THE VICTORIAN SOCIETY - Key Persons
Akil was appointed Honorary Secretary in August 2023. He is an Assistant Headteacher for a city centre school in Birmingham and who has spent most of his career working in inner city schools, with some of the most disadvantaged students in the city.
He believes that to understand the past is to open one's mind and intellectual appetite to better discover the present and that beyond the subject matter and day-to-day teaching, the love of learning is a key ingredient of successful education.
Akil has spent most of his life living in Birmingham and as a second-generation son of immigrants from the Caribbean, he embraces both his roots from the Caribbean and Africa, as well as the feeling of place within Birmingham, and the rich history and contributions to the region.
Job Titles:
- Architect
- Member of the Northern Buildings Committee
Alan Davies is a practising architect specialising in the conservation and adaptive re-use of historic buildings and the regeneration of historic environments. He is an architect director and heritage lead for a leading international practice of architects, engineers and designers. In that capacity, he has been involved in conserving and adapting a range of historic building types; and has prepared proposals for regenerating areas of historic towns and cities across the UK and abroad.
Alan's interest in Victorian architecture and town planning was sparked as a student of architecture in Cardiff and has been sustained by being based for much of his career in Manchester - both cities owing their character to nineteenth century development, planning and architecture. Alan has a post-graduate qualification in town planning and is an RIBA registered conservation architect. Alan maintains a strong interest in the historic culture and architecture of his native Wales.
Alan has been a member of the Northern Buildings Committee - which comments on planning applications referred to the Society by planning authorities across the North and Wales - since 2008.
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- Member of the Southern Buildings Committee
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- Member of the Committee Are
- Member of the Northern Buildings Committee
- Member of Committee
- Volunteer Caseworker for Churches )
Andy is a building historian and former city councillor. He has been a member of Birmingham's Conservation and Heritage Panel and its predecessors since 1993, representing the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), and also represents the conservation societies on Lichfield (Church of England) Dicoesan Advisory Committee.
His special research interest is church architecture of the later Arts and Crafts period, Early Christian or Byzantine revival, in Birmingham and the surrounding area.
Andy wrote the Pevsner City Guide to Birmingham, published in 2005, in the Pevsner Architectural Guides series; and The Birmingham & Black Country guide in the same series, which was published in March 2022.
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- Member of the Committee Are
- Society Representative on Warwick DC Conservation Advisory Forum )
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- Member of the Events Committee
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- Local Membership Secretary and Newsletter Editor
- Member of the Committee
General Enquiries email - victoriansocietysyorks@gmail.com - You will receive a response from the appropriate committee member at the earliest opportunity
The South Yorkshire Group does not do casework. If you are concerned about a Victorian or Edwardian building, please get in touch with one of our conservation advisers.
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- Member of the Committee Are
- Volunteer Caseworker for Solihull )
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- Member of the Northern Buildings Committee
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- Member of the Southern Buildings Committee
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- Member of the Southern Buildings Committee
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- Member of the Northern Buildings Committee
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- Member of the Southern Buildings Committee
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- Member of the Northern Buildings Committee
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- Member of the Southern Buildings Committee
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- Member of the Southern Buildings Committee
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- Member of the Committee Are
- Non - Executive
David is a retired Consultant Paediatrician. In 1971,he joined the Victorian Society whilst studied History of Art and Architecture at Cambridge and writing a thesis on the churches of Norman Shaw. He has been Chair of the Birmingham and West Midlands group, continues as a member of their Casework committee and helped to organise four National AGMs held in the Midlands. He is a Trustee of the Mary Heath Trust Fund which funds our Regional Case worker. He has taken a particular interest in the implementation of the Society's new digital technology.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Southern Buildings Committee
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- Member of Committee
- Regional Executive
Jake is originally from Northampton and has lived in Birmingham since he was 18, completing his PhD in 2022 at the University of Birmingham, researching populism and political theory.
Jake was appointed to the Regional Executive in October 2021 and served as Honorary Secretary February 2022 to August 2023.
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- Member of the Events Committee
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- Member of the Southern Buildings Committee
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- Member of the Southern Buildings Committee
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- Member of the Southern Buildings Committee
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- Member of the Events Committee
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- Member of the Committee Are
- Member of Committee
Eva is a graduate in Chemistry with a lifelong interest in Architecture. She studied Architectural History at Birmingham University and with the Open University.
She has been a member of the committee of the Birmingham Group of the Victorian Society since c. 1990 and has acted both as Honorary Treasurer and Honorary Secretary, as well as being active in Casework.
Eva's special interests are the Arts and Crafts movement in Birmingham, Industrial Architecture and sympathetic re-use of buildings no longer needed for their original purpose.
Gill spent all of her working life in Birmingham. Before taking early retirement she was Head of Technology at a City comprehensive school.
She joined The Victorian Society in 1994 and has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Birmingham & West Midlands Group since 2006.
Gill also sits on the Programme Committee.
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- Member of the Committee Are
- Volunteer Caseworker for Wolverhampton )
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- Member of the Southern Buildings Committee
Helene joined the Victorian Society in the 1990's and was soon involved in helping to plan our events programme.
An early member of the programme committee she has been responsible for updating members, by email, of local events. Helene is responsible for the sales of our book - Birmingham's Victorian and Edwardian Architects, which was published by the Birmingham & West Midlands Group in 2009.
Although a Londoner, Helene has lived and worked in Birmingham for over 40 years, spending the last 20 years of her working life as Librarian and Tutor at Fircroft College.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Southern Buildings Committee
Henry has been a solicitor for 25 years, working with clients in the not-for-profit, culture, media and sport sectors. His history degree in the 1980s fostered an abiding interest in historic buildings. He has been an active supporter of Victorian Society talks, tours and other events for the past ten years, and has a particular interest in the social and historical context of Victorian buildings. He lives in west London with his wife Sophie (a long-standing and active volunteer member of the Society) and two young adult children. Any spare time is spent visiting towns and countryside in England and France with a box of guide books. Henry currently holds the role of the Society's Legal Trustee.
James is from Evesham in Worcestershire, and is Head of Management Finance for Malvern College, one of the United Kingdom's leading independent schools.
He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1995, and a Chartered Tax Adviser in 1997, and has a proven track record of good financial governance.
He is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser. He was re-elected Honorary Treasurer in 2022 to serve until 2025.
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- Churches Conservation Adviser
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- Member of the Northern Buildings Committee
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- Member of the Committee Are
- Member of Committee
Jasna qualified as an architect at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade (1961-66).
In 1972 she took her Professional Practice Exam at the RIBA in London and practised as an architect at Birmingham City Architects Dept from 1970-2000, after which she took early retirement.
In 2003 Jasna completed a Conservation and Renewal Course at the Faculty of Architecture at UCE with an MA (Distinction). Her thesis was on the work of John Henry Chamberlain, as her interest and knowledge through her practice was in Birmingham 19th century Gothic Revival and its social and ideological background.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Events Committee
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- Architect
- Vice Chairman
- Casework Committee Chairman
Joe is an architect and urban designer and has his own practice. He promotes the importance of good design in everything he does, and regards the intelligent conservation and reuse of old buildings as a necessary part of the definition of good design, and also of the wider agenda of sustainability.
Joe has been an active member of the Victorian Society since the 1970s, with his first big campaign against the demolition of Birmingham's Central Library in 1973; we lost that, but it was a turning point. Victorian architecture became more respectable, and we became more successful.
Joe also chairs the Birmingham & West Midlands Group Casework Sub-Committee.
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- Member of the Northern Buildings Committee
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- Chairman of the Southern Buildings Committee
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- Member of the Events Committee
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- Member of the Events Committee
- Member of the Northern Buildings Committee
Kate has been at the Bar for twenty-five years and practises from 2 Pump Court in the Temple. She read history and law at Christ's College, Cambridge and was recently awarded an MA in Gothic architecture at the Courtauld Institute of Art. She is particularly interested in church architecture and Victorian Gothic.
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- Member of the Northern Buildings Committee
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- Chairman of the Northern Buildings Committee
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- Activities Secretary
- Member of the Committee
Prior to retirement in 2015 Lynn was with a major professional services firm for over 30 years, latterly as an audit partner advising on financial reporting. She has a particular interest in the Arts and Crafts movement.
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- Member of the Southern Buildings Committee
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- Committee Secretary
- Member of the Committee
Born in Manchester and whisked to Worcestershire. Mark, as a child, had strong connections with Birmingham (Edgbaston) via his maternal grandparents.
Upon graduating Mark worked as a Fine and Decorative Arts Surveyor launching his career in central London for two international auction houses. In 2007 he emigrated to New York for fourteen years working in art and finance. He is currently on the board (emeritus) of the Victorian Society of America, Metropolitan Chapter. He sits on the preservation committee and is very interested in the built environment and preservation and re-purposing (where possible) of the existing. He also sits on the collections committee of the Delaware Art Museum (with one of the ‘finest collections of Pre-Raphaelites outside Britain') and the Teme Valley Arts Society.
He has three close family members who are practising architects, two of whom are in conservation.
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- Member of the Southern Buildings Committee
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- Member of the Northern Buildings Committee
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- Member of the Committee Are
The Birmingham & West Midlands Group are lucky to have a paid Conservation Adviser funded by the Mary Heath Trust. Tim Bridges (pictured right >) has been our Conservation Adviser since October 2006.
After studying history at Exeter & medieval studies at York Universities, Tim has worked at Worcester City Museums as Keeper of Archaeology and for the past twelve years as Collections Manager. His experience from the Museum includes contributing to a book which interprets the built heritage of Worcester, a major exhibition on the porcelain industry in the early 19th century, the promotion of Worcester's post-medieval archaeology and buildings through collections and records, and more recently the day to day management of the beautiful 1896 Museum and Art Gallery building.
Tim has a keen interest in the architectural history of Midland buildings, and churches in particular. He lectures and leads guided visits around local churches including those of the 19th and 20th centuries, and has published books on the churches of Worcestershire and the Black Country. He also serves on the Worcestershire & Dudley Historic Churches Trust, and the Worcester and Birmingham Diocesan Advisory Committees and, since March 2010, also works as Church Buildings Support Officer in Hereford Diocese.
Matthew is originally from London but has lived in Droitwich for the past five years. His background is in sales and marketing, which he hopes to bring to bear fuit for the West Midlands group.
Beyond this, he is an avid enthusiast of Victorian & Edwardian architecture, with a passion for its preservation and restoration through re-use for modern-day purposes. His deep interest in the intricate details and historical significance of Victorian & Edwardian buildings has led him to join the Victorian Society, culminating in his election to the Regional Executive Committee at its 2024 AGM
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- Member of the Committee Are
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- Member of the Events Committee
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- Member of the Events Committee
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- Member of the Southern Buildings Committee
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- Member of the Events Committee
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- Member of the Northern Buildings Committee
Neil Jackson is an architect and architectural historian and Professor Emeritus of Architecture at the University of Liverpool. He has previously served as a trustee of both the Twentieth Century Society and the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, of which he was President in 2017-21. He was a founder member and first Honorary Secretary of the Avon Group of the Victorian Society in 1978 and subsequently, in 1980-85 served as a member of the Main Committee and the General Purposes Sub-committee. Since 2016 he has sat on the Events Committee, which he now chairs. He has published widely on nineteenth-century architecture, including books on Bath, Saltaire and Japan, and has maintained a long-time interest in G E Street and the use of constructional polychromy. He lives in Westminster. .
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- Treasurer
- Member of the Committee
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- Chairman
- Member of the Committee
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- Member of the Events Committee
- Programme Secretary
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- Member of the Events Committee
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- Member of the Southern Buildings Committee
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- Member of the Committee Are
- Volunteer Caseworker for Sandwell & Dudley )
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- Member of the Events Committee
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- Member of the Events Committee
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- Member of the Committee Are
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- Member of the Events Committee
Stephen joined the Society when he was 20 and became active in the work of the Birmingham Group in 2002, following a successful campaign led by him against the widening of the Hagley Road in Edgbaston. He was elected a Vice Chairman of the Group in 2008 and its Chairman in 2009. He was elected as Chairman in 2022 to serve until 2025.
Stephen's area of speciality is in Public Art and he is considered an expert in Birmingham's Victorian monumental sculpture. He is also a member of the Public Statues & Sculpture Association ( PSSA).
A retired local authority manager, active in the Victorian Society's Manchester Group, he organised the 2013 AGM ‘By Lancashire's Thread hangs England's bread' in Manchester, Rochdale and East Lancs. He organizes the photographic exhibition ‘Saving a Century' which tours libraries and venues around the country. Linking his Manchester cultural identity and his lay interests in history, politics and architecture, he helped create the Manchester Peace and Social Justice Trail, leading groups around this city centre trail.
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- Member of the Events Committee
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- Member of the Southern Buildings Committee
Tiffany is an accredited archaeologist and heritage consultant with over a decade's experience in the planning, heritage, and historic environment sector. One of the youngest female professionals to achieve full membership of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, she is committed to providing a holistic approach to the adaptive re-use of historic buildings which, given her background in archaeology, incorporates consideration of potential below-ground archaeological impacts. Since 2021, Tiffany has worked as the Director of a small but thriving heritage consultancy based in Yorkshire providing expert advice on heritage-led property and land development schemes. Her personal and research interests include improving energy efficiency in historic buildings, the Arts and Crafts movement, and the sustainable conversion of traditional agricultural buildings.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Southern Buildings Committee
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- Member of the Events Committee