Donald Insall

Insall was born on 7 February 1926 in Bristol, where he attended Bristol Grammar School. He served in the Coldstream Guards during the Second World War and qualified in architecture at the Royal West of England Academy School of Architecture, now part of the University of Bristol. He then studied at the Royal Academy and the School of Planning.

Insall worked with the London architects, Phillimore and Jenkins. During 1957 Insall published his report The Care of Old Buildings, marking the 80th anniversary of the founding by William Morris of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. During 1958 he founded architectural conservation practice Donald Insall Associates, and was joined shortly after by Peter Locke (1929–2013), both men having been Lethaby Scholars of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1950. Insall was appointed the City of Chester's consultation consultant in 1960, a post he held until 1978. Donald Insall Associates continues its specialist work in conservation, historic consultancy, adaptive re-use and new buildings in sensitive sites. Insall ran the practice until his retirement in 1998, and continues active as a Consultant.

Insall lives on Kew Green in Kew, south west London. He and his wife Libby have two sons and one daughter. His elder son, Robert Insall, is the professor of computational cell biology at University College London and a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is a life member of the Royal Photographic Society which he joined in 1949. On 7 February 2026, he celebrated his 100th birthday.

• Windsor Castle restoration following the 1992 Windsor Castle fire • Battle of Britain Monument in London • Palace of Westminster • Cross Bath, Bath, Somerset, refurbished in the 1990s • Somerset House • Garrick's Temple to Shakespeare • Plumpton Place • Wotton House • Chester Conservation Plan • Market Hall, Monmouth – a new flat roof for the single storey building, together with a Modernist metal and glass facade at the rear, overlooking the River Monnow, in 1968–69 • Kedleston Hall • Kelmscott Manor • Chevening, Kent • Goldsmiths' Hall, London • Mansion House, London • Somerset House, London • The Holme, Regents Park, London • The Vyne, Hampshire • Croft Castle, Herefordshire • Berrington Hall, Herefordshire • Speke Hall, Liverpool • Trafalgar Square paving, London • Queen Mother Memorial, The Mall, London