Ken Worpole Explained

Birth Date:June 1944
Education:Southend High School for Boys
Brighton College of Education
Occupation:Writer and Social Historian
Awards:Honorary Doctorate, Middlesex University
Fellowship, Foundation for Urban & Regional Studies
Leverhulme Emeritus Fellowship
Spouse:Larraine Worpole (m.1965)
Children:2

Ken Worpole (born 1944) is a British writer and social historian whose many books include works of literary criticism, architectural history, and landscape aesthetics, and was one of the editors of the 2001 United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS) report, The State of the World's Cities. In 2005, The Independent newspaper stated that: "For many years, Ken Worpole has been one of the shrewdest and sharpest observers of the English social landscape".[1] In 2014, ICON Review similarly observed that "For well over 40 years Ken Worpole has been one of the most eloquent and forward thinking writers in Britain".[2]

Early life

Worpole attended Southend High School for Boys before training as an English teacher at Brighton College of Education between 1965 and 1969. On completing his training, he moved to Hackney, teaching English at Hackney Downs School from 1969 to 1973.[3] He has been married to the photographer Larraine Worpole since 1965 and they have two children.[4]

Career

On leaving teaching Worpole worked as an oral historian and publisher for the Centerprise project in Hackney. In 1984 he was appointed Director of the Cultural Industries Unit at the Greater London Enterprise Board,[5] leaving in 1986 when the Greater London Council was abolished. Between 1986 and 1989 he worked as a Policy Adviser to Mark Fisher MP, Shadow Minister for the Arts.[6] Since then he has written or edited some 18 books, contributed chapters to many others, and been responsible for researching and writing a number of influential government and independent public policy reports, including Park Life: Urban Parks & Social Renewal,[7] People, Parks & Cities,[8] 21st Century Libraries[9] and Modern Hospice Design.[10]

His study of European cemetery design, Last Landscapes, was chosen as one of the ‘Books of the Year’ by Architects' Journal,[11] The New Statesman,[12] and the Glasgow Sunday Herald;[13] in The Times, books editor Erica Wagner named it as one of her Critic’s Choice of the best six books about death.[14] His study of hospice architecture in the UK, Modern Hospice Design, was the first major study of the hospice movement in Britain from the 1960s onwards, and their influence across the world. In 2015, a reviewer for Town & Country Planning journal wrote that: ‘I’ve been forced to confront a deeper sense of spirituality in a beautiful new book called New Jerusalem: The Good City and the Good Society. It is by the hugely influential architectural critic Ken Worpole and looks as wonderful as it reads.’[15] In July 2021, the editor of The New Statesman wrote: ‘Worpole is a literary original, a social and architectural historian whose books combine the Orwellian ideal of common decency with understated erudition.’ [16]  

Offices held

Worpole was a founder member of the think-tank, Demos,[17] a member of the UK Government’s Urban Green Spaces Task Force (2001 – 2002), a member of the Expert Panel of the Heritage Lottery Fund (2003 - 2008) and an Adviser to the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (2003 – 2008).[18] [19] [20] In 2006 he was appointed as a Senior Professor at The Cities Institute, London Metropolitan University,[21] retiring in 2011.

Honours and awards

Publications: books

External links

Notes and References

  1. Pick of the Picture Books, The Independent, 23 September 2005
  2. https://www.iconeye.com/opinion/review/itemlist/tag/Ken%20Worpole ICON Architecture
  3. https://cloveclub.com/staff-hackney-downs-school/# Gazetteer of The Staff at Hackney Downs School
  4. Web site: The Mothers' Hospital Larraine and Ken Worpole Patient stories From Fever to Consumption - The Story of Healthcare in Hackney. (www.communitysites.co.uk). Community Sites. 2018-11-09.
  5. Book: Cities of Culture: A Global Perspective. Deborah Stevenson. Routledge. 2013. 56–58. 9781134084357.
  6. Book: Arcadia Revisited: the place of landscape. Vicki Berger . Isabel Vasseur. Black Dog Publishing. 1997. 203. 9781901033700.
  7. https://www.thenbs.com/PublicationIndex/documents/details?Pub=COMEDIA&DocID=258378 Park Life
  8. Book: People, parks & cities: a guide to current good practice in urban parks : a report for the Department of the Environment. Greenhalgh, Liz. Ken Worpole. 1996. London. HMSO. 39116265.
  9. http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110118174736/http://www.cabe.org.uk/files/21st-century-libraries.pdf National web archives
  10. Book: Modern Hospice Design. 9780415451802.
  11. Architects' Journal, 20 December 2004, p.28
  12. New Statesman, 1/12/2003, p.48
  13. Glasgow Sunday Herald, 5 December 2004, p.10
  14. The Times, 29 April 2006
  15. T&CPA, December 2015
  16. Jason Cowley, The New Statesman, 30 July 2021
  17. https://www.demos.co.uk/?s=ken+worpole Demos
  18. http://www.cpre.org.uk/magazine/opinion/item/3102-the-green-between-the-grey-the-countryside-in-the-city Council for the Preservation of Rural England, 2012, Interview with Ken Worpole
  19. Web site: Essex: England's frontier territory. Worpole. Ken. 2004-11-10. The Guardian. en. 2018-11-09.
  20. Web site: Green Spaces Investigative Committee "Scrutiny of Green Spaces in London November 2001". Greater London Authority.
  21. https://www.opendemocracy.net/author/ken-worpole See Ken Worpole, founder member of Opendemocracy & Senior Professor at London Metropolitan University
  22. Book: Urban Villages & the Making of Communities. Peter Neal . 27 November 2003. Spon Press . 203, ix. 9781134504114.
  23. https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/sites/default/files/imported_pdfs/all%20awards%20listings%202012.pdf Leverhulme Awards made in 2012: Emeritus Fellowships

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