FEATURE

By Karen Fitzsimon CMLI

Nine decades, nine inspiring women in

Karen Fitzsimon recalls some of the phenomenal female practitioners who have contributed to the establishment, growth and reputation of the Institute over ninety years.

hoebe Waller-Bridge might balance inequality at entry level, be making all the right the gender pay gap at higher salary P headlines at the moment widens and the number of women with TV dramas such as Killing Eve represented in the membership at that representing a new wave of British level diminishes. female screen-writers. But in terms Only four of the 42 Presidents to of giving women opportunities, date have been women. Brenda Colvin the landscape profession seems, CBE was our first female President outwardly at least, to be ahead in 1951, Dame Sylvia Crowe in 1957 of the game. From the current and then 47 years later Professor membership there are only 6.84% Kathryn Moore followed by Sue Illman more men than women and this in 2012. It would certainly be great differential has been reducing to have more visible senior female broadly each year over the past five. role models in the LI makeup and in However, as Romy Rawlings practices. To inspire us, and in honour CMLI, Chair of the LI’s Diversity and of our 90th birthday, here are some Inclusion Working Group, observes in of the phenomenal women who have her response to the LI 2018 State of contributed to the establishment, Landscape practice survey (21 May growth and reputation of the Institute 2018), although there is no gender over ninety years.

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1. © National Portrait Gallery, what became the Children Act 1948. quality of the replacement teaching London Initially concerned with the welfare and showed her determined nature by 2. © MERL/ of displaced children, her interests leaving the college, taking some fellow Collection expanded to include nursery provision students with her. and play. The latter was prompted In 1922 she established her by a visit to Denmark where she studio in London, later moving to discovered Professor Sørensen’s Gloucestershire. Over the ensuing 53 ingenious junk playground at Emdrup. years she worked on 675 projects. It was a lightbulb moment and she She never formally retired and, rather realised the opportunity to fuse her inspiringly, her most creative period welfare campaigning for children with was between the ages of 55 and 75. landscape architecture. She went Following the war her projects 1 on to champion the development shifted from private garden design, of adventure playgrounds and play in the UK and abroad, to larger scale provision generally in Britain. With industrial and civic landscapes, such Marjory Allen, her support, Britain’s first adventure as Aldershot Military Town, where Lady Allen of playground opened in 1948. she was landscape consultant Her books and pamphlets included for 15 years; Trimpley Reservoir, Hurtwood née Gill Adventure Playgrounds (1961). She Rugeley Power Station and the (1897 – 1976) teamed up with Susan Jellicoe to University of East Anglia. Colvin was Born in Kent she was a social reformer, produce The things we see: gardens a skilled plantswoman and had a children’s rights activist and landscape (1953), The New Small Garden (1956) deep understanding of ecology and architect. and Town Gardens to Live in (1977). landform. She expressed these ideas in Allen read horticulture at the her book Land and Landscape (1948), University of Reading from 1918-20, which considered how landscape after which she established herself as design can be used to support the a landscape designer-gardener. During British environment in its response to a 1921 visit to Rome to see her brother an expanding population and economy. and to explore the city’s gardens, She communicated her vast tree she met conscientious objector and knowledge through her 1947 book socialist Clifford Allen. They married the Trees for Town and Country which same year. became a standard text. In 1930 her innovative and complex Planning for succession, she invited Selfridges’ roof garden opened, which Hal Moggridge into partnership and she developed with Richard Sudell in 1969 Colvin Moggridge was born. (1892-1968). The garden attracted Colvin bequeathed her Gloucestershire thousands of visitors each week and home and studio, Little Peacocks, 2 1 included a pergola, pools, lawn and to the practice ensuring that Colvin’s sculpture. Throughout the 1920s legacy endures both physically and and 30s she wrote articles for the Brenda Colvin in spirit. national press on aspects of garden design, horticulture, roof gardens CBE PPLI and, presciently, the importance of (1897 – 1981) school gardens and the amenity and a founding member of the ILA community value of allotments. In becoming its President in 1951, the first 1936 she wrote an article on landscape woman to hold the office and thought architecture as a career for women. to be the first female president of any With Richard Sudell and others built-environment body. She was also a Allen was a founding member founding member of IFLA in 1948. of the Institute of Landscape Born in India, her early years Architects in 1929 and was elected exposed her to a diverse range of its first Fellow in 1930. In 1948 she landscapes, plants and gardens. In 1918 initiated the establishment of the he entered Swanley Horticultural International Federation of Landscape College for Women and was drawn to Architects (IFLA). the landscape design course taught Her activism on behalf of children by landscape architect Madeline Agar, started during World War II and she who had trained in the USA. When was one of those that advocated for Agar left, Colvin was unhappy with the

52 3. © MERL/Landscape Institute Collection her own practice which existed from 4. © en.wikipedia.org 1945-74. Commissions varied hugely in scale, from intimate gardens to large infrastructure projects for power, including Bradwell station; new towns including Basildon; transport and reservoirs, such as Bewl Water. She thought that such jobs made an important contribution to society. In 1964 Crowe started a 12- year appointment with the Forestry Commission as their first landscape 3 2 consultant. Using ecological and 4 aesthetic principles she provided advice on views, pattern of landform, Dame Sylvia vegetation, recreational land use Lady Susan Crowe, PPLI and the visual impact of forestry Jellicoe née Pares (1901-1997) management techniques. She (1907 -1986) considered it her best and most was born in Banbury and attended is not always acknowledged for her satisfying type of work. She was also Swanley Horticultural College from contribution to the profession. She was Tree Council Chairman 1974-79. Crowe 1920-22. She intended joining her a linguist, writer, editor, photographer was an early advocate for projects now father’s fruit farm business in Sussex. and plants person. Born in Liverpool to taken for granted, such as a Thames However, after a period travelling in an intellectual family, she went to school path, which she suggested in 1941, Europe, she reverted to a childhood in London and afterwards spent time or the creative use of demolition spoil, dream of designing gardens and in in Italy and Austria. This was followed which she used at Harlow new town 1926 apprenticed herself with Milner by further studying of languages at the to create hills between the housing and White. Thirteen years as in-house Sorbonne, Paris. industrial zones. designer for landscape contractor In the early 1930s she went to Crowe was a prolific author and it is William Cutbush in Highgate followed, work as a secretary in the London through her publications that we best designing mostly private gardens. office of Jellicoe, Page and Wilson understand her practice. In Tomorrow’s The company had an almost annual and married Geoffrey Jellicoe in 1936. Landscape (1956) she shows how, presence at the RHS Chelsea Flower From that point she collaborated with with sensitivity and good design, large Show and Crowe was responsible for Geoffrey on every project, including the scale projects can be accommodated the design of a number of their entries, establishment of the IFLA. She helped in the landscape without ruining it. At including a 1937 gold medal winning build bridges and mutual understanding the opposite end of the scale, Garden contoured garden with a bluebell by acting as interpreter at its first, Design 1958 reinforces the importance wood, stream and pond. In another post-war gathering. With the guiding of historical studies and relates them to garden she designed a summerhouse hand of Colvin, who was a friend, she contemporary design issues for private in concrete. It was unpopular with developed great skill in planting design, and public gardens and parks. the more conservative RHS crowd, complementing Geoffrey’s lack of The Dame Sylvia Crowe Award for but Geoffrey Jellicoe admired it and interest in that aspect of landscape Outstanding International Contribution encouraged her career. architecture. Her planting designs to People, Place and Nature was Crowe joined the fledgling ILA include those for Sutton Place, Cliveden, inaugurated by the LI in 2018. in 1934 becoming a Fellow in 1945. Hemel Hempstead Water Gardens and Following Colvin’s footsteps she was the Kennedy Memorial in Runnymede. the second female President, 1957-59, Jellicoe possessed a critical eye and served on the ILA’s Examination and understanding of design which and Education Committees for many enabled her to photograph landscapes, years. She too was a founding member including those of her husband, with of IFLA and held numerous offices insight. Her collection of over 6000 from 1949, including President in images of designed, natural and historic 1969. Crowe was the recipient of landscapes forms a substantial part many honours including AJ Woman of the LI Archive at MERL. The scale of the Year 1960; Hon FRIBA 1969, of the collection and the fact that she LI Gold Medal 1986 and RHS Victoria took time to mount and catalogue Medal 1990. them has made them an invaluable After the war, Crowe established resource to this day for the profession

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5. © Paula Laycock. and historians, especially for those sites experience on all aspects of the An extraordinary woman: where restoration is contemplated. modern practice including town plans, A biography of Sheila Haywood, Landscape Architect, ARIBA, Jellicoe was an honorary associate housing schemes, quarry sites and FILA. 6. © Rebecca Rose Cepeda, of the LI and edited and contributed heritage landscapes. 2014. https://genusrosa. articles to the journal for 20 years from Haywood established her me/2013/08/ 1955. She also edited the gardening own practice in 1949 and became section for the Observer from 1961-65. consultant landscape architect for She co-authored the previously listed Bracknell new town. Like Crowe books with Marjory Allen, as well as a and Colvin, she worked on large number of titles with Geoffrey: Modern infrastructure projects such as Maple Private Gardens (1968), Water: Use of Lodge Disposal Works (1949), Earle’s water in Landscape Architecture (1971) Cement Works and Thorpe Marsh and The Landscape of Man : Shaping Power Station. At Westbury Chalk 6 the Environment from Prehistory to the Quarry she skilfully designed the Present Day (1975), illustrating them huge quarry’s setting so that it was with many of her own photographs. unobtrusive from the neighbouring Nan Fairbrother Likewise, her images formed the heritage site of Bratton Camp and (1913-1971) majority of those in the collaborative White Horse. She was one of the was a landscape architect who broke book, The Gardens of Mughal India: early identifiers of the recreational conventions. She was born into a history and a guide (1972). Her final potential of extractive industry sites and poverty in Coventry, but her bright publication was the indispensable: expressed her theories and practice and curious mind secured her a place The Oxford Companion to Gardens in a number of publications, including at Leeds Grammar School from (1986) which she edited with Geoffrey, Quarries and the Landscape (1974) and where she went on to read English Michael Lancaster and Dr Patrick through lectures. She was landscape literature, with a scholarship, at Royal Goode. In 1985 she was awarded the consultant for Addenbrooke’s Hospital Holloway. She subsequently trained as degree of Doctor of Literature from in Cambridgeshire and also for nearby a physiotherapist, lived unmarried with University of Sheffield. Churchill College. her future husband, surgeon William Haywood continued with some McKenzie and retained her maiden architectural work and in the 1950s name when she eventually married she co-designed housing schemes in him in 1939. She studied landscape London and Somerset. In 1956 she design while her children were young was one of seven female architects and although she did develop a two- whose work was featured by Ideal acre garden around her modernist Home in their book of plans. Identifying house in Buckinghamshire, designed as a modern woman, she designed a by her brother Rex Fairbrother, she is house that was for ‘the professional mostly known for her contribution to woman who is also a wife and mother.’ landscape literature. In 1967, working with architects Frank As a child Fairbrother explored Briggs and Peter de Souza, she was the countryside around Leeds and landscape architect for award winning developed an interest in botany. Her and now Grade II listed housing first book Children in the House (1954) 5 development at Oaklands, Reading. described her countryside life during Her 1972 book The Gardens of Mughul the Second World War and enabled her India, co-authored with Crowe in to expand on this knowledge, fusing it Sheila Haywood collaboration with Susan Jellicoe and with seasonal observations, thoughts FLI née Cooper Gordon Patterson, was based on their on motherhood and children’s response (1911-1993) extended field trip to the region. to their environment. The deprivation of her childhood was born in India. After a childhood gave Fairbrother a lifelong social abroad, she returned to the UK to study conscience and nudged her to consider at Architectural Association, graduating how inevitable human industrial in 1934. She was immediately drawn activity can better embrace landscape. to landscape and completed a number She developed her observations and of garden design commissions before theories in the seminal text New Lives, WWII. Her training in landscape New Landscapes. Published in 1970 architecture continued while working and written while she was undergoing as Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe’s assistant cancer treatment, it is still a relevant from 1939-49. The position provided land-use planning guide on how to

54 55 7. © Courtesy of the Estate of Margaret Maxwell create landscapes that sustainably fit architect colleagues, such as Hugh 8. © Landscape Institute a new society into an older setting. Casson, Patrick Abercrombie and Peter The text was illustrated with many Shepheard, to study architecture by of her own photographs and were night at Regent Street Polytechnic. often of sites demonstrating the best In 1945 she secured a scholarship practice of her landscape architectural to study full time at Liverpool School peers. The book won the 1971 W H of Architecture and where she also Smith Award, which was indicative of completed a diploma in civic design. its success, influence and popularity She worked briefly with architect beyond the profession. She was a and town planner Professor William gifted author who wrote in a free- Holford, who was largely responsible flowing engaging style, with clarity and for the drafting of the Town and often with humour. Country Planning Act 1947. 8 Other publications included Men Maxwell met her first husband, and Gardens (1956) an eloquent Robert Maxwell, also an architect, treatise on the history and meaning of in Liverpool and by the time she Sue Illman gardens, using only literary sources, returned with him to London she née Carter and The Nature of Landscape Design had an exemplary reputation as a is a Chartered Landscape Architect (1974) published posthumously fine draftsperson. She started at based in Gloucestershire. She practiced following her early death. It continues Bridgewater Shepheard as architectural first as a Certified Accountant then where New Lives, New Landscapes assistant in 1950 and further continued retrained in landscape architecture at stopped and turns her focus on how to her studies by attending night school at Cheltenham College of Art and Design, design, build and manage a landscape. University of London to read landscape having discovered the profession by While it did not have the popular appeal architecture under Peter Youngman. chance at a careers guidance office. of New Lives, it is has equally engaging She worked closely with Shepheard She later studied Historic Landscape prose with much to offer contemporary for 17 years, contributing to his major Conservation at the Architectural landscape practitioners. works including at the Festival of Association under Ted Fawcett and Britain, Bunhill Fields, Goldsmiths’ in 1991 was a founding member of Garden, Cheyne Walk Garden and the the Gloucestershire Gardens and now Grade II* listed Snowdon Aviary at Landscape Trust. Illman was the fourth London Zoo. and most recent female President of In 1966, with Shepheard’s the Landscape Institute, 2012-14. patronage, she launched her own Illman Young Environmental practice, supported by a small team Planning and Landscape Consultancy of mostly female assistants. She was established in 1987. Yvonne secured landscape work throughout Young was an experienced architect the UK including at Newcastle Airport, and fellow student on the landscape Whipsnade Zoo, the Burrell Collection course at Cheltenham. Young passed in Glasgow, , the away in 2015, but the practice Giant Steps and Viewing Platform at continues. Significant projects include Greenwich and Warwick University. at Silverstone Circuit and Cheltenham 7 She also lectured on landscape design Racecourse. What sets Illman Young at the Royal College of Art with her apart is their specialist knowledge in Margaret Maxwell former colleague, Casson. During this Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems: period, she returned to architecture, Illman is a SuDS Champion for the MBE née Howell particularly the conservation and Construction Industry Council. Mindful adaptation of historic buildings such as (1924 -2006) of the 2014 floods, a key objective for the now demolished, Michael Sobell her LI presidential role was that the LI architect, town planner and landscape Pavilion for Apes at London Zoo, which embed SuDS in practice by offering architect, was born in Kent and secured a 1973 Civic Trust Award. training and advocacy at all levels orphaned by the age of 14. She of industry and Government. Illman had a quiet but important presence has delivered much of that training, in twentieth century landscape produced or contributed to various architecture. CIRIA guidance manuals and created In 1942 she started working as a fun short animation to explain the map maker in the newly established concepts behind SuDS, called Let’s Ministry of Town and Country Planning Get Nibbling. in London. She was inspired by her

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Passionate about professional its third female President in 2006. of Fairbrother’s New Lives, New 9. © dla-conference.com standards and a former Professional Born in Birmingham she grew up Landscapes or Colvin’s Land and Practice examiner, Illman was near the coast of South Wales and Landscape, Moore’s book has become instrumental in setting up the Pathway developed a love for the big picture a standard text. to Chartership introduced in 2006 and offered by seascape, horizons and previously served on the CPD and the natural landscape. Following Education Committees. an art Foundation year, she studied Landscape architecture provided She is a dedicated communicator geography at University of Manchester. women in the early and mid-twentieth and networker, believing that reaching In her second year she stumbled century the possibility of leading out across the built environment across a well-placed careers leaflet, independent professional lives. It is industry is crucial for the advancement suggesting that landscape architecture somewhat anomalous then that when of landscape architecture and for the was a suitable subject for someone Colvin established her practice in 1922, best environmental solutions. In 2013 who loved geography, art and it preceded equal votes for all women. she was appointed an Honorary Fellow design. She subsequently undertook What characteristics do these of the Society of the Environment and Manchester’s Postgraduate Diploma pioneering women share? A has been an Honorary Fellow of the in Landscape Architecture. Moore determined, energetic nature and a University of Gloucestershire since started as a landscape designer with passion for landscape. A forward, 2014. Sue became an expert advisor the Derelict Land Reclamation Team at internationalist outlook with a desire to the All Party Parliamentary Group for Salford City Council. Within a few years for team work, including beyond Excellence in The Built Environment she was Senior Landscape Architect their own profession. An ability to report Living with Water, March 2015. and by 1986 was Group Leader with a communicate about their work and And in 2019 she was installed as team of 26 and generous budgets. advancing theories in the written, the Master of the Company at The Moore’s persuasive, political and spoken or audio form. An optimism for Worshipful Company of Paviors, the diplomatic skills were honed at Salford the potential of landscape architecture first female to occupy the office since as she argued to improve the quality to foster sustainable development. its earliest records from 1276. of development and ensure that what There is one other factor, apart from had been promised was delivered by good clients, that might have assisted the local authority and developers. their trajectory. Nearly all have had From early on she advocated for autonomy by running their own interdisciplinary and non-silo practice. practices rather than being employed. Allied with this was the belief that My hope is that at the 180th landscape thought should be at the celebrations the LI will have at least centre of all development, rather than 100 times more names in a line-up an afterthought, in order to achieve such as this. Happy Birthday to our LI! the best results. Together with Peter Bradford, a planner at SCC they secured the 1986 RTPI Strategic Planning Award for Salford City Environmental Strategy. In 1988 she joined the teaching team at Birmingham City University 9 where her research, which underpins all of her teaching, challenges the Professor theory of perception that has been with designers since the seventeenth Kathryn Moore century. She offers a way to is an academic whose teaching understand the nature of artistic The Brenda Colvin, Sylvia Crowe and Susan Jellicoe and research is grounded by senior practice, how to teach design more collections are held as part of the LI Archive at the experience in practice. As Professor effectively and how to link strategic MERL. of Landscape Architecture at ideas and policies to real places. Birmingham City University, she has Utilising this approach, she is currently Karen Fitzsimon CMLI is a landscape actively influenced many generations developing a programme for regional architect, garden historian and of UK based landscape architects. transformation through the proposal horticulturalist based in London. As Immediate Past President of IFLA for a West Midlands National Park. Her specialist area is the history of (2014-18) and through her academic Her theories are expanded in her book designed landscapes of the mid research, her influence has been global. Overlooking the Visual: Demystifying to late twentieth century. She is a Actively involved in the LI, she became the Art of Design (2010). In the ilk trustee of Turn End Trust.

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