylor gained his greatest public recognition late in life through his work for the BBC. After being introduced through Pevsner to BBC arts producer John Drummond, Clifton Taylor presented the first episode, The Medieval World, of a television programme on British architecture through the ages called The Spirit of the Age, broadcast in Autumn 1975.[3]
Clifton Taylor went on to present three extremely popular series of 30- or 40-minute BBC programmes: Six English Towns (1978), Six More English Towns (1981), and Another Six English Towns (1984), in which he visited eighteen English towns, discussing their history and architectural character in an accessible and courteous (if uncompromising) style.[4]
Personal life
He lived in Kensington, west London, for much of his life (15 Clareville Grove) and was president of the Kensington Society, an organisation devoted to preserving the borough's architecture and open spaces. The Alec Clifton Taylor Memorial Garden is located behind St Mary Abbots Church in Kensington.[5]
