Nicholas Coleridge

Sir Nicholas David Coleridge DL (born 4 March 1957) is a British former media executive, author, and cultural chair.

He is chairman of Historic Royal Palaces and a Fellow and Provost Elect of Eton.

In 1976, between school and university, he was a cub reporter on the Falmouth Packet newspaper in Cornwall.

From 1979 to 1982 he was associate editor of the Tatler, working for then editor Tina Brown; from 1982 to 1985 he was a columnist at the Evening Standard.

Coleridge was born in London, the son of David Coleridge, who was chairman of Lloyd's of London in the late 1980s and descended from a brother of poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

He is the eldest of three brothers, and educated at Ashdown House, Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied theology and history of art.

As an Eton schoolboy, he won the Jeremy Thorpe Cup for debating with his school friend Craig Brown, though the trophy was later renamed when Thorpe's reputation fell under a shadow.

He has written fourteen books, both fiction and non-fiction, based largely upon either his professional life (The Fashion Conspiracy, Paper Tigers, With Friends Like These) or episodic novels (A Much Married Man, Godchildren, Deadly Sins, The Adventuress).

While on assignment making a television documentary about Tamil terrorism in Sri Lanka in 1984, he was arrested and jailed for ten days in Welikada prison, Colombo, where he embarked upon writing a collection of short stories, How I Met My Wife.

As a journalist, he has been an irregular contributor to The Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, The Spectator and the Financial Times.

From 1986–1989 he was editor-in-chief of Harpers & Queen magazine, a Hearst title, before joining Condé Nast.

The Fashion Conspiracy was the Number One bestseller, hardback non-fiction (The Times, 4 March 1988).

From 1989 to 2019, he was successively editorial director of Condé Nast Britain, managing director, Condé Nast Britain (1991–2017), vice president, Condé Nast International and president, Condé Nast International, the division of Condé Nast which publishes 139 magazines in 27 international markets, and over 100 websites.

In 2002, as chairman of the British Fashion Council, he suggested that the then Sunday Times fashion editor, Colin McDowell, was habitually too negative about British fashion designers.

This drew criticism from McDowell, who accused Coleridge of jingoism.

He was on the advisory board for the Concert for Diana, Wembley Stadium 2007.

He has been a member of the Council of the Royal College of Art, and a member of the trading board of the Prince's Trust.

He was a director of PressBof, the parent organisation of the Press Complaints Commission, 2007–2014.

He is an Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple since 2022.

The December 2007 issue of Condé Nast's World of Interiors magazine contains a feature on his country house, the 1709 Wolverton Hall in Worcestershire.

He was described by Campaign magazine in 2012 as “magazines' most compelling advocate for almost two decades”.

He is married to the healer and author Georgia Metcalfe and has four children, Alexander, Freddie, Sophie and Tommy.

They live in Chelsea, London, and in Worcestershire.

He is chairman of the Prince of Wales' Campaign for Wool since 2013 (deputy chair 2008–13).

Coleridge initiated the Condé Nast College of Fashion and Design in 2013, a degree-awarding academic institution in London's Soho.

He has been chairman of the Victoria and Albert museum (2015–23) and was co-chair of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Pageant, a complex event with more than 10,000 military from the UK and Commonwealth, and performers from across the nation.

He is an ambassador for the Landmark Trust and a patron of the Elephant Family.

He was chairman of the Victoria and Albert Museum from 2015 to 2023, having been a trustee from 2012 to 2015.

During his tenure, the V&A built four new museums - the £70 million V&A Dundee, the two £150 million new museums on the Olympic Park in Stratford East (V&A East and the V&A Collections Storehouse), the V&A Galleries in Shenzhen, China, plus the refurbished and rebranded Young V&A in Bethnal Green.

In September 2023, Coleridge was appointed Chair of Historic Royal Palaces by The King, for a three year term to begin when his V&A Chairmanship concluded.

The HRP Chairmanship began on November 1, 2023.

Coleridge was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to museums, publishing and the creative industries.

In October 2023, it was announced that Coleridge was to take over from Lord Waldegrave as Provost of Eton College from September 2024.

From 2017 to 2019, he was chairman of Condé Nast Britain.

His autobiography, titled The Glossy Years : Magazines, Museums and Selective Memoirs published September 2019 by Penguin Fig Tree, was #No 1 in Art Books, #No 1 in Fashion Books, #No 1 in Showbiz Biography.

It was described by The Sunday Times as "the most entertaining book of the year".

He has been chairman of the PPA – the Professional Publishers' Association – and two-term chairman of the British Fashion Council for four years, overseeing London Fashion Week for the Department of Trade and Industry.

He was founding chairman of Fashion Rocks, the fashion and rock music extravaganza showcasing the world's eighteen top fashion designers including Dior, Chanel, Prada and Ralph Lauren paired with eighteen top rock stars including Beyoncé, Robbie Williams, Bryan Ferry and David Bowie.

It raised more than £3 million for the Prince's Trust charity.

In 2019, he commissioned a garden folly, a 46-foot writing tower, in a Tudor-Georgian-Jacobean style, by the architect Quinlan Terry.