Jonathan Foyle is an architectural historian, broadcaster and advocate for heritage sites. He is also an accomplished artist.

Background

Foyle grew up in Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

, near Stamford

Stamford, Lincolnshire

Stamford is a town and civil parish within the South Kesteven district of the county of Lincolnshire, England. It is approximately to the north of London, on the east side of the A1 road to York and Edinburgh and on the River Welland...

. As a teenager, he developed a love of medieval architecture on bike tours through the countryside of various counties. After architectural training and an M.A.

Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

 at the Courtauld Institute of Art

Courtauld Institute of Art

The Courtauld Institute of Art is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art. The Courtauld is one of the premier centres for the teaching of art history in the world; it was the only History of Art department in the UK to be awarded a top...

, he worked for a year surveying the architectural details and structure of Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site....

. He then became Curator of Historic Buildings for Historic Royal Palaces

Historic Royal Palaces

Historic Royal Palaces is an independent charity created in 1998 to manage Britain's unoccupied royal palaces. These are:* The Tower of London* Hampton Court Palace* Kensington Palace - the state rooms only.* Banqueting House* Kew Palace...

 for eight years: the early history of Hampton Court was the subject of his Ph.D thesis

Thesis

A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...

 in Archaeology

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

, which was later featured in a Meet the Ancestors

Meet the Ancestors

Meet the Ancestors aka Ancestors was a BBC Television documentary series that documents the archaeological excavation and scientific reconstruction of human remains.-Series one :-Series two :...

 Special on BBC2 (2002). Foyle received his doctorate at the University of Reading

University of Reading

The University of Reading is a university in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. The University was established in 1892 as University College, Reading and received its Royal Charter in 1926. It is based on several campuses in, and around, the town of Reading.The University has a long tradition...

 in 2002.

Education

Ph.D Archaeology, University of Reading

University of Reading

The University of Reading is a university in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. The University was established in 1892 as University College, Reading and received its Royal Charter in 1926. It is based on several campuses in, and around, the town of Reading.The University has a long tradition...

 (2002) (Won British Academy Reckitt Prize )

Dipl.Arch (Postgraduate Diploma in Architecture) Canterbury School of Architecture (1995)

M.A. History of Art 1560-1660 Courtauld Institute of Art

Courtauld Institute of Art

The Courtauld Institute of Art is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art. The Courtauld is one of the premier centres for the teaching of art history in the world; it was the only History of Art department in the UK to be awarded a top...

, University of London

University of London

-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

 (1993)

B.A. (Hons) 2:1 Architecture Canterbury School of Architecture (1992)

National Diploma in Art and Design Lincoln College of Art (1989)

Career

The author of many scholarly papers, Foyle has written for a number of newspapers and popular magazines but he is perhaps best known as a passionate communicator on history. He has taught and lectured widely in Britain and around the world. His numerous appearances in television broadcasts in Britain and the USA have consistently attracted large audiences.

Since 2002, he has presented films for Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

, the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

, the History Channel, ITN, Lion

Lion

The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...

 and Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...

s. His 2009 series on Henry VIII as art patron garnered praise. In 2010, Climbing Great Buildings

Climbing Great Buildings

Climbing Great Buildings is a British television series made for the BBC. The series, first broadcast on BBC Two in autumn 2010, consists of fifteen half-hour programmes each featuring one famous British structure from the last 1000 years....

 captured his largest audience yet. He delights in working without a net, whether by dangling from an immense height in order to comment on the iron tracery of St. Pancras Station or by improvising a pencil sketch of the pyramids' surroundings in Egypt.

In 2007 Foyle accepted the position of Chief Executive of World Monuments Fund Britain, the UK arm of a global charity, which has achieved great success in securing imperiled architectural sites for future generations.

BBC1

• Inside Out (Feb. 2010) Reporter, Gloucestershire’s Pyramids
• The One Show (2009) Reporter on historic architecture

BBC2

• Climbing Great Buildings (2010) 15-part series, along with champion climber Lucy Creamer
  Lucy Creamer
  Lucy Creamer is a British professional climber. Creamer was born in Taunton, Somerset, but now lives in Sheffield - a city known for its large climbing community....
  
  
• The People’s Museum (2006) Daytime series Presenter
• History Mysteries (2005) Daytime series Co-presenter
• Meet The Ancestors: The Lost Palace Of Hampton Court (2002) Prime-time series Specialist

BBC4

• People’S Palaces: The Golden Age Of Civic Architecture 2 x 1 hrs (2010) Presenter
• Henry Viii: Patron Or Plunderer? 2 x 1 hrs (2009) Presenter
  

CHANNEL 4

• Time Team Special: Henry Viii’S Lost Palaces (2009) Specialist Contributor
• Time Team Special: The Arcadian Garden (2007) Specialist Contributor
• Time Team Special: The Royal Palaces: Buckingham Palace (2006) Specialist Contributor
• Time Team (2003- ) Specialist Contributor Includes Kew, Syon, Greenwich, Queensborough Castle, Hunstrete, Chenies Manor
  

HISTORY CHANNEL US

• Lost Worlds: The Pyramids (2008) Prime-time series, Investigator
• Lost Worlds: The Sphinx (2008) Prime-time series, Investigator
• Lost Worlds: The Vikings (2007) Prime-time series Investigator
• Lost Worlds: Henry VIII: (2007) Prime-time series Investigator

Professional History

2007- Chief Executive, World Monuments Fund Britain
2003-7 Freelance historian, teacher, presenter, consultant
1996-2003 Curator of Historic Buildings, Hampton Court and Kew Palaces, Historic Royal Palaces
1995-6 Assistant to the Surveyor of the Fabric, Canterbury Cathedral

Publications

• The Architecture of Canterbury Cathedral Scala (2012)
• ‘Conservation areas in China: the case of the Juanqinzhai in Beijing’ with Henry Tzu-Ng

English Heritage Conservation Bulletin 62 (2009)

• ‘Some examples of external colouration on English brick buildings, c. 1500-1650’

Bulletin du Centre de recherche du château de Versailles ‘Couleurs de l'architecture’(2002)

• 'A Reconstruction of Thomas Wolsey's Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace'

Architectural History Vol 45 (2002) pp. 128–58

Illustrations for:

• ‘Interpretations of the Rebuilding of Canterbury Cathedral, 1174-1186: Archaeological and Historical Evidence’

Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 1997 , Peter Draper

External links

• www.built.org.uk

• World Monuments Fund Britain