Month: December 2024

Our program features a series of guest lectures, offering students the chance to learn from leading experts in Architectural Heritage and Conservation. The most recent lecture in our ‘Conservation Principles’ module was delivered by Prof. Elizabeth McKellar, President of the Society of Architectural Historians. Prof. McKellar spoke on ‘John Summerson and the Growth of Heritage ‘Officialdom’ from the 1940s: the National Building Record, post-war listing, and the Historic Building Council’. The students were excited to hear Prof. McKellar’s insights, and an engaging discussion followed.

Elizabeth McKellar is Professor Emerita in Architectural History at the Open University having previously held posts at Birkbeck College, London and the Victoria and Albert Museum, where she was Head of Higher Education.  She specialises in British architecture and culture and urbanism, particularly that of London.  She is the author of many books and articles including: The Birth of Modern London: the development and design of the city 1660-1720 (MUP, 1999); Articulating British Classicism: New Approaches in Eighteenth-Century Architecture (Ashgate, 2004); Neo-Georgian Architecture 1880-1970: a reappraisal (Historic England, 2016); and Landscapes of London: the City, the Country and the Suburbs 1660-1840 (YUP, 2013).  She held a Leverhulme Research Fellowship in 2011-12 to research the latter book which was the winner of the Society of Architectural Historians (US) Elisabeth Blair Macdougall Award 2017.  She has previously been a member of the Editorial Board of The London Journal, The London Record Society and a member of Historic England’s London Advisory Committee.  She is currently the President of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain and is writing a cultural biography of Sir John Summerson, for which she was awarded a Paul Mellon Senior Fellowship in 2018-19 and a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellowship for 2021-23.

This new blog series highlights the inspiring achievements of the graduates of our MSc in Architectural Conservation at Kent. In today’s post, we feature Nicci Obholzer, a 2017 graduate, who is now the Senior Collections and House Officer at the National Trust, working at the iconic Sissinghurst Castle Garden. Nicci shares her exciting journey from studying in Canterbury to her current role with the National Trust:

“I was a little nervous when I joined the Architectural Conservation MSc course at Kent.  I was not an architect, surveyor, or structural engineer; instead, my first degree was in Politics, Philosophy and History and I went on to work in the House of Lords and the Freud Museum.  Taking a long career-break to raise children, I wanted to take a course that was more vocational and focussed, but nonetheless reflected my interest in history.

The breadth of the course was fantastic: from architectural history (my favourite), to the conservation/ restoration debates, to the more technical, scientific elements to make sure your building does not fall down!  This latter element I found the most difficult, not being an especially mathsy person, but I got by!  My final dissertation was on the history of restoration and renewal at the Palace of Westminster.

Once I had graduated with a Merit in the MSc (damn that gravity essay on a Gothic load bearing arch!), I began to look around for jobs.  I got an interview as an inspector of churches for the Church of England.  I was very nervous – it was my first interview in 17 years! – and I wasn’t offered the job.  I began to volunteer at Smallhythe Place, a National Trust property on the Kent / Sussex borders.  Soon a job came up there, and my fascination with building phases of this extraordinary 15^th/ 16^th century building, together with my knowledge and understanding of the collection there of Victorian actress, Ellen Terry, because of my volunteering, meant I got the job.  I haven’t looked back.

I now work at Sissinghurst Castle Garden, where I’m responsible for the upkeep of the buildings as well as caring, interpreting and curating the collection of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson. I would not have this wonderful job had I not got my Architectural Conservation masters, so I will ever be thankful to Nikolaos Karydis and Manolo Guerci for accepting me onto the course and for propelling me towards my new career.”