Derek Keene

Reflecting his wide interest and knowledge of cities and towns both historic and modern, Keene contributed to many projects and committees. His committee membership included, among others: the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, the Urban Panel], a committee of English Heritage and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and the Fabric Committee for St Paul's Cathedral until 2020. He was lead editor of the definitive history of St Paul's in 2004, together with co-editors Arthur Burns and Andrew Saint.

Keene was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He served as President of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society in 1999–2002. He was the dedicatee of a 2012 festschrift, London and Beyond: Essays in Honour of Derek Keene.

Derek was married to the academic and conservator Suzanne Keene (née Forbes) in 1969; they have a daughter, Frances, b. 1971, and a son, Thomas, b. 1974, and four grandchildren.

Derek John Keene, FRHistS (27 December 1942–April 2021), was an English urban historian. He was founding director of the Centre for Metropolitan History from 1987 to 2002 at the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) and then Leverhulme Professor of Comparative Metropolitan History until retirement in 2008; since which he was Emeritus Professor of Metropolitan History and an honorary fellow of the IHR.

Born on 27 December 1942, Derek John Keene was the son of Charles Henry Keene and his wife Edith Anne (née Swanston). After attending Ealing Grammar School, he was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, where he completed his undergraduate and doctoral studies; his DPhil was awarded in 1972 for his thesis "Some aspects of the history, topography and archaeology of the north eastern part of the medieval city of Winchester with special reference to the Brooks area". In 1968, Keene became a researcher at the Winchester Research Unit, and became its assistant director six years later. In 1979, he joined the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) where he led the Social Science Research Council-funded project "Social and economic survey of medieval London". He then proposed that the IHR establish its own centre dedicated to studying London's history, and this came to fruition in 1987 when the IHR set up the Centre for Metropolitan History with Keene as its first Director. He served in that post until 2001, after which he was appointed Leverhulme Professor of Comparative Metropolitan History at the IHR. After retiring in 2008, he remained associated with the IHR as Emeritus Professor of Metropolitan History and as an honorary fellow.