Aged 23, Ian Nairn became an assistant production editor at The Architectural Review. He was angry about the condition of the built environment in Britain and the sprawl of cities eating into the confines of the countryside. This anger translated into an entire ‘incendiary’ issue of The Review, titled Outrage, published in 1955 under the editorship of Hubert de Cronin Hastings, also owner of the Architectural Press. Re-released in February 2025 by Notting Hill Editions for its 70th anniversary, it is complete with an erudite introduction by the cultural commentator Travis Elborough.

Outrage is best known for its ‘Route Map’ section, with each page representing ‘strides of 25 miles’ between Southampton and Carlisle. The aim was to ‘present a typical cross-section of the country – of the countryside’, and it was complete with Gordon Cullen’s illustrations and Nairn’s own photographs, taken with the Architectural Press’s office Leica camera. The point Nairn made was that of liminality. For Nairn, visual planning was about definition between places. But the edge of the town had become rusticated, while the countryside had become suburban. These places between places were now subtopian – Nairn’s own portmanteau – and lacked genius loci.

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