Initially set up entirely by volunteers, the Society now has one full time and four part-time staff based at our London offices, as well as other people working on a freelance or voluntary basis.
Staff
Catherine Croft Director
Catherine has been Director of the C20 Society for over ten years, and is Editor of the C20 magazine. She works for C20 Society Monday-Thursday.
Catherine read Architecture at Cambridge University, and did an MA in Material Culture & Architectural History in the USA, where she held a fellowship at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware. She has lectured to post graduate building conservation students throughout the UK, and is an alumni of the Architectural Association course. Prior to C20 Society she worked for English Heritage as a buildings inspector in London and the Midlands. Author of a book on Concrete Architecture, Catherine writes on contemporary as well as historic buildings, lectures internationally and teaches a course on concrete for conservation professionals at West Dean College.
Clare Price is the C20 Society’s Head of Casework and works Monday-Wednesday. She is a Chartered Surveyor, and has an MSc in Conservation of the Historic Environment. She is studying for a PhD in Architectural History at Oxford University, researching Inter-war churches.
Clare deals with all church casework and cases in: Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Durham, Essex, Hertfordshire, Northumberland, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Tyne and Wear, Scotland and the London boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon, Kensington & Chelsea & Westminster
Get in touch
020 7250 3857
caseworker@c20society.org.uk
Coco Whittaker Caseworker
Coco works full -time alongside our Head of Casework Clare Price and deals with cases in Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Greater Manchester, Hampshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Merseyside, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Surrey, Sussex (East & West), Warwickshire, West Midlands, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, Yorkshire (North, West & South), Wales, and London boroughs except those managed by Clare Price.
She is also currently pursuing a part-time MSt in Building History at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, specialising in vernacular and 20th-century architecture and writing a thesis on early 20th-century pithead baths in Durham and Northumberland. Her BA was also at Cambridge Uni in History of Art and Architecture.
Get in touch
coco@c20society.org.uk
Kate Southey Operations Manager
Kate is responsible for the administration of the Society, deals with general queries and membership issues, and is normally in the office Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Kate’s background is in the theatrical world and she spent over 25 years running a Voice Over agency. A long-time admirer of C20 Society she has a passion for Span housing.
Get in touch
020 7250 3857
kate@c20society.org.uk
Margherita Manca Communications Officer
Margherita looks after communications and helps curate events for the Society. She works three days a week, normally including Tuesdays.
She is a design historian and freelance curator who has an MA in History of Design from the Royal College of Art/Victoria & Albert museum and is passionate about architecture and urbanism. She has written research papers about the development of public squares over time as well as the industrialisation of American factory building construction at the beginning of the 20th century.
Get in touch
020 7250 3857
margherita@c20society.org.uk
Honorary Officers and Trustees of the Society
Peter Ruback Trustee and Chairman
Peter has been Chairman since 2012. After a short period as a theoretical physicist he was a civil servant working in central government in a variety of transport policy and housing roles mainly concerned with investment, financing, regulation and planning of infrastructure. He is interested in all styles of post-1914 architecture and is passionate about protecting and reducing the threat to buildings that are easily passed over and not widely appreciated. He also chairs the Westminster Tree Trust and the Pimlico Neighbourhood Forum.
Timothy Brittain-Catlin Trustee, Vice Chair & Chair of Publications sub-committee
Timothy trained as an architect in Edinburgh and London. He has been teaching the history of architecture since 1993, at first in Jerusalem, subsequently at the Architectural Association, and now at the University of Kent. Over this period he has written continuously for architecture and design magazines, especially The World of Interiors, the Architectural Review, Architecture Today and AA Files, and in 2010 he contributed Leonard Manasseh & Partners to the Society’s monograph series Twentieth Century Architects.
Julia Lane Trustee and Honorary Secretary
Julia worked as a solicitor in commerce and industry, with a focus on contract documentation and corporate governance. Since retiring she has enjoyed furthering a life-long interest in modern architecture, particularly churches.
David Heath Trustee and Chair of Casework Committee
David read architecture at Cambridge University, and has been a registered architect since 1975. Until 2007, he was Chief Conservation Architect at English Heritage. He has had a long involvement with the AA Post-Graduate Course in The Conservation of Historic Buildings, where from 2007 until 2013 he was thesis tutor. From 2010 until 2015 he was Chair of The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB).
Jane Rosier Honorary Membership Secretary
Jane is a marketing, brand and audiences’ consultant working in the cultural sector. As Head of Marketing at the V&A for 20 years, Jane led the team who transformed the V&A brand into one of the most successful in its sector, and generated record visitor numbers. Previously Jane worked for a number of leading arts organisations including the National Theatre and the Royal Opera House. She is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and has spoken at numerous conferences on subjects including brand and organisational change, audience research, and both corporate and exhibition marketing campaigns. Jane’s interest in C20th architecture started at a young age with a school visit to Coventry Cathedral.
Cela Selley Trustee and Honorary Events Secretary
Cela was employed by the Society for 10 years as office co-ordinator, and then developed the role of C20 Volunteering Co-ordinator. She is also an elected member of the management team of a successful sports and leisure club, responsible for HR.
Carolyn Parmeter Trustee and Honorary Treasurer
Carolyn has been Honorary Treasurer since 2013. She had a previous stint as a Trustee and Honorary Membership Secretary in the early 2000s. She has a tax background and is a Senior Civil Servant working in policy at HMRC. Outside work she was a volunteer guide at the National Trust’s 2 Willow Road for over 10 years and for a shorter time at The Homewood.
Barry Arden Trustee
Barry worked as a planner in his native North West and in the South East and was Director in a large London Borough on his retirement. He has been a C20 member for many years and worked as a volunteer for the Society before becoming a Trustee four years ago, until recently acting as Regional Groups Coordinator.
Suzanne Burn Trustee
Suzanne was a town planner in the late 1960s and 70s working for central and local government. She then moved to the then very new Local Government Ombudsman investigating complaints, and did an LLB part-time in 3 years and won a prize for the best external student. She trained as a solicitor in the late 1980s, worked in firms in the City and Lincolns Inn and for the Law Society before becoming a part-time judge in 1999. She combined this with teaching and writing, and acting as a NHS non-executive director for the London Ambulance Service. Suzanne became a full-time District Judge in 2005 and still sits 2 days a week in semi-retirement. Her husband was a housing architect and they both have actives interests in modern art and architecture.
John Clarke Trustee
John is a solicitor in private practice and has specialised in the charity sector for many years, advising on charity issues including corporate and charity governance, public benefit, conflicts, employee and volunteer issues. He is a member of the Society’s data management committee dealing with the implementation of privacy and data protection law. John has a lifelong fascination with modern architecture and the protection of buildings under the vagaries of our planning laws.
Ellen Gates Trustee
Ellen worked as a solicitor, specialising in major infrastructure, transport and energy projects. Since retirement, she has pursued a lifelong, but amateur, interest in architectural history, with an increasing focus on twentieth century architecture. She also volunteers for the Society, assisting the Caseworkers.
Andrew Jackson Trustee & National Coordinator
Andrew studied at Liverpool School of Architecture and the University of Liverpool’s Department of Civic Design and is an architectural historian with a particular interest in urbanism. He has worked with a number of museums and galleries, including as ‘urbanist in residence’ in Sheffield and is a Trustee of Sheffield Design Awards. He was Chair of the C20 Yorkshire Committee from 2014 until 2019 and currently sits on the Casework Committee. His role as National Coordinator involves fostering links with individuals and organisations outside of London and overseeing the activities of the Society’s regional committees, as well as representing them at national level.
Sarah has been a registered architect since 1994. After working in architectural practice and teaching history of architecture, she joined CABE, where she was Head of Design Review. Sarah is currently a townscape and heritage consultant, working on major developments in London.
Dr Alan Powers Trustee
Alan is an architectural historian specialising in British architecture. A founder member of the Thirties Society in 1979, he has filled a number of roles since that time, as caseworker, Honorary Secretary and Chairman. He is joint editor of the Society’s journal, Twentieth Century Architecture, which he founded in 1994, and of the monograph series Twentieth Century Architects. He usually organises the spring and autumn lecture series in London and has led many events.
Otto Saumarez Smith Trustee
Otto Saumarez Smith is Assistant Professor in Architectural History at the University of Warwick. He was Shuffrey Junior Research Fellow at Lincoln College Oxford, and received a PhD from the University of Cambridge. His book Boom Cities, Architect Planners and the Politics of Radical Urban Renewal in 1960s Britain is published with Oxford University Press. He co-edited the Volume 11 of the Twentieth Century Society’s Journal on Oxford and Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and an editor of the Society of Architectural History of Great Britain’s journal Architectural History. He has published on subjects such leisure centres, inner city policy, shopping centres, as well as architectural practices including Gillespie Kidd & Coia, Chamberlin Powell & Bon, Sheppard Robson, Building Design Partnership, Howell, Killick, Partridge and Amis, and Powell and Moya.
Neal Shasore Trustee
Neal is an architectural historian currently based at the University of Oxford. His work focuses largely on architectural culture of the 1920s and 1930s. His first book, Designs on Democracy, is due out next year and he is writing a new history of the RIBA’s headquarters, 66 Portland Place. He was previously Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Liverpool School of Architcture where he worked on the history of the British civic centre in the twentieth century, and has also worked on the history of public space in London in the post-war period. He is a trustee and Honorary Secretary of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain (SAHGB). At C20 he sits on the Casework and Publications Committee. As one of few BIPOC architectural historians, he is also passionate about ED&I in the heritage and higher education sectors.
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