Students and colleagues reflect on his legacy as a transformative teacher and friend.
Date: 12 March 2026
Colleagues, students and alumni from the School of Art, Architecture and Design attended a memorial service at Rothbury Hall in Greenwich on 1st February 2026 for Andrew Siddall, Associate Lecturer, who passed away in November 2025 following a short illness.
Many of Andrew's students and alumni have shared moving tributes on an online book of condolence.
Andrew (Sid) Siddall joined London Metropolitan University over 12 years ago and taught Theatre Arts and Interiors courses from Foundation through to Postgraduate level. He worked closely with students in the creation of final pieces for their graduate shows, helping several cohorts of undergraduates to bridge the gap between the end of their education and the start of their careers. Andrew was also a production designer and maker working on live art events, theatre, installation and outdoor spectacle.
He joined Burnley Youth Theatre whilst he was at Burnley Grammar School. After school he won a place at the renowned Dartington College of Arts in Devon and immersed himself in the four-year Theatre BA (Hons) course. Sid thrived on the opportunities to explore all areas of performance and theatre production and always acknowledged that Dartington was the foundation of his lifelong practice and creative vision.
Another important early influence was iconic director, author and performer Neil Bartlett, who inspired Sid to find creative ways to express his sexuality and to find his beloved gay family, who gave him so much joy, support, love and fun throughout his life.
A global practitioner at the cutting-edge
Andrew specialised in work which directly engaged young people and communities as both audience and participant. He transformed interior and exterior spaces around the globe and worked with a wide range of materials from found and recycled to cutting-edge digital.
His projects included:
- Voice Park – an interactive sculpture & sound installation created for Hull City of Culture 2017
- Ten in a Bed – an immersive storytelling project for under 5's with Project Phakama
- Hope it Rains – a series of events celebrating water and play for Galway 2020: European City of Culture
Andrew also regularly collaborated with London-based theatre festivals such as LIFT and theatre companies such as Emergency Exit Arts. He was a founder member of the participatory arts organisation Project Phakama UK, where he engaged in a number of projects in the UK, South Africa, India and Argentina. Andrew brought Lewisham Youth Theatre into Project Phakama, which led to him becoming a Trustee and later Chair. He was a visiting artist at Tallaght Community Arts in Dublin from 2010 to 2018.
Tributes from friends and colleagues
Richard Hurford and Deb, close friends of Andrew
"There really is no one like Sid. He could do everything and he did. Sid made things, directed, performed, wrote, built, taught, acted, danced, designed, drew, mentored, facilitated, managed, planned, constructed pyrotechnical wonders and turned every creative challenge into a triumph. If the participatory performing arts was a person, that person is Sid.
To his countless friends and colleagues, he was kind, wise, endlessly great fun, fierce, loyal, clever, witty, strong when strength was needed, gentle when gentle was better. With Sid on your side everything was possible and that commitment to getting the job done and done well is something that inspired everyone who was lucky enough to encounter him in his sixty, spectacular, entirely unique years. Sid never looked for praise, his focus was concrete results for individuals and communities to be able to explore their own creative and social potential. To continue that work is the best thanks we could give for sixty exceptional years of Sid.
Which sounds very much like a cue for one of Sid's own famous catchphrase – "Don't see why not."
Rishi Trikha, Associate Teaching Professor and Course Leader, BA Theatre and Performance"
"Although Sid and I met as colleagues, it didn't take long for us to become friends. The university feels incomplete without him and the world's a bit darker.
"It's impossible to fully capture the richness and impact of a life through words, but messages from our students describe the same steadiness, dry humour and affection that I experienced in all my interactions with him.
"Students often talk about the first time they met him. Many arrived feeling anxious or unsure of themselves, and he seemed to understand how to pull people out of that state without them even realising he was doing it. He could read a room quickly and change the energy with a look. He had a sense of when someone needed calm, when they needed pressure, and when they needed a joke to cut through whatever was hanging over them.
"What stands out in students' tributes is the level of trust he created. Students felt recognised. They felt that he saw their gifts and potential before they did. Many describe moments when he challenged them in ways they resisted at first and then later came to treasure. Others recall how he kept an eye on them when they were struggling. He did this for colleagues as well. He had a sharp sense of when someone was withdrawing, and he'd step in with a playful slap as often as an embrace.
"His humour and sense of mischief ran through everything, not as a distraction but as a tool of work. It cleared the air so that people could get on with things. He had a way of treating everything as important and utterly insignificant at the same time. I will miss this more than I can describe. He had no patience for melodrama, but he had endless patience for people.
"In the last weeks of his life we shared video messages with him from students. It was amazing how he lit up at the sight of their faces; the feelings of love they describe in their tributes to him were always reciprocated. We will all miss him very much."
