About us
Fulham Palace Trust was established in April 2011 and is a company limited by guarantee with charitable status.
We lease the Fulham Palace estate from the head lessor, London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (LBHF), which in turn leases it from the Church Commission. Both leases run until 2075.
Our business plan for the period 2017/18 – 2024/25 outlines the Trust’s vision and key aims:
Vision
To engage people, through the stories of Fulham Palace and the Bishops of London, in 6,000 years of English history, and to become one of the UK’s most inclusive and inspiring historic houses and gardens.
Tag line
Home to a history that never stands still
Key aims
- To conserve and restore Fulham Palace house and garden following thorough analysis of options and sector best practice
- To develop the understanding of Fulham Palace’s layered history through research and engagement with experts, partners, users and the community
- To be inspirational, engaging and educational
- To delight our visitors through excellent customer service and high quality facilities, interpretation and events
- To be inclusive and participative in all areas of the Palace’s operation
- To be sustainable and financially self-sufficient
Board of trustees
The Trust comprises 12 trustees, selected for their broad range of skills and experience, from PR, business and finance to heritage education, historic buildings, archaeology and horticulture.
Paul Gray, chair
Paul began his career in arts and heritage in 1995 as a marketing specialist. After senior roles at Kew Gardens, Turner Contemporary in Margate and Historic Royal Palaces, he became chief operating officer at the National Gallery in May 2018. After undertaking the Getty Leadership programme in 2015, Paul has held non-executive director/trustee roles at Chelsea Physic Garden for eight years and has been a member of St Paul’s Cathedral Council for six years.
Deborah Farley-Persaud, deputy chair
Deborah has held senior policy and strategy positions in a number of central government departments over a 30-year career in the Civil Service. She has specialised in international relations and social policy, and has brought a strong focus on stakeholder engagement, people and inclusion to her work. She has also led on organisational development, corporate and infrastructure projects and has been responsible for turnaround of challenging programmes and improving performance. Outside of work she coaches small businesses, practices yoga and is an active campaigner for disability awareness.
Victoria Quinlan, chair of finance, risk and audit committee
Victoria is the European chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Lendlease, a global integrated property and infrastructure company, which started in Australia. Victoria has had a successful and eclectic career, starting as an accountant at Anderson (now known as Ernst & Young) before joining Lendlease in Australia. She moved to London in 2006 and joined the European business to focus on the financial and commercial elements of the residential, commercial and retail sectors. During the past nine years, she has held roles in finance, strategy, investment and operations. Victoria has a Bachelor of Commerce degree, a Bachelor of Arts degree, is a chartered accountant and has a Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance and Investment from FINSIA.
Iain Cassidy
Iain is a Senior Researcher working in Parliament for Andy Slaughter MP. He was a local Councillor in the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham for 8 years, during which time he served as Chair of the Audit Committee and Chair of the Pensions Committee. He also served as the Borough’s Walking & Cycling Champion, working with local stakeholders to increase the levels of active travel in the Borough. Before working in politics, Iain volunteered with the Voluntary Service Overseas, living and working in Kazakhstan. Iain is from Scotland, and moved to London in 2008. Iain holds an MEng from the University of Glasgow in Electronics and Electrical Engineering. He has an interest in historic churches and also enjoys photography and playing the piano.
Craig Coben
Craig has been a Fulham resident for over 25 years. He was an investment banker at Bank of America / Merrill Lynch from 2005 to 2022, holding several senior positions in London and Hong Kong. Prior to that, he worked eight years at Deutsche Bank in its Equity Capital Markets division. He was previously a securities lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell in London and New York and a law clerk to Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg of the US Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit. Craig has previously served on the Board of Governors for Tower Hamlets College and the Presence Theatre. He is a recognised commentator on the financial industry, with numerous recent columns published in the Financial Times and guest appearances on CNBC and Bloomberg TV. A long time season ticket holder at Fulham Football Club, Craig co-hosts the fan podcast Cottage Talk. He holds a BA from Yale University and a JD from Harvard Law School.
Fenella Goodhart
Fenella is head of learning at London Transport Museum. She oversees programming for schools, families and under-5’s, employability programming for young people, ticketed events for all audiences and community programming. She also manages major projects on behalf of the museum ranging across different fields including participatory practice, interpretation and new gallery developments and public programming around sustainability. She began her career in the museums and heritage sector at the Group for Education in Museums (GEM) where she worked on the introduction of the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge and advocated for the role of museum education across education, health and social care. She has also worked in learning and interpretation at the National Trust and in various roles across family, schools and community programming at Historic Royal Palaces. Fenella enjoys running, reading, theatre and coffee.
John King
A retired barrister, John has lived in Hammersmith for 36 years. He was for many years governor of Hammersmith, Phoenix and Burlington Danes Schools, and chair or vice chair of the Friends of Furnival Gardens since its inception. He has been chair or vice chair of Ravenscroft Ward of the Labour Party for 30 years. He is currently a member of the Hammersmith Residents’ Working Party.
Fiona McWilliams
Fiona is executive director of development at the Natural History Museum. A member of the museum’s executive board, Fiona’s responsibilities also include building relationships and income streams from philanthropists and companies to help the museum achieve its strategic aims. She has also held senior development roles at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and SOAS, University of London, where she was responsible for the university’s external communications, marketing, student recruitment and development functions. The first part of Fiona’s career was in public relations and marketing in international television. She lives locally to Fulham and has a long-held interest in heritage buildings and gardens and the stories that bring them to life for visitors.
Matthew Pottage
Matthew is curator and member of the management team at the Royal Horticultural Society’s flagship garden, Wisley, which receives over 1.4 m visitors per annum. He is youngest-ever curator of Wisley in the history of the RHS. Matthew is author of ‘How to garden when you rent: make it your own’, the first book of its kind, aimed to inspire those without home ownership to get into gardening. Matthew is an experienced broadcaster: he is a regular panellist for BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners Question Time and a contributor to Radio 2’s breakfast show as a gardening guest. Matthew is qualified to RHS master of horticulture level. He lives in Fulham.
Kevin Rogers
Kevin studied Design History at the Royal College of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Since 1995 he has worked as a curator and architectural historian and is the author of historic building studies and conservation plans. Working as a curator for the National Trust, 1995-2002, he contributed to the understanding of collections, houses and their landscape setting including Stowe, Osterley Park and The Vyne. In 2002 as deputy director of the World Monuments Fund in Britain he initiated the restoration of Strawberry Hill together with a group of local residents. He carried this forward at Inskip & Jenkins Architects, where he was an associate- historian for nine years, as well as working on other large-scale restoration projects such as St George’s Bloomsbury. In 2016, Kevin was appointed as the head of parish property support for the Diocese of London, and is responsible for the upkeep and development of the Diocese’ church buildings and residential properties. He originally hails from the USA, cutting his teeth as an intern at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.
Reverend Penny Seabrook
Penny has been the vicar of All Saints Church since June 2019, having previously served the parish for ten years, as Associate Vicar. She was ordained in 2003 after doing an MA at Kings College London, and studying for a further three years at the South East Institute for Theology, but did her first degree many years ago at Oxford, where she read PPE. Penny worked in publishing as a commissioning editor and writer after Oxford, going freelance when the first of her four (now adult) children was born. She is a proud granny of five, who love exploring Fulham Palace when visiting her in Fulham.
Robbie Sommerville
Robbie is Director of global ESG Communications at Credit Suisse, a leading global wealth manager and investment bank. Robbie joined Credit Suisse in May 2021 and is responsible for the engagement of stakeholders, both internal and external, on the topics of sustainability, environment and culture. He was previously Managing Director of Corporate Affairs at Macquarie Group and has held senior corporate communication roles with Rio Tinto, HSBC and Royal Bank of Canada. Robbie holds a BA in Politics from the University of Leicester and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM); Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (MCIPR); and, a Freeman of the Company of Communicators in the City of London. He is also a passionate advocate for Dallaglio Rugbyworks an intensive, long-term skills development programme based on rugby, which aims to get teenagers outside of mainstream education into sustained education, employment or training.
Mariana Spater
Mariana is a chartered accountant who, until recently, was managing director of Fountain Television Ltd, which was home to shows such as The X Factor. She has served as chair and board member for a number of charities and not-for-profit organisations over many years, including chair of the Royal Surgical Aid Society from 2010 to 2014. Mariana is currently chair of the M&S Energy Society and on the board of Wey Valley Solar, both of which seek to utilise solar power for the benefit of stakeholders and local communities.
Fulham Palace would like to acknowledge the support of Nurole in advertising and recruiting for our recent Trustee positions.
Company secretary and chief executive officer
Siân Harrington
Siân joined Fulham Palace Trust in November 2011. She holds a degree in Anthropology, an MA in Museum Studies and an MBA. She has been working in museums and heritage since her first role as a volunteer collections assistant at Durham University Oriental Museum in 1986. Previous roles have included ten years as a property manager in the National Trust, and as a curator and heritage development manager in local authority museums. Sian lives in Hackney and tries to find time for yoga, travelling and enjoying good food and wine.
Annual report and accounts for Fulham Palace Trust
- 2021-22 Annual report and signed accounts for Fulham Palace Trust
- 2020-21 Annual report and signed accounts for Fulham Palace Trust
- 2019-20 Annual report and signed accounts for Fulham Palace Trust
