CONTEXT 186 : DECEMBER 2025 47 something of the individuality and eccentricity that made them such a stimulating place to be. What would you like to be doing in five years’ time? Continuing to think about heritage and conservation, and doing some research and some teaching, but having more time to engage with heritage practice, and to enjoy walking up Lake District fells and cycling round nice places. And bugging my grown-up children with dad stuff. What is your favourite building? I was an undergraduate in Durham and the elemental power of the nave of Durham cathedral made a huge and enduring impression, although I don’t go back as often as I should. Cheating slightly (it’s more than one building), I would add the Byker Estate in Newcastle, the Grade II* listed housing estate designed by a team led by Ralph Erskine. It is by no means perfect, but it is a brilliant and salutary reminder of a time when as a society we sought to provide good, decent housing for all. Come and see it at the IHBC annual school in 2026! Your favourite place? I’m not a Geordie, but I love the city of Newcastle. As an escape, I love the Lake District and, in a rather male way, I am currently working my way around the 214 Wainwright fells. There is also a small hill called Shutlingsloe near Macclesfield that is very special to me as it is where we scattered my parents’ ashes. Your favourite book? I do read quite a range of fiction, including dystopias, but it would be nice to find more authors like Matt Haig who make me laugh and feel better about the world. The soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf is notorious for choosing all her own recordings on Desert Island Discs (although in fairness it was only seven of the eight), so it is with some trepidation that I also list Conservation in the Age of Consensus by myself. It is not my favourite book, but it was important to me. What do you do in your spare time? Cycle, walk, run. At home on the Byker Estate What organisations are you a member of? IHBC, RTPI, ICOMOS, Academy of Social Sciences, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Historic Towns and Villages Forum, International Planning History Society, C20 Society, National Trust, English Heritage, Northumbria Gardens Trust, North East Vernacular Architecture Group, Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, Northern Architectural History Society. Which one issue would you particularly like the IHBC to campaign on? Despite what some are trying to tell us, the climate emergency is real, and I think the Oxford Street M&S case was probably the most important conservation case for many years. We need to campaign on carbon. We need to keep pressing the case for looking at the carbon cost of the whole life of buildings rather than just operational use. One part of this is the old but enduringly relevant IHBC campaign on the inequities of the VAT regime that have become ever more absurd. John Pendlebury is emeritus professor of urban conservation at Newcastle University.
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