Degrees

MA Architecture (Cantab)

DipArch (UCL)

PhD (Cantab)

Research interests

I began as an enthusiast for the work of A.W.N, Pugin and I’ve become an historian of English houses, especially nineteenth and twentieth century ones. I’m concentrating at present on Edwardian architecture and in particular on the ways in which the architects of the period remodelled older houses and incorporated into them elements that were repurposed for a new role. This is an aspect of history that has a particular value to it in the present day as we look at sustainable ways to build. I am currently a member of Historic England’s national Advisory Committee and I have been active in the Victorian and Twentieth Century societies’ casework committees for many years.

Teaching Interests

I returned to Cambridge in 2020 to develop, launch and lead the University’s flagship apprenticeship in architecture, a completely new way of training future professionals. In addition, I teach a lecture course on British architecture since 1800 and supervise undergraduate and graduate students at all levels.

Awards and prizes

Shortlisted for the William M.B. Berger Prize for British Art History for my book The Edwardians and their Houses (2021)

Publications

Selected books

Edwin Rickards (forthcoming, 2023)

The Edwardians and their Houses: The New Life of Old England, 2020

Bleak Houses: Disappointment and Failure in Architecture, 2014

Leonard Manasseh & Partners, 2010

The English Parsonage in the Early Nineteenth Century, 2008