Our People

Dr Hubert Pragnell

Member of Common Room

Part-time Tutor, Architectural History

Department for Continuing Education

PhD (York)

Hubert Pragnell has been at part-time tutor for the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education since October 2003, where he devised and taught over twenty five 10-week courses in history of art and architecture. He also teaches the architecture history modules on the undergraduate certificate and diploma in History of Art. Prior to joining the department, he was Head of History of Art at the King’s School, Canterbury for 29 years.  He studied Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Fine Art, Oxford, and History at the universities of Kent & York; for the latter, he has just completed a PhD. As well as enjoying painting, especially in watercolour, & exhibiting at the Mall Gallery, he has written a number of books and articles. He has given a OUSSA Summer School at Rewley House in the summer 2024 and has been invited to give another in July 2025.

Publications

Hubert published several books on British architecture, including a book on railway history (The Early History of Railway Tunnels, Pen & Sword Publishing), and recently published a paper in ‘Architectural History 2020’, Tunnels in Arcadia: Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Portal Designs for the Great Western Railway’ and Batsford have just republished a revised version of Industrial Architecture, first published in 2001. His other publications include:

The Chapel & Chaplains of Eltham Palace,  Archaeologia Cantuiana, 1968

The London Panoramas of Robert Barker & Thomas Girtin,  London Topographical Society, 1968

The Styles of English Architecture, Batsford  1984

Walks through Ten English Towns (illustrator), Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988

Britain: a Guide to Architectural Styles, Batsford,  1995

Industrial Britain, an Architectural History, Ellipsis, 2000

Artists’ Oxford (contributor), Contemporary Watercolours, 2005

The Friars in Medieval Britain (Contributor) Harlaxton Medieval Studies, Shaun Tyas, 2010

Portraits of British Schools (contributor), Contemporary Watercolours, 2012

York: An Architectural Guild, Northern Arts publications, 2014

Lawrence Wright’s Panorama of London from St Paul’s Cathedral 1948-54 (joint author), London Topographical Society, 2018

Common Room Member since 2003.