James has published more than 50 contributions to the academic, industry and public spheres on history and heritage over the past decade.
Academic Writing
Books
- James Lesh, Values in Cities: Urban Heritage in Twentieth Century Australia. Routledge, 2023.
- Rebecca Madgin and James Lesh, eds., People-Centred Methodologies for Heritage Conservation: Exploring Emotional Attachments to Historic Urban Places. Routledge, 2021.
Journal Articles
- James Lesh, “‘Differences within a range of similarity’: mapping Australian urban history”, Urban History 50, no. 3 (2023). Forthcoming.
- James Lesh and Kali Myers, “‘Beyond Repair’: modernism, renewal and the conservation of Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market, 1967-76”, Planning Perspectives 37, no. 2 (2022): 217–242.
- James Lesh, “Melbourne’s Federation Square and its Heritage Discontents, 1994-2002”, Fabrications 31, no. 1 (2021): 109-138.
- Kali Myers and James Lesh, “The Aboriginal Tent Embassy and the Limits of Values-Based Conservation”, Heritage & Society, no. 14(2–3): 267–284.
- James Lesh, “From modern to postmodern skyscraper urbanism and the rise of historic preservation in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, 1969-1988”, Journal of Urban History 45, no. 1 (2019): 126–149.
- James Lesh, “The National Estate (and the city), 1969–75: a significant Australian heritage phenomenon”, International Journal of Heritage Studies 25, no. 2 (2019): 113–127.
- James Lesh, “Social value and the conservation of urban heritage places in Australia”, Historic Environment 31, no. 1 (2019): 42–62.
- James Lesh, “Melbourne’s Cremorne Gardens and the global Victorian-era pleasure garden, 1853–63”, Victorian Historical Journal 90, no 2 (2019): 219–252.
- James Lesh, “Twentieth-century Jewish LGBTQ London and the Rainbow Jews heritage project”, Change Over Time 8, no. 2 (2018): 206–225.
- James Lesh, “‘A Regional Conservation Manifesto’ and the Australian re-invention of urban heritage management, ca.1975–ca.1985”, International Journal of Regional and Local History 12, no. 2 (2017): 120–133.
- James Lesh, “‘Why not call ourselves Mutilated Melbourne?’ A history of urban heritage at the Rialto Towers”, Historic Environment 28, no 3 (2016): 22–35.
- James Lesh, “The Curious Case of the Dog in the City: Melbourne’s Larry La Trobe”, Melbourne Historical Journal 41 (2013): 103–127. A revised version – “Melbourne’s Famous Pet Dog: Larry La Trobe” – published in 2016 in the La Trobe Journal.
- James Lesh, “Land Boom Advertising: a socio-spatial mapping of the 1885 subdivision of Cremorne”, La Trobe Journal 92 (2013): 97–106.
Book Chapters
- James Lesh, “Saving heritage policy: The past and future of conservation in the Australian city” In Australian cities and regions in a time of change: towards a new policy agenda, eds. Robert Freestone, Bill Randoph and Wendy Steele. ANU ePress (2023). Forthcoming.
- James Lesh, “Values-Based Heritage in Context” In Architectural Conservation in Australasia and the Pacific, eds. John Stubbs and Ross King. Routledge (2023). Forthcoming.
- James Lesh and David Nichols, “Destruction, development and heritage in Melbourne: SX Towers, Southern Cross Hotel, Eastern Market” In Routledge Handbook of Heritage Destruction, eds. Antonio Gonzalez Zarandonam, Emma Cunliffe, Melathi Saldin. Routledge (2023). Forthcoming.
- James Lesh, “Place and Heritage Conservation” In The Routledge Handbook of Place, eds. Tim Edensor, Ares Kalandides and Uma Kothari. Oxon: Routledge (2020): 431–441.
- James Lesh and Cameron Logan, “Heritage Cities” In Understanding Urbanism, eds. Dallas Rogers, Adrienne Keane, Tooran Alizadeh and Jacqueline Nelson. Singapore: Springer (2020): 87-101.
- James Lesh and David Nichols, “Richmond and 18 Berry Street Revisited”, in Urban Australia and Post-Punk: Exploring Dogs in Space, ed. David Nichols and Sophie Perillo (Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), 157–173.
Conference Proceedings
- James Lesh and David Nichols, “The Ruins Caused a Catch in the Throat as Memories Came Flooding In’: Melbourne’s Bread and Cheese Club and Postwar Literary Urban Conservationism.” Australasian Urban / Planning History Biannual Conference Proceedings, Melbourne, 2018.
- James Lesh and Nicole Davis, “Lost [in] Arcadia: Regenerating Melbourne’s Nineteenth-Century Shopping Arcades Since the 1950s.” Australasian Urban / Planning History Biannual Conference Proceedings, 2018.
- James Lesh, “Locating the national in the urban: heritage and scale in the twentieth-century Australian City.” Australasian Urban / Planning History Biannual Conference Proceedings, 2016: 239–249.
Review Articles
- In Architecture Theory Review, 2023, Book Review of Valuing Architecture: Heritage and the Economics of Culture, by Ashley Paine, Susan Holden and John Macarthur, eds., Amsterdam, Valiz, 2020.
- In History Australia, 2022, Book Review of The Invention of Melbourne: A Baroque Archbishop and a Gothic Architect and The Architecture of Devotion: James Goold and His Legacies in Colonial Melbourne, Eds. Jaynie Anderson, Max Vodola, Shane Carmody, eds., Melbourne University Publishing, 2019/22.
- In Australian Historical Studies, 2019, Book Review of City Life: The New Urban Australia, Seamus O’Hanlon, NewSouth Publishing, 2018.
- In Urban History, 2017, Book Review of City Dreamers: The Urban Imagination in Australia, Graeme Davison, Polity, 2016.
- In Melbourne Historical Journal, 2016, Exhibition Review of A History of the Future, City Gallery, City of Melbourne, 2016.
- In Melbourne Historical Journal, 2015, Book Review of What is Urban History?, Shane Ewen, Polity, 2016.
Public and Industry Writing
Newspaper Articles
- James Lesh, “Slave names have no place in modern Melbourne”, The Age, 25 November 2021.
- James Lesh and Cameron Logan, “War on the demolishers? Probably not, and timing of NSW heritage review is curious”, The Conversation, 25 May 2021. Republished: ArchitectureAU.
- James Lesh and Kali Myers, “Stuck in the past: why Australian heritage practice falls short of what the public expects”, The Conversation, 2 March 2021. Republished: ArchitectureAU and Architecture & Design.
- James Lesh and Kali Myers, “This symbol of the past must also reflect our present and future”, on the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens”, The Age, 13 November 2020.
- James Lesh, “Why heritage protection is about how people use places, not just their architecture and history”, The Conversation, 9 July 2020. Republished: The Age.
- James Lesh, “Melbourne’s worst planning mistake at risk of being repeated”, Treasury Square, The Age, 25 Jun 2020.
- James Lesh, “Our cities owe much of their surviving heritage to Jack Mundey”, The Conversation, 11 May 2020. Republished: Foreground.
- James Lesh, “Road to Nowhere?” on the Eastern Freeway, Sunday Age, 29 December 2019.
- James Lesh, “How can a place be heritage-listed after 17 years? What it means for Melbourne’s Fed Square”, The Conversation, 27 August 2019. Republished: The Age.
- James Lesh, “Forty years of the Burra Charter and Australia’s heritage vision”, Foreground, 14 July 2019.
- James Lesh, “I’ve just discovered my building is covered in flammable cladding”, The Age, 25 March 2019.
- James Lesh, “Once a building is destroyed, can the loss of a place like the Corkman be undone?” The Conversation, 12 March 2019. Republished: Age.
- James Lesh, “Heritage value is in the eye of the beholder: Fed Square“, The Conversation, 10 August 2018.
- James Lesh and Tania Davidge, “Apple’s store has no place in the people’s Fed Square”, Herald Sun, 19 February 2018.
- James Lesh, “Apple is exploiting the power of its brand to claim an important part of our city”, The Age, 21 Dec 2017.
- James Lesh, “Preserving cities: how ‘trendies’ shaped Australia’s urban heritage”, The Conversation, 4 November 2016.
- Andrew May and James Lesh, “Lockout laws repeat centuries-old mistake”, The Conversation, 7 June 2016.
- James Lesh, “What Would a Minister for Cities Be Good For?”, Fifth Estate, 12 August 2015.
Magazine Articles
- James Lesh, “Establishing Australia’s ‘Heritage Mafia.” History (Royal Australian Historical Society). December 2022.
- Loren Adams et al, “What is worth keeping, and who decides?”, Architect Victoria, Vol. 3, 2022.
- James Lesh, “Frozen in time, we’ve become blind to ways to build sustainability into our urban heritage”, The Conversation, 22 August 2022.
- James Lesh and Ellen Yeong Gyeong Son, “Conserving Melbourne’s Creative Heritage”, Pursuit: University of Melbourne Magazine, 16 December 2021. Republished: Landscape Australia.
- James Lesh, “Sixty years of the National Trust in Victoria”, National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Magazine, Aug. 2016.