Chiswick Resident Peter Murray Given OBE

Honoured for leadership in arts, architecture, city planning and charity work

Peter Murray OBE

Chiswick resident Peter Murray has been given an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

He said, “I am particularly pleased that the citation is for ‘leadership in the arts, architecture, city planning, design, publication and charity’ which nicely describes the various passions in my life and reflects the breadth of the work carried out by New London Architecture. As a keen group cyclist I am well aware of the benefits of drafting behind the efforts of others and I am very grateful to the teams at Blueprint, Wordsearch, London Festival of Architecture, Club Peloton and New London Architecture who helped me arrive at this point.”

Mr Murray, who lives in Bedford Park, has been an influential voice in architecture and city planning across London for many years but also has brought his expertise to bear on improving the local area. He was formerly Honorary Secretary of the Bedford Park Society and he recently set up a steering group to look at how the environment of Turnham Green Terrace might be improved.

A keen cyclist, he is also chairman of the Bedford Park Bicycle Club. In 2006 he started Cycle to Cannes, an annual ride comprising architects, developers and consultants who raise over a quarter of a million pounds each year for charity. In 2013 he rode 4,300 miles across America and the UK raising money for the Architects Benevolent Society and Article 25. He was a finalist for the London Cycling Campaign’s Cycling Champion of the Year 2015 and is a member of the Construction Industry Cycling Commission.

He studied architecture at Bristol University and the Architectural Association, and has since spent most of his career writing about, commenting on and teaching architecture rather than practising it.

He was technical editor of Architectural Design magazine, then editor of Building Design and the RIBA Journal. He founded the design and architecture magazine Blueprint in 1983 followed by Tate magazine and Eye, the international review of graphic design. He started Wordsearch, the global communications consultancy specialising in architecture and real estate.

He founded the London Festival of Architecture, which began life as the Clerkenwell Architecture Biennale, in 2004. With Nick McKeogh, he launched New London Architecture in 2005 as London’s independent membership organisation for everyone with an interest in London’s built environment, with a clear purpose to improve the quality of people’s lives by making London a better place to live, work and visit.

Peter curated major exhibitions at the Royal Academy including New Architecture: the work of Foster, Rogers, Stirling in 1986, Living Bridges in 1996 and Beyond Minimalism, the work of Tadao Ando in 1998. Peter has written numerous books including The Saga of Sydney Opera House, Building Passions, Architecture and Commerce, and The Leadenhall Building. Until recently he was a Visiting Professor at the IE Business School in Madrid.

For 35 years he was Honorary Secretary of the Architecture Club and he was formerly Honorary Secretary of the Architectural Association.

He is regularly listed as one of London’s 1000 most influential people by the London Evening Standard and is included in Debrett/Sunday Times 500 People of Influence.

In addition he is a Mayor of London’s Design Advocate and was previously a member of the Mayor’s Design Advisory Group when Boris Johnson was Mayor of London. He is Chairman of the London Society and the Temple Bar Trust, former Master of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects and Member of the Court of Assistants. He is a member of the The Athenaeum Club and the City Livery Club. He is a Board member of BeFirst, the regeneration delivery company for Barking and Dagenham, and of the Association of Architectural Organisations.

June 12, 2021