Winchester Heart of a City, book by Andrew Rutter

The City of Winchester Trust are providing an electronic version of the book ‘Winchester Heart of a City’. This was launched in 2009 and a print run was generated based on a donation from a benefactor. The book sold out quickly and lack of funds prevented the reprint of the book. The book was acclaimed for its very high quality, when it was first published. It is not just "another book" for which reviews abound but a unique source of information about the very historic Conservation Area of the city of Winchester.

2017 is the 60th anniversary for the beginning of City of Winchester Trust and is the 50th anniversary of the legislation that created Conservation Areas. It is in recognising these milestones that the electronic version has been released.

The book was written by Andrew Rutter, now retired, who for many years was the Conservation Officer for Winchester City Council. The book covers all the streets within the Conservation area, providing line drawings, paintings and photographs showing the historic context and architectural details. Andrew Rutter’s provides a meticulous study of the city to which he devoted much of his working life, and he sets out both successes and failures, with his architect’s eye and his planner’s overview. Originally he produced drawings to assist the City Council in reaching decisions. Watercolour illustrations by Keith Leaman of the Trust, emphasise the often overlooked importance of the setting of a city. Winchester is unusually blessed by its intimate relationship with the surrounding countryside, which can be seen from many of its streets, and from which one can look down into the city without the interruption of careless modern development.

With the major projects under consideration within the Winchester Conservation area, including the Central Regeneration Area, Station Approach, and new Leisure Centre, anyone involved in any aspects of these developments needs to understand what is the identity of Winchester and this book provides it. The book is the original 2009 version and provides a snapshot of the city at the time.

The eBook can be purchased for £15.00. The book consists of 400 pages with over 500 photographs, drawings and paintings. It is available as a pdf for viewing on a computer or tablet. (The book uses compressed images for computer viewing to reduce its overall size).

The book can be paid for and downloaded from the link Winchester heart of a city.