Michael Edwards joined the staff of UCL as a lecturer in 1969 and never left. After his retirement in 2008 he was employed as an Honorary Professor at the Bartlett School of Planning and he continued to write, research and lecture until his death in 2026.

His subject was the economics of land and housing and he was particularly interested in developments along the nearby Euston Road; at Kings Cross, St Pancras, Somers Town and Tolmers Square.

In an obituary on the University College London website (20 August 2026), Head of Department Professor Mike Raco writes:

‘What set Michael apart was his refusal to keep scholarship and active citizenship separate. He was a founder member of the International Network for Urban Research and Action (INURA), of the Planners Network UK, and of Just Space the London network of community and campaign groups that he helped sustain for many years. Through the Bartlett’s knowledge-exchange programme with Just Space he connected students directly with grassroots organisations across the city, and he was one of the guiding hands behind Just Space’s Recovery Plan for London in 2022, and in 2026, the Just Space Alternative Plan for a Caring City, a community-drafted alternative to the Mayor’s next London Plan. He gave evidence at successive Examinations in Public of the London Plan, and stood alongside residents in the long campaign over the King’s Cross Railway Lands, including the effort to defend the affordable-housing commitments secured in its planning agreements.’

‘All of us will remember his warmth, his unceasing generosity of time, his intellectual contributions, and his conviction that expertise should serve communities rather than more powerful interests.’