Traditional British architecture was never as conservative as those who now champion it. In this examination of our architectural heritage Philip Wilkinson discovers that the buildings of the past were often dramatically modern statements of form and technology. In medieval cathedrals and the terraced houses of the industrial revolution, in the palaces of the eighteenth century right back to the early buildings of the Romans. The Shock of the Old reveals a great British history of uninhibited and innovative design. Wilkinson argues that contemporary architecture has lost its way because it romanticises periods and styles of the past. We have become nostalgic about materials like iron and brick, but of course when they were invented they were shockingly new. This is a radical reassessment of British architecture today.