Nigel Walter

Nigel Walter is a Specialist Conservation Architect; through his Cambridge practice he works with church communities across many denominations to create a better fit between their buildings and their communal life. He is inspecting architect for some 50 historic churches, mostly listed, many grade I, and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA).

He is a member of the Church Buildings Council (CBC), which provides casework advice and develops policy for the care, conservation and development of church buildings within the Church of England. As a DCMS nominee to the CBC, he also serves on the Statutory Advisory Committee on Closed and Closing Churches. He is also a member of the Baptist Union Listed Buildings Advisory Committee.

Nigel holds a PhD in historic building conservation at the University of York, where he is a Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture. His academic research focuses on living heritage, which he defines as the nexus – literally the binding together – of people and place. He advocates a narrative-based approach to conservation that addresses living buildings, including in his recent book Narrative Theory in Conservation: Change and Living Buildings (Routledge, 2020). He is a member of two ICOMOS International Scientific Committees.

He is a Licensed Lay Minister in his local parish church and has a keen practical interest in how church buildings work for worship and broader community use.