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.
