International Garden Cities Institute
Who we are
Founding President
Marquess of Salisbury
Founder
Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation
John Lewis – Chief Executive
David Ames – Head of Heritage & Strategic Planning
Founding Partners
Janet Askew – University of the West of England and President of the Royal Town Planning Institute
Sir Nicholas Bacon Bt – President, Royal Horticultural Society, and Chairman, Prince’s Council,
Duchy of Cornwall
Keith Boyfield – Research Fellow, Centre for Policy Studies
Guy Butler – Glenbrook Property Limited
Andrew Cameron – Director of Urban Design, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff
Peter Clegg - Chief Executive, Gascoyne Cecil Estates
Anthony Downs – Director Planning & Development, Gascoyne Cecil Estates
Jane Duncan – Jane Duncan Architects, and President of Royal Institute of British Architects from 1
September, 2015
Peter Freeman – Founder, Argent
Catherine Harrington – Director, National Community Land Trust Network
Kate Henderson – Chief Executive, Town and Country Planning Association
Gillian Hobbs – Director, Building Research Establishment
Neil Jefferson – Business Development Director, National House Building Council Federation
Dr Mervyn Miller – Independent Architect and Town Planner & Parker Scholar
Chris Pattison – Director of Planning, Turnberry
Trevor Saunders – Independent Planning Adviser
Kim Slowe – Zero C Holdings Limited
Kerry Thompson – Executive Director, Inventa Partners Limited
Academic Partners
University of Hertfordshire - Lead Academic Partner
Dr Susan Parham – Academic Director
Sichuan University
Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Grenoble
International Garden Cities Exhibition
Josh Tidy
Media enquiries
Sara Gaines
sara.gaines@letchworth.com
01462 476071
Biographies
The Marquess of Salisbury
Born in 1946, Lord Salisbury was educated at Eton College and at Christ Church, Oxford. He was
Member of Parliament for South Dorset (Conservative) from 1979 until 1987 and became a member
of the House of Lords in 1992, serving successively as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for
Defence; Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords; and Leader of the Opposition in the
House of Lords.
He is Chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire, President of the Game and Wildlife Conservation
Trust and is involved with several other national and local charities and organisations.
He said: "My great-great-grandfather, Prime Minister Salisbury was interested, in the second half of
the 19th Century, in improving housing conditions; and his son, my great-grandfather, was happy to
provide 700 acres towards the establishment of Welwyn Garden City in the early 1920s. This interest
in urban development is something we have tried to continue."
John Lewis
John Lewis has been the CEO of the Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation since 2010. The
Heritage Foundation is a self-funding independent charitable organisation reinvesting for the longterm benefit of communities in Letchworth Garden City and John is committed to ensure that the
Foundation’s activities and projects bring real benefit for the people of the town.
Before his appointment at the Foundation, John was Chief Executive of Milton Keynes Partnership, an
operational arm of the Homes and Communities Agency responsible for the growth of the city.
John has worked in both the public and private sector. As an Associate Director with International
property consultants DTZ he advised on a series of commercial and industrial developments in
London and the Home Counties. His interest in the broader aspects of regeneration and housing
developed when he joined English Partnerships where as a director he was responsible for the East
of England Region.
He is a Chartered Surveyor and has a Master of Arts in Urban Regeneration.
His experience of supporting the Foundation’s broad remit to make life better for people who live,
work and visit Letchworth Garden City, makes John an expert on the practical application of the
cultural, social and community component of the Garden City model.
Dr Susan Parham
Dr Susan Parham has recently been appointed as the Academic Director of the International Garden
Cities Institute in Letchworth, and has worked as Head of Urbanism at the University of Hertfordshire
(UH) since 2010 where she is responsible for leadership of UH’s Centre for Sustainable Communities’
urbanism programme of research, partnerships and teaching activities.
Susan has a long-term academic and professional background in planning, urbanism and urban
design for sustainable place making with a special focus on garden cities and new towns, and on
food, design and place (her latest book, Food and Urbanism, is out with Bloomsbury).
She directs a number of research projects, including the UH Lafarge Tarmac Sustainable Living
Partnership, which over three years is producing substantial applied research findings on topical
issues in ‘living sustainably’.
Susan is a Fellow of the RSA and an Academician with the Academy of Urbanism.
Josh Tidy
Josh Tidy is the Curator of the International Garden Cities Exhibition, and the Heritage Foundation’s
Town Historian.
Josh looks after the day to day running of the Institute building, devising and producing its displays,
and welcomes visiting groups from across the globe to the world’s first Garden City, with guided walks
and tours.
He has been the author of numerous exhibitions, illustrated talks and publications.
A heritage professional with over a decade of experience, Josh is passionately committed to
Letchworth Garden City, where he has enjoyed working since its centenary in 2003, and is a fierce
advocate of the Garden Cities Movement worldwide.