Ptolemy Hugo DeanOBE (born 1968) is a British architect, television presenter and the 19th Surveyor of the Fabric of Westminster Abbey. He specialises in historic preservation, as well as designing new buildings that are in keeping with their historic or natural settings. He is best known for his appearances on two BBC television series, Restoration and The Perfect Village.
Personal
Dean is the son of Jenefer Dean and Joseph Dean, a judge, and the grandson of the actor and impresario Basil Dean;[1] his uncle is the noted musicologistWinton Dean.[2] Ptolemy Dean grew up in Wye in Kent. One of his sisters is called Antigone, the other is the artist Tacita Dean. He attended Kent College, Canterbury.
He has worked for a number of Britain's more traditionally influenced architects, including Sir William Whitfield, neo-classicistJohn Simpson, Sir Frederick Gibberd and Richard Griffiths. At Griffiths', he provided heritage assistance in obtaining planning consent for RHWL architects' post-modern influenced extension to St Pancras Chambers.
Dean has written and illustrated two books on the 19th-century British architect Sir John Soane, and co-written a study of London's historic Borough Market.
Television
Dean has appeared with Marianne Suhr as the resident "ruin detective" on the BBC Two television programme Restoration. In his seven-episode series The Perfect Village, on BBC Four, Dean visited 12 English villages and discussed the qualities that would create the "perfect village."
Art and illustration
As seen in his television appearances, Dean produces watercolour cityscapes and architectural renderings or illustrations. These are done in a wobbly line pen and ink technique with evocative colour washes, broadly influenced by the English tradition typified by Samuel Palmer.
Bibliography
Dean, Ptolemy. Sir John Soane and the Country Estate (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999; ISBN1-84014-293-6).
Dean, Ptolemy, et al.. The Borough Market Book: From Roots to Renaissance (London: Civic Books, 2004; ISBN1-904104-90-8).
Dean, Ptolemy. Sir John Soane and London (Aldershot: Lund Humphries, 2006; ISBN0-7546-3926-6).