Ken Worpole is emeritus professor at Cities Institute London Metropolitan University, and has served on the UK government's Urban Green Spaces Task Force, on the Expert Panel of the Heritage Lottery Fund, and as an advisor to the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. He is a writer and social historian, whose work includes many books on architecture, landscape and public policy. He is married to photographer Larraine Worpole with whom he has collaborated on book projects internationally, as well as in Hackney, London, where they have lived and worked since 1969. His principal interests concern the planning and design of new landscapes and public institutions, whether parks, playgrounds, or libraries - as well as in townscape renewal and new urban green networks - and learning the lessons of 20th century urban democracy and the rise of the environmental movement.