My friend and former work colleague Christopher Wakeling, who has died aged 74, was a specialist in the architecture of Protestant nonconformity. He spent his academic career unpicking its traditions, from Quaker meeting houses and Baptist and Congregationalist chapels to the galleried spaces of later Methodism. His book on the subject, Chapels of England: Buildings of Protestant Nonconformity (2017), remains definitive.
From 1977 to 2011 Christopher’s career was spent as an extramural visual arts lecturer at Keele University (where I worked), initially travelling to his various, scattered teaching sites on a moped with a projector on its pannier and a projection screen across his shoulder like a longbow. His mode of transport soon changed, but his long 1970s hair survived. He was an inspiring teacher of older adults, quietly sponsoring their ability to look critically at paintings and buildings.
