Lecture: Why aren't there more beautiful places?

On 21 May 2026, novelist and non-fiction writer Francis Spufford gave the Eric Symes Abbott Memorial Lecture at Westminster Abbey. The built environment is, at least in theory, the result of human choices, and yet the cities and towns known for their beauty are celebrated precisely because they are few and far between. The world contains one Venice, one Florence, one Oxford, one Fatehpur Sikr, one Paris, one Krakow, one San Francisco. Why? What are the conditions of setting and of community and of agreement across time required to produce beauty in its wildly varied forms, and why, given all that variety, does it remain rare? About the speaker: Francis Spufford is a writer of nonfiction who has metamorphosed gradually into a novelist over the last decade. His books include Golden Hill, the recent Nonesuch, and his famously sweary work of Christian apologetics Unapologetic. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London and also a Miller Scholar of the Santa Fe Institute for Complexity Science. About the lecture: The Eric Symes Abbott Memorial Lectures are given in memory of Dean Eric Symes Abbott (1906-1983), who was at various times Dean of King's College London, Warden of Lincoln Theological College, Warden of Keble College Oxford, and Dean of Westminster. The Eric Symes Abbott Memorial Fund was endowed after his death by his friends to provide for an annual lecture on spirituality and pastoral theology. Explore past Abbott lectures on our website: https://www.westminster-abbey.org/eve...