I little thought, when I first joined the C20 Society as a member, just after finishing part I of my architecture degree at the end of the 80s, that I’d still be involved today.

I’m still here because it has been a constantly evolving job, and an incredibly varied one.

Back when I signed up, I felt very much in the minority as an architecture student – it was a time when architects and conservationists seemed in most cases to be on opposite sides of a great many acrimonious public battles. We had far more planning inquiries back then.

At Cambridge, walking down the Scroope Terrace corridor to hear David Watkin felt almost traitorous, and the one student in my year who knew he wanted to be a conservation expert was viewed as decidedly freakish.

…