Alfie Temple Stroud MA (Oxon), MA, IHBC
Alfie is a heritage professional and urbanist, with experience as an historian, researcher and writer. He is an accredited Full Member of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation.
Alfie was born and grew up in Swansea. He studied history and politics at Oxford University, then the history of political and cultural thought at the University of London. His first work in community heritage projects and public engagement and consultation set him off on his subsequent career in heritage, urbanism and planning. He was part of the conservation team at multidisciplinary design consultancy, Alan Baxter Limited. For three years he was Senior Design and Conservation Officer in the Planning and Regeneration team at the London Borough of Camden. He has recently returned to education to join the Erasmus Mundus European joint master programme in critical urban studies, ‘4Cities’.
Alfie’s direct experience of the conservation of historic sites spans vernacular timber farm buildings and twentieth-century brutalist complexes. As a consultant, Alfie worked on a detailed account of the 1000-year history and significance of the Grade-I listed Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great in London to inform a strategy for its proactive conservation. He has developed conservation strategies for Heritage Lottery Fund projects including the multi-million pound regeneration of the derelict Redruth Brewery into Kresen Kernow, Cornwall’s new county archives. In local government he negotiated with architects and developers on central London sites, including Google’s new HQ by BIG and Thomas Heatherwick, and a £600m mixed-use regeneration of Camden Goods Yard. His responsibilities included oversight of some of the UK’s most significant listed buildings and conservation areas, and conservation and design liaison with Argent on their King’s Cross Central estate.
Alfie was selected for AESOP’s 2014 European Urban Summer School on Heritage and Sustainable Development. He has been a member of the Hackney Society Planning Group, a panel of expert consultees to Hackney Council, and has acted as an expert witness for local authorities. He is a member of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies, and has wide interests in conservation, sustainable development and politics, including his current research on ways and meanings of urban heritage beyond economic growth.