# Paul Knox: London, heritage and capital. Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/a-is-for-architecture-podcast-4885985/paul-knox-london-heritage-and-capital Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/a-is-for-architecture-podcast-4885985/paul-knox-london-heritage-and-capital.md Podcast: [A is for Architecture Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/a-is-for-architecture-podcast-4885985) Published: 2026-06-11T20:59:39+00:00 Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ambrose-gillick/episodes/Paul-Knox-London--heritage-and-capital-e3km0nr Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/6123d53c/podcast/play/121356475/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-5-11%2Fb54dfee0-6241-14e1-bba5-b92d0fe6e4d0.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/a-is-for-architecture-podcast-4885985/episodes/paul-knox-london-heritage-and-capital Duration seconds: 3930 ## Resource In this episode of the A is for Architecture Podcast, I spoke with Paul Knox, University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, about his 2025 book, Lost London: From Crystal Palace to Heston Airport, a History in 25 Missing Buildings , published by Yale University Press in April this year. Lost London’s provocative move is to insist that ordinary buildings — a pub in Poplar, a roadhouse on a bypass, a block of council flats in Hackney — deserve the same analytical attention as a Wren church or a Robert Adam terrace. As one perhaps should expect from an urban geographer, this pushes back against the exquisite art-historical approach, which treats buildings as art objects and thereby frames architectural history around consecrated geniuses and great buildings. It is a seductive approach, for sure, but perhaps troubling in a different way. If everything means something to someone, how can we knock anything down at all? Paul is not much online, the lucky fella. You can find him on Grokipedia though. The book is linked above. If you want and can, please support the A is for Architecture Podcast by listening in and sharing it, or by either subscribing on Patreon or making a gift via Buy Me a Coffee. + Music credits: Bruno Gillick Image credit: London Metropolitan Archives – Colombia Road Market. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/a-is-for-architecture-podcast-4885985/episodes/paul-knox-london-heritage-and-capital/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/a-is-for-architecture-podcast-4885985/paul-knox-london-heritage-and-capital.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.