FEATURE By Karen Fitzsimon CMLI Nine decades, nine inspiring women in landscape architecture 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. 1 1 512 2 FEATURE 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/Landscape Institute 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.