Biography

Dr John Price is a Social and Cultural Historian who takes a ‘People’s History’ approach to nineteenth and twentieth-century British history, local history, and the history of London.

Having completed his PhD at King's College London in 2010, John spent fourteen years in the Department of History at Goldsmiths, University of London and was Head of Department 2017-2020.

Research interests and PhD supervision

• Public and Community History
• Constructions of Heroism and the Heroic
• Schooling and Education
• Urban History and Histories of London
• Material Culture

John welcomes applications for PhD topics related to any of his research interests.

Teaching

John is an award-winning educator and educational developer, who has worked in the sector for over fifteen years and has extensive experience in teaching and in developing programmes of education. He has created a number of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes as well as more than thirty modules across all levels, including foundation.

Expertise and public engagement

Dr John Price is an award-winning practitioner of Public History and Applied History, with Public and Community Engagement absolutely central to his work. He has undertaken a number of high-profile projects which have greatly impacted and increased public knowledge and understanding of key events in history.

John is the Director of the Museum of Everyday Life; an online archive and museum working with the Lewisham Local History Society. He was the Academic Lead for In Living Memory, which celebrated Lewisham’s diversity and heritage for London Borough of Culture 2022.

John conceived the award-winning 'Windrush: Arrival 1948' project in collaboration with Will Cenci. Based on a new transcription of the Windrush passenger list, 1,027 individual landing cards representing each passenger were created and used in numerous outputs. To mark the 40th anniversary of the 1977 Battle of Lewisham, John led a range of public engagement activities to initiate inclusive dialogues with different publics on how the events should be remembered and commemorated.

Selected publications

• 'Heroes of Postman's Park: Heroic Self-Sacrifice in Victorian London (London: The History Press, 2015)
• Everyday Heroism: Victorian Constructions of the Heroic Civilian (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014)
• 'Baildon Street: The Blackest Street in Deptford?' The London Journal, 49(2), 2024, 167–187‘
• Octavia Hill’s Red Cross Hall and its mural to heroic self-sacrifice’ in Elizabeth Baigent and Ben Cowell, eds., ‘Nobler imaginings and mightier struggles’: Octavia Hill and the remaking of British society (London: Institute of Historical Research, 2016)
• Postman’s Park: G. F. Watts’s Memorial to Heroic Self-sacrifice (Compton: Watts Gallery, 2008)