About me

I am a multidisciplinary historian of architecture and design. Prior to entering academia, I worked in museums for fifteen years, including curatorial roles at the Royal Society of Sculptors, Kingston Museum and London Transport Museum. My work sits at the intersection of architectural and design history, curating, museum collections and public engagement. I specialise in projects that bridge museums, communities and academia, with a particular focus on ethics, representation and the histories embedded in the built environment.

What I do

I lecture in design and architectural history, contextual studies and research methods at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

I design and deliver architectural walking tours for major cultural organisations.

I lead public enagagment and community-based research projects

I research and write about architectural history, public history and museum practice

In 2024, I was awarded a doctorate for my thesis, "'Concrete Citizens': Sculptures for the London County Council’s Housing Schemes 1949-1965" (Kingston University).

I have appeared on UKTV’s ‘Secrets of the London Underground’, the Imperial War Museum’s YouTube channel, BBC Radio 4 and several podcasts. My memberships include Tate's British Art Network, I am an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and an ECR advisory board member of the Centre for the History of People, Place and Community at the Institute of Historical Research.

Museum Work

I have extensive experience in a variety of roles including curatorial, research and documentation roles. I am experienced in curatorial work, collections management, information management, museum ethics, contemporary collecting, funding proposals and collections research.

I have worked at the Royal Society of Sculptors, London Transport Museum, the Horniman Museum, the Wellcome Collection, the Royal Armouries and York Museums Trust, to name a few. I have worked across a wide range of collections including costume and textiles, firearms, decorative arts, design and social history collections.

I have worked on significant projects including:

 Contemporary collecting around COVID-19, women’s safety and suicide prevention.
 Community-focused projects with TfL’s LGBTQIA+ staff network and young people in Newham.
 'Pioneering Women at the Heart of the Royal Society of Sculptors', a major archival research project on twentieth-century women sculptors at the Royal Society of Sculptors.

My sector-wide influence includes co-editing Ethics of Contemporary Collecting (2024), leading discussions on representation and funding, and contributing to national conversations about ethical practice in museums.

Teaching and academic work

I teach across higher education at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as in professional learning settings such as museums and cultural organisations. My teaching draws on my research expertise, museum career and commitment to accessible, object-based learning.

I currently lecture at UAL and KLC School of Design, West Dean. Here, I lead the Contextual Studies course at BA and Diploma level. I have guest lectured for institutions including the Attingham Trust, Imperial College London, the University of Stirling, the Technical University of Munich and the University of Bonn.

My teaching covers:

 Architectural history and theory
 Design history and theory
 Ethnographic research methods
 Post-war planning, housing and communities
 The ethics of collecting

Previously, I developed and delivered courses on housing at the University of Manchester based on my own research and ethnographic approach. I advised students on fieldwork and included theory and sessions on ethics, communities and the history of emotions. I drew heavily on my museum work and the ethics of representation. Whilst at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, I taught existing modules for the MA in Historic Urban Environments, BSc Architecture and MA Architectural History.

My PhD, ‘‘Concrete citizens’: sculptures for the London County Council’s housing schemes, 1949 to 1965’ was informed by Frank Mort’s analysis of the “cultural visions” used in London’s planning, projecting an image of London’s future that represented both policy and an imagined urban landscape. I positioned these artworks in the context of London’s post-war planning, concentrating on the LCC's housing of communities, and how this collection of sculptures was intended to speak to those communities. I combined ethnographic and historic research to study the impact of housing and planning on post-war London communities and found that the post-war LCC used a visual language to communicate, persuade and, ultimately, socially engineer London’s communities. This research underpins my teaching and my approach to community-centred interpretation.

Tours and public programmes

I have been leading architectural walking tours for nearly a decade. I have researched, written and led tours for the V&A Museum, The Architecture Foundation, London Festival of Architecture, Open City and a range of architecture practices. I currently run tours of Canary Wharf and Woolwich for Open City. For details and booking see here: open-city.org.uk/events

I am available for bespoke tours for organisations, community groups and private clients.

Public Engagement

My public engagement experience bridges the gap between museums, academia and industry. I am highly experienced at public engagement and community collaboration across museums and academia, gained through my architectural walking tours and through working with community groups in my curating roles.

Recent public engagement events include giving a talk ‘Highbury Quadrant in context’ for the Tenants and Residents’ Association of Highbury Quadrant estate for the estate’s 70th anniversary; delivering a Life Cycles seminar, ‘The sculptural children of the London County Council’s post-war housing estates’; giving a ‘Residents on film’ talk for Manchester Modernist Society and a talk for Karakusevic Carson Architects.

Conferences & Presentations

I have organised and spoken at a number of conferences about both my academic research and museum practice. Please see below for a list of my conferences and presentations.

‘Concrete citizens’: sculptural dockers and neighbours on two post-war LCC council estates’, London Heritages conference, University of Greenwich.

June 2025

‘The figure of Elisabeth Frink’s Blind Beggar and his Dog’ ‘Disability at Home’ conference, Museum of the Home.

May 2025

‘The Browns and the Citizens: the use of the figure of the Londoner in the LCC’s wartime and post-war planning’, Sixty Years on from the London County Council’ conference. London School of Architecture.

March 2025

Invited provocation with LTM colleague Ellie Miles, ‘Emotions in Collections Management and Curatorial Work’ workshop, Science Museum.

November 2024

‘”Planning as Panacea”: the housing and sculpture of the post-war London County Council’ North American Chapter on the History of Emotion conference, ‘Emotion, Sense, Experience in British Art and Architecture’.

June 2023

‘Dockers and ‘Mum’ in East London: two sculptures on post-war LCC Housing Estates’, the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain.

January 2023

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‘Sculptural Residents on LCC Housing Estates’, Twentieth Century Society lecture series.

October 2022

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In practice session and workshop, ‘The ethics of contemporary collecting’ with Dr. Ellie Miles, Susanna Cordner and Jen Kavanagh. Museums Association conference, Liverpool.

2021

‘Collecting COVID-19’ with Dr. Ellie Miles. DARIAH (The Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities), online.

June 2021

‘”Every sculptor of any standing”, Pioneering Women at the Royal Society of Sculptors’, Art UK symposium, ‘Rediscovering our Sculpture’, online.

March 2021

Conference co-organiser, 'Pioneering Women' conference, Royal Society of Sculptors, online.

March 2021

‘“By the way, ‘he’ is ‘she’”: Eva Dorothy/Julian Phelps Allan FRBS’, ‘Radical Women’ symposium, Pallant House Gallery.

February 2020

‘Pioneering Women at the heart of the Royal Society of Sculptors’, Women’s History Network conference, LSE library.

September 2019

‘”Rats or rents”: the London County Council’s Silwood estate, Rotherhithe’, Sir John Soane Museum, London.

February 2019

'"The plan might look well on paper but it would not be London", the County of London Plan's impact on the housing of communities', County of London Plan symposium, London Metropolitan Archives.

October 2018

'"I am convinced I shall achieve something valuable if I can brighten the lives of the people here", bombsites, housing and art on the South Lambeth estate', The City (Re)shaped conference, University of Leeds.

September 2018

'Reconstruction and memorial: London County Council housing estates and artwork', Bombsite/Building site: Post Destruction Urban Cultures symposium, London South Bank University.

May 2018

'Replanning communities through architecture and art: the post-war London County Council', Architecture, Citizenship, Space conference, Oxford Brookes.

June 2017

'The London County Council's post-war housing schemes containing sculptural depictions of citizens, 1943-65', Social History Society conference, UCL.

April 2017

Projects & Events

I am highly experienced in project management and events planning and have organised a series of conferences, talk and events with academic partners, museums and members of the public. Please see below for a selected list of projects and events I have worked on.

Co-organiser of events marking the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the London County Council

In March 2025, I organised a film screening and archive showing at The London Archives with Dr Ruth Lang and Dr Dawn Pereira. Lang, Pereira and I organised the 2-day conference ‘Sixty years on from the London County Council: legacy, impact, learning’ at The London School of Architecture. Themes of the conference included scarcity, citizenship, care and housing.

March 2025

Co-organiser, ‘Imagining an Inclusive Architectural History’ roundtable, London School of Architecture

In my role as co-convenor for the Women Architectural Historians’ network for the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, I worked with the other ED&I convenors in the Society to plan the event, invite speakers and run the hybrid event.

October 2023

Co-organiser, seminar, People’s Museum, Somers Town

In my role as co-convenor for the Women Architectural Historians’ network for the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, I worked with the People’s Museum, Somers Town on a seminar commemorating the housing pioneer Irene Barclay and housing in St. Pancras on the Ossulston estate.

October 2023

Research Session Convenor, Henry Moore Institute (HMI)

I proposed the research season, ‘Researching Women in Sculpture’ season at the HMI, based on my research as Research Curator at the Royal Society of Sculptors. Collaborating with HMI research colleagues and the Hepworth Wakefield, Kingston Museum, Dorich House Museum, Kingston University and Midlands4Cities, I co-organised the below six events:

July 2020 to September 2022

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Conference co-organiser, ‘Differencing the Canon: Methods of Researching and Archiving Women’s Sculptural Practices’, Hepworth Wakefield.

September 2022

Co-organiser and chair of ‘Bodies’ session, Midlands 4 Cities Dialogue Day, ‘(Re)gendering sculpture: a research and practice-led workshop interrogating the ways in which gender and sculpture intersect’, University of Birmingham.

July 2022

Workshop facilitator/organiser, ‘Breaking the Mould: Sculpture by Women since 1945’, Henry Moore Institute.

May 2022

Workshop facilitator/organiser, ‘Family Collections and Scattered Archives’, Henry Moore Institute.

May 2022

Workshop facilitator/organiser, ‘Women’s Studio Museums’, Dorich House Museum.

May 2022

Workshop facilitator/organiser, ‘Art School Archives’, Town House, Kingston University.

May 2022

Organiser, ‘Women at Work’ Wikipedia editathon

Using funding I obtained from the Art Fund for establishing a subject specialist network, I organised a ‘Women at Work’ Wikipedia editathon. Held online, I hired freelancers to give talks and deliver the training and fed back to the Royal Society of Sculptors.

2020

Writing

I am a highly experienced writer and have written for academic journals, magazines and museum interpretation. I have a research expertise in twentieth century art and architecture, particularly housing estates and public sculpture in post-war London, gained through my PhD research and teaching. More broadly, I have published on the post-war development of London including Docklands and the use of emotions in post-war planning literature.