Staff Profile

Introduction

John Pendlebury MRTPI IHBC FHEA FAcSS is Professor of Urban Conservation.

I am a town planner and urban conservationist with ten years practice experience in local government, central government and consultancy before re-entering academia in 1996. I have had many departmental and university roles, including serving as Head of School between 2008 and 2016.

I teach and undertake research on heritage, conservation and planning with a focus upon, first, how historic cities have been planned in the past, considering how the historic qualities of cities were conceived and balanced with modernising forces. Second, I undertake empirical and conceptual work on the interface between contemporary cultural heritage policy and other policy processes. Principal publications include Conservation in the Age of Consensus (2009) as well as the edited collections Valuing Historic Environments (2009 with Lisanne Gibson) and Alternative Visions of Post-War Reconstruction: Creating the Modern Townscape (2015 with Erdem Erten and Peter Larkham).

In 2021 I had a new book out, Conserving the Historic Environment, with Jules Brown:

https://www.lundhumphries.com/products/conserving-the-historic-environment?_pos=1&_sid=918c26ae8&_ss=r

I have around 40 peer-review journal papers and book chapters. Versions of many of these can be accessed through http://eprint.ncl.ac.uk/ or my profile on https://www.researchgate.net . I have received research funding from AHRC, ESRC, EPSRC, British Academy and the EU. My principal current focus is upon collaborative European projects looking at the impact of governance reform on heritage planning and new, inclusive governance models.

Research Interests and funded projects

My research mostly focuses on conservation values and social purpose and the way this translates into strategies of management. It is drawn together in my book Conservation in the Age of Consensus www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415249843/. Broadly the work divides into two themes:

1. Empirical and conceptual work on the interface between cultural heritage policy and other policy processes e.g. social inclusion & regeneration. This interface poses challenges for considering which values are dominant in motivations for heritage protection (e.g. art historical values vs. ‘public values’). Projects include:

Sustainable Adaption – Resilience in Urban Regeneration (ADAPT), Expert Panel Norwegian Research Council funded project (2019-2021)

Heriland, Newcastle Co-I (Newcastle lead, Sam Turner) EU Intensive Training Network (2019-2022) https://www.heriland.eu/ 

Visiting Researcher Grant for 3 month visiting fellowship at Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU), Norwegian Research Council (2018-2020)

Organizing, Promoting and Enabling Heritage Re-use through Inclusion, Technology, Access, Governance and Empowerment (OpenHeritage), Newcastle PI (overall lead MRI, Budapest) EU Horizon 2020 (2018-2022) https://openheritage.eu/ 

ESRC impact acceleration account (IAA) – Brexit fund, PI WP2 Heritage & Brexit (2017)

Sustainable Green Markets, regenerating the urban core to sustain socio-cultural heritage and economic activities, co-I (PI Neveen Hamza, Newcastle University AHRC (2016)

UK PI (overall lead Delft) for Joint Programming Initiative (Norwegian Research Council funded) The impact of urban planning and governance reform on the historic built environment and intangible cultural heritage (PICH) (2015-2018). See https://planningandheritage.wordpress.com/

Co-ordinator for EU - FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IRSES funded project Planning, Urban Management and Heritage (PUMAH)(2012-2016), linking Europe and and Chinese HEIs. See http://www.pumah.org/

UK PI (overall lead Delft) for Joint Programming Initiative (AHRC funded) A Sustainable Future for the Historic Urban Core (SHUC) (2013-15). See https://planningandheritage.wordpress.com/

Co-I for EPSRC funded project GLOBAL Sustainable Energy through China-UK Research Engagement (SECURE)(2012-2013), examining issues of retrofitting in co-operation with Chinese partners. See http://research.ncl.ac.uk/globalsecure/

ESRC DTC CASE Studentship (Hannah Garrow) with Architecture Design Scotland (2013-2019) on The Role of Community in Shaping place Identity

Co-I for AHRC funded project (2012) Research for Community Heritage: North East England 

Co-Investigator for EPSRC/ ESRC/ AHRC/ English Heritage funded research network (2006-2007) Valuing the Historic Environment: Concepts, Instrumentalisations and Effects. See web-link above. This project led to the book Valuing Historic Environments www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754674245

ESRC CASE studentship (Dave Webb) with English Heritage (2006-2009) on heritage and areas of low housing demand

AHRC Collaborative studentship (Elli Winterburn) with Newcastle City Council (2006-2009) on characterising housing areas

ESRC CASE studentship (Nick Shore) with English Heritage (2002-2005) on impact of pluralistic approaches to heritage

Participation in ESRC-funded project on Urban Governance using Grainger Town, Newcastle as a case study (1998-1999)

2. Conceptual work based primarily on city case studies of how historic cities have been planned in the past, particularly in the mid-C20, focusing in particular on how the historic qualities of such cities were conceived and balanced with modernising forces. Projects include:

Devastation, dislocation and (re-)settlement: breaking/replacing the peopl-place connection in landscape, Newcastle team member AHRC-DFG award (2022-25)

ESRC DTC CASE Studentship (Sally Watson) with RIBA (2018-2022) Playing out: A study into children’s use of public space in 1970s housing estates

Co-I for AHRC Connected Communities project (2012) Civic Associations and Urban Communities: Local History, Place-Making and Activism in Twentieth Century Britain. See http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/research/urbanstudies/projects/civicassociationsandurbancommunities/

Principal Investigator for AHRC-funded project on Thomas Sharp (‘Town and Townscape: The Work and Life of Thomas Sharp’ Resource Enhancement Grant, 2006-2007). See http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/sharp.

Postgraduate supervision

I welcome PhD and MPhil applicants and would be delighted to discuss projects related to my research. 

Graduated

• Asmarani Februandari. Power and discrimination in a space: The role of cultural built heritage in identity construction of Chinese Indonesians. PhD awarded 2022. Supervised with Andy Law.
• Yun Dai, Valuing Modern Architectural Heritage in the UK and China: Case studies of the changing nature, expression and use of heritage value. PhD awarded 2020. Supervised with Adam Sharr
• Keiji Makino, An ecology of land use; The study of the interaction between people and natural processes based upon case studies of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK and Hagi, Japan. PhD awarded 2019. Supervised with Maggie Roe
• Ye Xi, Two Ways of Meaning in Architecture – ‘Conceptual Meaning’ and ‘Pragmatic Meaning’. PhD awarded 2018. Supervised with Andrew Ballantyne
• Ning Lu, Investigating Conservation Planning of Industrial Heritage in China: A discourse analysis of changing values in policy and practice. PhD awarded 2016. Supervised with Mark Tewdwr Jones
• Dave Webb, Problem Neighbourhoods in a Part-Linear, Part-Network Regime: Problems with, and possible responses to, the Housing Market Renewal Leviathan, PhD awarded 2010. Supervised with Stuart Cameron (ESRC CASE studentship with English Heritage).
• Elli Winterburn, Characterising the Post-Industrial City - A Case-Study of Industrial Era Residential Areas in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, PhD awarded 2010. Supervised with Paola Michialano (AHRC Collaborative studentship with Newcastle City Council).
• Nattika Navapan, Siamese Monarchy and the Modernisation of Bangkok’s Urban Spaces, 1868-1910. PhD awarded 2010. Supervised with Ian Thompson
• Mohammadsaeid Izadi, A Case Study on City Centre Regeneration: A comparative analysis of two different approaches to the revitalisation of historic city centres in Iran. Phd awarded 2008. Supervised with Ali Madanipour A
• Nicolas Shore, Whose Heritage? The Construction of Cultural Built Heritage in a Pluralist, Multicultural England? PhD awarded 2007. Supervised with Tim Townshend (ESRC CASE studentship with English Heritage).
• Rima El-Hassan, The Use of ICT to Support Urban Heritage Appraisal: The Case of Medieval Tripoli, Lebanon. Phd awarded 2004. Supervised with Hisham Elkadi
• Xenofon Sotirchopoulos Information Analysis of the Pre-Application Stage for the Statutory Consent in the Building Conservation Industry – An Object Role Modelling Approach in Architectural Documentation. Mphil awarded 2004. Supervised with Hisham Elkadi

Current PhD students:ja

• Anna Tonk (co-supervised with Sam Turner)
• Byung Choon Hwang (co-supervised with Loes Veldpaus)
• Danae Peguero (co-supervised with Areti Galini and Nick Rush Cooper)
• Gulnur Cengiz (co-supervised with Loes Veldpaus)
• Merve Gokcu (co-supervised with Zander Wilson)
• Sally Watson (co-supervised with Maggie Roe)
• Tina Meparishvili (co-supervised with Neil Powe)

My principal teaching is modules on the conservation of the historic environment.

I am currently Degree Programme Director for the Certificate in Planning Practice

• Articles

  • Wang Y, Pendlebury J, Nolf C. The Water Heritage of China: The Polders of Tai Lake Basin as Continuing Landscape. Planning Perspectives 2023, 38(5), 949-974.
  • Pendlebury J, Veldpaus L, Garrow H. Relationality, place governance and heritage: The Lower Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle upon Tyne and ‘Ouseburnness’. Planning Practice and Research 2023, 38(3), 409-424.
  • Veldpaus L, Pendlebury J. Heritage as a Vehicle for Development: The Case of Bigg Market, Newcastle upon Tyne. Planning Practice and Research 2023, 38(3), 376-390.
  • Mérai D, Veldpaus L, Pendlebury J, Kip M. The Governance Context for Adaptive Heritage Reuse: A Review and Typology of Fifteen European Countries. The Historic Environment: Policy and Practice 2022, 13(4), 526-546.
  • Lanz F, Pendlebury J. Adaptive Reuse: a critical review. Journal of Architecture 2022, 27(2-3), 441-462.
  • Gold JR, Pendlebury J. The ‘spirit of living continuity’? Revisiting the urban vision, methodologies and influence of the Studies in Conservation. Town Planning Review 2019, 90(1), 33-55.
  • Pendlebury J, Scott M, Veldpaus L, van der Toorn Vrijthoff W, Redmond D. After the Crash: the conservation-planning assemblage in an era of austerity. European Planning Studies 2019, 28(4), 672-690.
  • Pendlebury J, Wang Y, Law A. Re-using 'uncomfortable heritage': The case of the 1933 Building, Shanghai. International Journal of Heritage Studies 2018, 24(3), 211-229.
  • Pendlebury J, Hewitt LE. Place and voluntary activity in inter-war England: topophilia and professionalization. Urban History 2018, 45(3), 453-470.
  • Pendlebury J, Veldpaus L. Heritage and Brexit. Planning Theory & Practice 2018, 19(3), 448-453.
  • Hamza N, Elkerdany D, Pendlebury J, Imam S, ElSadaty A, ElSerafi T. Sustained Liveability: A framework beyond Energy Conscious Building Conservation of Market Halls. International Journal of Architectural Research 2017, 11(3), 119-131.
  • Wang Y-W, Pendlebury J. The Modern Abattoir as a Machine for Killing: The Municipal Abattoir of the International Shanghai Settlement, 1933. Architecture Research Quarterly 2016, 20(2), 131-144.
  • Pendlebury J, Miciukiewicz K. Regiones metropolitanas, centros historicos y patrimonio cultural: el caso del Reino Unido. CyTET – Ciudad y Territorio Estudios Teritoriales 2015, XLVII(184), 219-236.
  • Hewitt L, Pendlebury J. Local associations and participation in place: change and continuity in the relationship between state and civil society in twentieth-century Britain. Planning Perspectives 2014, 29(1), 25-44.
  • Pendlebury J, Hamza N, Sharr A. Conservation Values, Conservation-Planning and Climate Change. DISP – The Planning Review 2014, 50(3), 43-54.
  • Farmer G, Pendlebury J. Conserving Dirty Concrete: The Decline and Rise of Pasmore's Apollo Pavilion, Peterlee. Journal of Urban Design 2013, 18(2), 263-280.
  • Pendlebury J. Conservation values, the authorised heritage discourse and the conservation-planning assemblage. International Journal of Heritage Studies 2013, 19(7), 709-727.
  • Pendlebury J, Strange I. Centenary paper: Urban conservation and the shaping of the English city. Town Planning Review 2011, 82(4), 361-392.
  • Davoudi S, Pendlebury J. Evolution of planning as an academic discipline. Town Planning Review 2010, 81(6), 613-644.
  • Pendlebury J, Short M, While A. Urban World Heritage Sites and the problem of authenticity. Cities 2009, 26(6), 349-358.
  • Pendlebury J. The urbanism of Thomas Sharp. Planning Perspectives 2009, 24(1), 3-27.
  • Larkham PJ, Pendlebury J. Reconstruction planning and the small town in early post-war Britain. Planning Perspectives 2008, 23(3), 291-321.
  • Pendlebury J. The modern historic city: evolving ideas in mid-20th-century Britain. Journal of Urban Design 2005, 10(2), 253-273.
  • Townshend T, Gilroy RC, Pendlebury JR. The conservation of English cultural built heritage: a force for social inclusion?. International Journal of Heritage Studies 2004, 10(1), 11-31.
  • Pendlebury JR. Reconciling history with modernity: 1940s plans for Durham and Warwick. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 2004, 31(3), 331–348.
  • Pendlebury J. Planning the historic city: Reconstruction plans in the United Kingdom in the 1940s. Town Planning Review 2003, 74(4), 371-394.
  • Pendlebury J. Planning the Historic City: 1940s Reconstruction Plans in Britain. Town Planning Review 2003, 74(4), 371-393.
  • Pendlebury JR. Conservation and regeneration: Complementary or conflicting processes? The case of grainger town, Newcastle upon Tyne. Planning Practice and Research 2002, 17(2), 145-158.
  • Elkadi H, Pendlebury J. Developing an information model to support integrating conservation strategies in urban management. Journal of Urban Technology 2001, 8(2), 75-93.
  • Pendlebury JR. Alas Smith and Burns? Conservation in Newcastle upon Tyne city centre 1959-1968. Planning Perspectives 2001, 16(2), 115-141.
  • Pendlebury JR. Conservation, Conservatives and consensus: the success of conservation under the Thatcher and Major Governments, 1979-1997. Planning Theory and Practice 2000, 1(1), 31-52.
  • Pendlebury J. The place of historic parks and gardens in the English planning system: Towards statutory controls?. Town Planning Review 1999, 70(4), 479-500.
  • Pendlebury J. The conservation of historic areas in the UK: A case study of 'Grainger Town', Newcastle upon Tyne. Cities 1999, 16(6), 423-433.
  • Townshend TG, Pendlebury J. The Conservation of Historic Areas and Public Participation. Journal of Architectural Conservation 1999, 5(2), 72-87.
  • Townshend T, Pendlebury J. Public Participation in the Conservation of Historic Areas: Case-studies from North-east England. Journal of Urban Design 1999, 4(3), 313-331.
  • Pendlebury JR. The Statutory Protection of Historic Parks and Gardens: An Exploration and Analysis of 'Structure', 'Decoration' and 'Character'. Journal of Urban Design, 2 241-258 1997.

• Authored Books

  • Cullingworth B, Davoudi S, Webb D, Vigar G, Pendlebury J, Townshend T, Gkartzios M, Hart T, Nadin V. Town and Country Planning in the UK. London: Routledge, 2024.
  • Pendlebury J, Brown J. Conserving the Historic Environment. London: Lund Humphries, 2021.
  • Cullingworth B, Nadin V, Hart T, Davoudi S, Pendlebury J, Vigar G, Webb D, Townshend T. Town and Country Planning in the UK. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2015.
  • Sharp T, Pendlebury J. The Anatomy of the Village. Routledge, 2014.
  • Pendlebury J. Conservation in the Age of Consensus. London: Routledge, 2008.

• Book Chapters

  • Pendlebury J, Wang Y-W, Law A. Uncomfortable heritage. In: Saloul, I; Baillie, B, ed. The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Cultural Heritage and Conflict. 2025. In Press.
  • Pendlebury J, Wang Y-W, Law A. Re-using ‘uncomfortable heritage’: the case of the 1933 building, Shanghai. In: Li, Y. González Martínez, P, ed. Re-creating Shanghai: Heritage Conservation and Urban Regeneration. Berlin: Springer, 2025. In Press.
  • Pendlebury J. Conservation, Planning and Regeneration in the post-war English city. In: Gunn S; Saumarez Smith O; Mandler P, ed. The Modern British City. London: Lund Humphries, 2025. In Press.
  • Pendlebury J. Visions of Reconstruction. In: Bohdan Kryzhanovsky, ed. Architecture After War: A Reader. MACK, 2024, pp.45-62.
  • Mason A, Veldpaus L, Hulse M, Pendlebury J. Gathering a Family Around the Coffee Machine: The People at the Heart of the Sunderland Cooperative Heritage Lab. In: H. Oevermann et al. (eds), ed. Open heritage: community-driven adaptive reuse in Europe: best practice. Basel: Birkhäuser, 2023, pp.36–47.
  • Pendlebury J. Conservation and the Challenge of Consensus (Chapter 11 of Conservation in the Age of Consensus reproduced with a postscriptum). In: Mieg, H & Scharnhorst, A, ed. Transferability: Reflections on Planning and knowledge organization. Humbolt University, 2022, pp.157-176. In Preparation.
  • Pendlebury J, Haley J. The Byker Community Trust and the 'Byker Approach'. In: Steer, M; Davoudi, S; Shucksmith, S; Todd, L, ed. Hope under Neoliberal Austerity: Responses from Civil Society and Civic Universities. Bristol, UK: Policy Press, 2021, pp.57-72.
  • Pendlebury J. Heritage and Conservation Planning. In: Parker G; Street E, ed. Contemporary Planning Practice: Skills, Specialisms and Knowledge. London: Macmillan, 2021, pp.126-139.
  • Pendlebury J. Heritage and Policy. In: Waterton E & Watson S, ed. The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Heritage Research. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
  • Pendlebury J, Townshend TG, Gilroy RC. Social Housing as Heritage: The Case of Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne. In: Gibson L; Pendlebury J, ed. Valuing Historic Environments. Farnham: Ashgate, 2009, pp.179-200.
  • Pendlebury J. Planning the Historic City: 1960s Plans for Bath and York. In: Monclus, J., Guardia, M, ed. Culture, Urbanism and Planning. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006, pp.149-164.
  • Larkham P, Pendlebury J, Townshend T. Public Involvement in Residential Conservation Planning: Values Attitudes and Future Directions. In: Rydin, Y., Thornley, T, ed. Planning in the UK: Agendas for the New Millennium. Ashgate: Aldershot, 2002, pp.237-256.
  • Pendlebury J. Conservation in the United Kingdom. In: Pickard, R, ed. Policy and Law in Heritage Conservation. London: Taylor & Francis, 2001, pp.315-341.

• Edited Books

  • Pendlebury J, Erten E, Larkham P, ed. Alternative Visions of Post-War Reconstruction: Creating the Modern Townscape. London: Routledge, 2014.
  • Gibson L, Pendlebury J, ed. Valuing Historic Environments. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2009.

• Reports

  • Veldpaus L, Pendlebury J. Brexit & Heritage: report ESRC IAA funded workshop. Newcastle upon Tyne: Global Urban Research Unit, Newcastle University, 2017.
  • Healey P, Madanipour A, de Magalhaes C, Pendlebury J. Shaping City Centre Futures: Conservation, regeneration and institutional capacity. Newcastle upon Tyne: CREUE, 2002. CREUE Occasional Paper.