Roderick O'Donnell is an architectural historian currently working as a freelance writer, lecturer and adviser. O'Donnell is an expert on the works of the English architect, Augustus Pugin (1812-1852) and has published extensively on this subject.
O'Donnell attained Master of Arts and Ph.D degrees from the University of Cambridge. [1]
From 1975 to 1978 O'Donnell worked as a research assistant in Dublin for the 'Buildings of Ireland' [2] series, edited by Nikolaus Pevsner. From 1982 O'Donnell worked first as an Inspector and then Inspector of Ancient Monuments [3] at English Heritage and the public bodies that preceded it until 2011.
Since 2011 O'Donnell has worked as an architectural historian in a private capacity. He has written extensively in academic journals and contributed articles to The Catholic Herald during this period. [4] As well as giving lectures, for example, at the University of Malta in 2014, he has more recently given talks on the history, art and architecture of ecclesiastical buildings at Buckfast Abbey [5] and English catholic cathedrals at the Brompton Oratory. [6]
Photographs attributed to O'Donnell are to be found in the Conway Library [7] at the Courtauld Institute of Art. The Conway Library collection comprises film and glass negatives as well as prints of predominantly architectural images. It is currently being digitised as part of the Courtauld Connects project. [8]
O'Donnell was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1999. [9]
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin was an English architect, designer, artist and critic who is principally remembered for his pioneering role in the Gothic Revival style of architecture. His work culminated in designing the interior of the Palace of Westminster in Westminster, London, England, and its iconic clock tower, later renamed the Elizabeth Tower, which houses the bell known as Big Ben. Pugin designed many churches in England, and some in Ireland and Australia. He was the son of Auguste Pugin, and the father of Edward Welby Pugin and Peter Paul Pugin, who continued his architectural firm as Pugin & Pugin. He also created Alton Castle in Alton, Staffordshire.
The Courtauld Institute of Art, commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist colleges for the study of the history of art in the world and is widely known for the disproportionate number of directors of major museums drawn from its small body of alumni.
Hardman & Co., otherwise John Hardman Trading Co., Ltd., founded 1838, began manufacturing stained glass in 1844 and became one of the world's leading manufacturers of stained glass and ecclesiastical fittings. The business closed in 2008.
John Alfred Gotch was a noted English architect and architectural historian. His brother was the Pre-Raphaelite painter and illustrator Thomas Cooper Gotch, who painted his portrait. Married to Annie Gotch, one of their sons, Roby Myddleton Gotch was killed in action during the First World War aged 26.
Geoffrey Fairbank Webb was a British art historian, Slade Professor of Fine Art and head of the Monuments and Fine Arts section of the Allied Control Commission during World War II.
Bridget Cherry OBE, FSA, Hon. FRIBA is a British architectural historian who was series editor of the Pevsner Architectural Guides from 1971 until 2002. She is the co-author of several Pevsner guides.
Kerry John Downes was an English architectural historian whose speciality was English Baroque architecture. He was Professor of History of Art, University of Reading, 1978–91, then Emeritus.
Martin Richard Fletcher Butlin, CBE, FBA, is a British art historian. His main field of study is British art history and his published works reflect, in particular, a study of art of the 18th and 19th centuries. He is an authority on J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) and William Blake (1757-1827).
Lady Alexandra Mary Wedgwood FSA is an English architectural historian and expert on the work of Augustus Pugin. She is the patron of the Pugin Society and the former architectural archivist of the House of Lords.
John Arthur Newman is an English architectural historian. He is the author of several of the Pevsner Architectural Guides and is the advisory editor to the series.
(Bernard) Paul Crossley, was professor of the history of art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. He was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 2016. He was a specialist in the architecture of medieval central Europe. He died on 11 December 2019 at the age of 74.
Anthony Frank Kersting was a British architectural photographer. His images of British, European, and Middle Eastern architecture also feature urban and village life, landscape, commerce, transport and leisure. He was considered to be the leading architectural photographer of his generation.
Charles Robert Scott-Murray was a British Conservative politician.
Peter Kidson was a British Emeritus Professor and Honorary Fellow at the Courtauld Institute of Art where he lectured on Medieval Architecture until 1990. In his obituary in The Telegraph, he was described as “the most influential historian of medieval architecture of his generation in the English-speaking world”.
Nicola Coldstream, FSA, is a British architectural historian and academic with special interests in the 13th and 14th centuries. Coldstream studied History and Fine Arts at Cambridge University and obtained her PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art.
St Thomas of Canterbury Church, also known as St Thomas's, Rylston Road, is a Roman Catholic parish church in Fulham, central London. Designed in the Gothic Revival style by Augustus Pugin in 1847, the building is Grade II* listed with Historic England. It stands at 60 Rylston Road, Fulham, next to Pugin's Grade II listed presbytery and churchyard and St Thomas's primary school, also largely by Pugin, close to the junction with Lillie Road in the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.
Kathryn A. Morrison is a British architectural historian, specialising in contemporary and Victorian urban architecture. She is joint head of the Historic Places Investigation with Historic England.
Martin Meade (1945-2015) was an Architectural Historian of some renown who lived and worked in London and Paris. He was a man of sartorial elegance who favoured vintage clothing in the Edwardian style.
Richard Neville Hadcock (1895-1980), was a historian whose main area of study was ecclesiastical buildings, particularly mediaeval monastic buildings, in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. His work in this field also included the drawing up of maps of the locations of the various sites.
Professor Nancy Underhill is an art historian, curator, lecturer and author. She is the Founder of the University of Queensland Department of Art History.