Chancellor’s Fellow’s book ‘A Contemporary Archaeology of London’s Mega Events’ judged best book about London archaeology published in the last two years. The School was delighted to hear that Dr Jonathan Gardner - Chancellor's Fellow - has won the London Archaeological Book Prize for his book 'A Contemporary Archaeology of London's Mega Events' (2022, UCL Press).Jonathan received £250 prize money and a certificate in a Council for British Archaeology ceremony held on 18 November at the UCL Institute of Archaeology. Dr Jonathan Gardner standing near one of the entrances to the Crystal Palace during a snowy field trip. The original Crystal Palace was dismantled after the 1851 Great Exhibition in Hyde Park and moved to Sydenham (south London), before reopening in greatly enlarged form in 1854. This building burned down in 1936, leaving only a few remnants behind; both iterations of the Crystal Palace feature prominently in Dr Gardner’s prize-winning book. The judges commented that Jonathan’s monograph was, "[a]n exceptional piece of well-written, new, and original research unparalleled for quality and excellence," and "…meticulous (but) unpretentious – an excellent balance, well-written, complex but very accessible. A great achievement."'A Contemporary Archaeology of London's Mega Events' explores the archaeological traces and heritage of London’s most significant modern ‘mega events’ including the Great Exhibition (1851), the Festival of Britain (1951) and the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Though only open for a few weeks or months, mega events permanently and disruptively reshape their host cities and societies. Jonathan's book offers significant new directions for the study of mega events in its comparison of how three mega events changed London over three centuries. Drawing on a varied selection of theoretical and methodological frameworks and a rich array of sources, it demonstrates the great potential of contemporary archaeology for re-examining recent processes of urban transformation.The School sends its warmest congratulations to Jonathan.Dr Gardner's book is available now, open access, via UCL Press. A Contemporary Archaeology of London's Mega Events You can find out more about the London Archaeological Book Prize at the link below. The London Archaeological Book Prize Publication date 28 Nov, 2024
