The history of interior design is often overshadowed by architectural history, but this new book claims to be the first comprehensive critical account of interiors in Britain over the past century. Its ambition is clear: to disentangle interior design from the architectural narrative and to show it as a discipline shaped by social and cultural change, as well as by client tastes as they have evolved over the last hundred years.

Interior design, as the authors stress, is a modern profession which only really crystallised in the early 20th century. Before then, domestic interiors were shaped by architects, decorators and craftspeople, but there wasn’t a distinct professional identity for interior designers. Given this, and the fact that interior design can respond quickly to shifts in taste, technology and consumer culture (unlike architecture, which tends to move at a slower pace), it seems valuable to look at how the field of interior design has evolved over the last century and what insights we can glean from this.

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