Dan Cruickshank is an architectural historian and television presenter, currently working for the British Broadcasting Corporation.

He has written several books about the architecture of London, particularly on its Georgian architecture, and wrote an authoritative history of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

His television credentials include;

• Invasion, a series examining attempts to invade the British Isles over the years, examining coastal fortresses and defensive structures around the coast of the country, to discover its military heritage;
• Britain's Best Buildings, a series examining architecturally- or culturally-significant buildings in Great Britain;
• Under Fire, a series of programmes visiting museums and buildings in Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel, to see how recent warfare has affected the country's historic artefacts;
• What The Industrial Revolution Did For Us, a series focusing on the scientific, technological and political changes of the 19th century;
• Around The World in 80 Treasures, charting Cruickshank's five-month trip around the world to visit eighty man-made artefacts or buildings that he has selected, in order to chart the history of mankind's civilisation.

In 2003, he presented a documentary entitled Towering Ambitions: Dan Cruickshank at Ground Zero following the debate and discussion that led to the selection of Daniel Libeskind's design for the World Trade Center site site in New York City.

In 2005, he presented a documentary on the Mitchell and Kenyon collection - a set of rolls of nitrate film taken in the early 20th century, depicting everyday life in Britain, which were discovered in 1994 in Blackburn.

External links

• Cruickshank's comments on visiting Iraq, post-U.S. invasion (BBC)
• Britain's Best Buildings (BBC)
• What The Industrial Revolution Did For Us (Open University)