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.

Get in touch

• 020 7250 3857
• director@c20society.org.uk

• Twitter

Clare Price Head of Casework

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

Grace Etherington Senior Caseworker

Grace is Senior Caseworker for the C20 Society and works full-time. She has an MA in architectural history from the Bartlett UCL and has been a long-term casework volunteer for the Society.

Grace 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 (listed above).

Get in touch

• 020 7250 3857
• caseworker@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

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

Andrew is a freelance architectural historian and curator with a particular interest in urbanism, having studied at both Liverpool School of Architecture and the University of Liverpool’s Department of Civic Design. He is a Trustee of Bradford Civic Society, Sheffield Civic Trust and a founding Trustee of Sheffield Design Awards. He sits on the Casework Committee and has been published in the Society’s magazine, as well as leading an annual weekend away in July. He has been Chair of the Society’s Yorkshire Group and now oversees the Regional Chairs Committee.

Sarah Jackson Trustee

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 a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow based at the School of Architecture in Liverpool to carry out a project on the history of British local government architecture in the 20th century entitled Civic Centre: Architecture, Civic Design and the Municipal Project in Britain, 1919 – 1979. He has an MA, Mst and D Phil from Oxford University (his DPhil thesis was on “architecture and the public in interwar Britain”). He is a Trustee and Publicity Officer of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain (SAHGB) where he has been involved in increasing visibility of the Society’s programmes and events, managing social media accounts and producing a monthly member update. He was previously Practice Projects Co-ordinator at RIBA with responsibilities including developing content and communication of events, toolkits/guidance and expert advisory groups and developing marketing and publicity for the RIBA Conservation Register.