Rosamund Lily West

Rosamund Lily West is a Lecturer in Architectural Studies at the University of Manchester. Her current research looks at the post-war housing estates of the London County Council and the public sculpture installed within these estates. She is interested in depictions of residents in publications, film and exhibitions to communicate planning, rebuilding and slum clearances to an audience. She is interested in the layers of memory and emotion within urban spaces, particularly in relation to planning, relocation, communities and public art. She is particularly interested in using walking as a methodology and practises of documentation and archiving. She continues to work with the museum and heritage field, specialising in contemporary collecting, communities and sculpture.

Rosamund has a BA (hons) and MA in History of Art from the University of York. Prior to her role in Manchester, she worked at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, as a Research Fellow on the Survey of London, teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Before entering academia, she worked in the museum sector for 15 years, holding curatorial positions at London Transport Museum, Kingston Museum and as Paul Mellon Research Curator at the Royal Society of Sculptors. She collaborated with the Henry Moore Institute on the research season, ‘Researching Women in Sculpture’ in 2022. She has written, researched and led architectural walking tours for the V&A, the London Festival of Architecture, The Architecture Foundation, the London Society and Open City and currently leads tours of Canary Wharf and Woolwich.

She has appeared on Woman’s Hour, been a guest on Open City’s podcast. ‘The Londown’ and, most recently, appeared on UKTV’s ‘Secrets of the London Underground’. She is the co-convenor of the Women Architectural Historians network of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, an ECR Advisory Board member for the Centre for People, Place and Community at the Institute of Historical Research and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Co-organiser, seminar, People’s Museum, Somers Town, October 2023

In my role as co-convenor for the Women Architectural Historians’ network for the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, I worked with colleagues and the People’s Museum, Somers Town on a seminar commemorating the housing pioneer Irene Barclay and housing in St. Pancras. This involved working with Open City as part of the Open House Festival, organising a discussion panel and keynote lecture and increasing opportunities across the network of women architectural historians.

Research Session Convenor, Henry Moore Institute (HMI), July 2020 to September 2022.

I proposed, and received funding for, the ‘Researching Women in Sculpture’ season to the HMI, based on my research as Research Curator at the Royal Society of Sculptors.

Collaborating with HMI research colleagues and the Hepworth Wakefield, Kingston Museum, Dorich House Museum, Kingston University and Midlands4Cities, I co-organised the conference, ‘Differencing the Canon: Methods of Researching and Archiving Women’s Sculptural Practices’, at the Hepworth Wakefield in September 2022.

I co-organised and chaired the ‘Bodies’ session at a Midlands 4 Cities Dialogue Day, ‘(Re)gendering sculpture: a research and practice-led workshop interrogating the ways in which gender and sculpture intersect’, at the University of Birmingham in July 2022.

I facilitated and organised the workshop, ‘Breaking the Mould: Sculpture by Women since 1945’, held at the Henry Moore Institute in May 2022.

I facilitated and organised the workshop, ‘Family Collections and Scattered Archives’, held at the Henry Moore Institute in May 2022.

I facilitated and organised the workshop,  ‘Women’s Studio Museums’, held at Dorich House Museum in May 2022.

I facilitated and organised the workshop, ‘Art School Archives’, held at the Town House, Kingston University, in May 2022.

Mentor, Arts Emergency, 2019

In 2019, I mentored a sixth-form student with an interest in historic buildings. Through regular mentoring sessions and workplace visits, they succeeded in securing an apprenticeship and a stonemason and still work as a banker mason.