50 CONTEXT 185 : SEPTEMBER 2025 Notes from the chair Inspiring From time to time I reflect on what brought me to a career in conservation. The roofing theme of this issue of Context made me think of a very early influence. As a child, part of our family summer holidays would often be spent in Palmers Green, north London, with relatives. My cousin Michael, older than me, who was training to be an architect, had pinned to his bedroom wall a sketch of the view of the roofscape from his room. As you might expect in that part of Edwardian London, it consisted of pitched and Welsh-slated roofs, broken up by party walls, chimney stacks and pots, and television aerials. The image of a rather chaotic urban roofscape has stayed with me. What would appear in the same viewpoint today? No doubt there would be fewer chimney pots, natural slate replaced by artificial slate or concrete tiles, more TV aerials and satellite dishes. But the main change would have to be a large number of rear loft conversions and dormer windows in a variety of designs. That early inspiration has remained with me, as has a continuing interest in roofscapes and skylines. Back in those early days, I had no idea that some 30 years later, I would play a role in managing the roofs and skyline in another part of London. As conservation and design team leader at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) I inherited a wellestablished system of control of roof alterations. With the majority of the borough covered by conservation area designation, the preparation of conservation area proposal statements always included a streetby-street assessment of rooflines. The properties were categorised into those where roof additions (usually mansard roofs to an agreed design) would be acceptable; those where roof additions would be unacceptable; and those to be treated on their merits. This approach, combined with a well-established local-plan policy on roof alterations, proved to be a robust method which was generally successful on appeal. Now a well-oiled but rather slow machine has been overtaken by a more rapid production of conservation area appraisals. One of the key historical sources for conservation area appraisals and for assessing the significance of buildings and areas in RBKC are the relevant volumes of the Survey of London. These substantial volumes have been produced from 1894 onwards, initially authored by CR Ashbee, and continue to this day. As an historical and architectural record of urban areas, the survey is unsurpassed. Each volume is meticulously researched and well illustrated with drawings and historic photographs. That brings me to a very sad event at the time of writing: the death of Andrew Saint, who was an eminent architectural historian and edited the Survey of London for many years. He was the principal author of the 2020 volume on Oxford Street. Between two periods at the Survey of London, Andrew was professor of architectural history at Cambridge from 1995 to 2006. He was also a tireless campaigner for the historic environment. His first love was Victorian architecture, and his early study of Richard Norman Shaw was published in 1976. It was through his work for the Victorian Society over many years that he provided inspiration to me and many others. I was privileged to get to know Andrew as a fellow member of the Victorian Society’s southern buildings committee. He also organised publications, led guided walks and lectured. His style in writing and lecturing was always to closely relate the architectural topic to the social, economic and artistic environment of the time. I fondly remember a Victorian Society lecture on New York’s Brooklyn Bridge in which he was able to weave in a reference to the poet Walt Whitman. Andrew’s last book, London 1870–1914: a city at its zenith (Lund Humphries 2021), perfectly captures his combination of academic excellence and wit. Apart from his generally cheerful and courteous manner, Andrew was always willing to give his time to help colleagues. He helped me with some architectural research and was an enthusiastic peer reviewer of the RIBA Guide to Conservation that I co-authored. The conservation world has lost an ambassador and the source of inspiration to many. David McDonald, chair@ihbc.org.uk Andrew Saint (Drawing: Rob Cowan)
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