Gavin Stamp

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Gavin Stamp
Born Gavin Mark Stamp
(1948-03-15) March 15, 1948 (age 76)
Nationality British
Education Dulwich College, London
(Independent school)
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Occupation Architectural historian, teacher, writer and commentator
Known for Books, newspaper articles and television appearances

Gavin Mark Stamp (born 15 March 1948) is a British writer and architectural historian.

Education

Stamp was educated at Dulwich College in South London from 1959 to 1967 as part of the "Dulwich Experiment",[1] then at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he obtained a PhD degree in 1978 with a thesis entitled George Gilbert Scott, junior, architect; 1839-1897.[2]

Life and career

After an energetic career of architectural polemic, lecturing and publishing Stamp taught architectural history from 1990, latterly as Professor, at the Mackintosh School of Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art. He bought and restored the house that Alexander 'Greek' Thompson built for himself in Moray Place, Glasgow. In 2003, he resigned from the school and reverted to being an independent scholar and lecturer. He writes the "Nooks & Corners" architecture criticism column in Private Eye under the pseudonym Piloti [3] He regularly contributes essays on architecture to the fine arts and collector's magazine Apollo. Stamp is a long-standing Trustee and former Chairman of the Twentieth Century Society, a registered charity which promotes the appreciation of modern architecture and the conservation of Britain’s architectural heritage.[4] He has also been active in the Victorian Society in various capacities over five decades.

Television appearances

Stamp has presented a number of programmes about architecture for Channel 5. In 2005 he presented Pevsner’s Cities: Liverpool and Pevsner’s Cities: Newcastle and in 2006 Pevsner's Cities: Oxford;[5] each programme profiled the cities with reference to the writings of architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner. In 2007 he presented a five-part architectural travel series Gavin Stamp’s Orient Express.[6] Stamp travelled by train along the original Orient Express route, stopping off on the way to look at architecture and to see how the history of Eastern Europe is told in its buildings.

Stamp has also made various television appearances as an expert interviewee: in 1986 he appeared in A Sense of the Past, a 6 part series for schools produced by Yorkshire Television about the relationship between buildings and local history; in 1990 he was interviewed for Design Classics: The Telephone Box, a favourite subject of Stamp's and one he has written about; in 1995 he appeared as guest expert in an episode of One Foot in the Past about Brunel; and in 2003 he was interviewed by Paul Binski for an episode of Channel Five's Divine Designs which profiled Alexander 'Greek' Thomson's St. Vincent Street Free Church in Glasgow.

Personal life

Stamp was married to Alexandra Artley from 1982 until 2007.

Stamp's daughter Cecilia played bass and sang in the Scots ElectroPop band Futuristic Retro Champions and now plays keyboard and guitar with The Machine Room.[7]

Stamp's other daughter, Agnes, works at Country Life magazine in London.

Gavin Stamp married biographer and critic Rosemary Hill on 10 April 2014.

Gavin Stamp's brother is the artist Gerard Stamp (born 22 March 1955).

References

  1. An Interview with Gavin Stamp Publisher: Dulwich On View. Published: 25 June 2010. Retrieved: 24 February 2014.
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  4. 20th Century Society
  5. Pevner's Cities Five TV
  6. Orient Express review New Statesman
  7. http://themachineroommusic.tumblr.com/

Publications