Palaces to prefabs

INTRODUCTION he contribution women made to the design of interiors,

became active in the design world, they themselves were most

whether for home, work or play, has only really

frequently from very comfortable home backgrounds where girls

seriously begun to be recognised by design historians

were meant for marriage and motherhood; and what clients they

over the last twenty or thirty years. And it has been no easy task,

had were, at least initially, drawn from family and friends.

for much digging and delving has had to take place to extract from

With the growth of the middle class, with larger

government reports, the archives of professional and voluntary

homes and the odd servant or two, books by women began

bodies, biographies of men operating in the field, and other such

to be published on household management. The bulk of

sources, even the names of women in the specialism, let alone

such were largely on matters of domestic science [advice on

detailed accounts of what they did. Interior decoration and design

hygiene, cookery, economy etc] and/or covered matters of

up to, and even after, the second World War, has largely been seen

etiquette [in relation to family, servants, visitors and such];

to be the province of men; men advising on and creating spaces

decoration was frequently a lesser consideration or barely

in which women have also to function and for which they are

mentioned at all. Of course there were exceptions, two early

considered mainly responsible.

authors being Jane Panton and Mary Eliza Haweis, both

Of course the concept of ‘design’ was hardly applicable

coming from ‘artistic’ homes and moving in artistic circles

to the bulk of the population, which, until Victorian times, had

– Jane’s father was William Frith and Mary’s an altogether

lived in relatively small dwellings, sparsely furnished only with

more minor painter, of portraits. Jane’s best selling books

essentials, and these mainly supplied by local craftsmen. Interior

began to introduce aspects of decoration, some being fairly

decoration was largely for the wealthy, and even when women

general as From Kitchen to Garret; hints for young householders [1887]; others focused more on the subject as Homes of Taste

Plans of ‘the house women have chosen’ in a survey from the Daily Mail

[1890]. It is said that retailers of furnishings scrambled to get

Book of Britain’s Post-War Homes published in 1944

mention in these. Mary’s books were more fully concerned

9

INTRODUCTION he contribution women made to the design of interiors,

became active in the design world, they themselves were most

whether for home, work or play, has only really

frequently from very comfortable home backgrounds where girls

seriously begun to be recognised by design historians

were meant for marriage and motherhood; and what clients they

over the last twenty or thirty years. And it has been no easy task,

had were, at least initially, drawn from family and friends.

for much digging and delving has had to take place to extract from

With the growth of the middle class, with larger

government reports, the archives of professional and voluntary

homes and the odd servant or two, books by women began

bodies, biographies of men operating in the field, and other such

to be published on household management. The bulk of

sources, even the names of women in the specialism, let alone

such were largely on matters of domestic science [advice on

detailed accounts of what they did. Interior decoration and design

hygiene, cookery, economy etc] and/or covered matters of

up to, and even after, the second World War, has largely been seen

etiquette [in relation to family, servants, visitors and such];

to be the province of men; men advising on and creating spaces

decoration was frequently a lesser consideration or barely

in which women have also to function and for which they are

mentioned at all. Of course there were exceptions, two early

considered mainly responsible.

authors being Jane Panton and Mary Eliza Haweis, both

Of course the concept of ‘design’ was hardly applicable

coming from ‘artistic’ homes and moving in artistic circles

to the bulk of the population, which, until Victorian times, had

– Jane’s father was William Frith and Mary’s an altogether

lived in relatively small dwellings, sparsely furnished only with

more minor painter, of portraits. Jane’s best selling books

essentials, and these mainly supplied by local craftsmen. Interior

began to introduce aspects of decoration, some being fairly

decoration was largely for the wealthy, and even when women

general as From Kitchen to Garret; hints for young householders [1887]; others focused more on the subject as Homes of Taste

Plans of ‘the house women have chosen’ in a survey from the Daily Mail

[1890]. It is said that retailers of furnishings scrambled to get

Book of Britain’s Post-War Homes published in 1944

mention in these. Mary’s books were more fully concerned

9

RETAILERS OF FURNISHING TASTE lthough not strictly interior decorators or designers, a

set up their shop in 1875, initially near Baker Street, and then at

number of women set up shops, in the first decades of

2 Gower Street, they not only sold furniture, [particularly known

the century which, whether their original intentions or

for their oak pieces], some designed by themselves, but offered a

not, communicated ‘style’ in furnishing. Inevitably these were all

decorating service. When Rhoda died in 1882, Agnes carried on

in London, and largely to be found in Mayfair or Belgravia ‘run by

the business by herself.

well-heeled women for well-heeled women’ – some very short-lived

The actual ‘flurry’ of ‘little shops’ selling ‘taste’ started

as the eccentric Lady Sackville’s Spealls, others, run on altogether

after the First World War, some primarily set up to promote

sounder bases, as Elden Ltd., owned by Mrs Guy Bethel and as

young artists and designers, and leaning towards the crafts,

the full-scale interior decorating practice of Dolly Mann, were to

albeit carrying manufactured goods, and even mass-produced

last considerably longer and build up notable reputations. Some

objects. An early one was Elspeth Ann Little’s Modern Textiles,

run by complete amateurs as that of Emmeline Pankhurst, others

established in Beauchamp Place in 1926. Elspeth had set out to

by women with at least some basic art or craft training such as

become a painter and to study where her father, a watercolourist,

Dorothy Hutton, who had her Three Shields Gallery in Holland

had studied, at the Slade School of Fine Art, but initially denied

Street, and the Garrett cousins in Gower Street.

entrance she found herself at the Central School of Arts and

The Garretts, Rhoda and Agnes, apprenticed themselves to

Crafts. There was a good deal of snobbery surrounding the arts at

an established practice, that of an architect, Mr.J.M. Brydon. For

the time, as there still is, with the applied arts very much playing

some three years the pair not only worked in his London office,

second fiddle to what were referred to as the ‘fine’ arts, Central

but travelled around the country sketching interiors of grand

being considered more akin to a technical college in comparison

houses, presumably as a design resource for the firm. When they

to the Slade. Nevertheless, in the long run, a period at the Central was to prove more advantageous to her in running her shop than her later studies, when she finally entered the Slade in 1920.

Cecilia Dunbar (Lady Sempill) with her daughters in 1949

14

15

RETAILERS OF FURNISHING TASTE lthough not strictly interior decorators or designers, a

set up their shop in 1875, initially near Baker Street, and then at

number of women set up shops, in the first decades of

2 Gower Street, they not only sold furniture, [particularly known

the century which, whether their original intentions or

for their oak pieces], some designed by themselves, but offered a

not, communicated ‘style’ in furnishing. Inevitably these were all

decorating service. When Rhoda died in 1882, Agnes carried on

in London, and largely to be found in Mayfair or Belgravia ‘run by

the business by herself.

well-heeled women for well-heeled women’ – some very short-lived

The actual ‘flurry’ of ‘little shops’ selling ‘taste’ started

as the eccentric Lady Sackville’s Spealls, others, run on altogether

after the First World War, some primarily set up to promote

sounder bases, as Elden Ltd., owned by Mrs Guy Bethel and as

young artists and designers, and leaning towards the crafts,

the full-scale interior decorating practice of Dolly Mann, were to

albeit carrying manufactured goods, and even mass-produced

last considerably longer and build up notable reputations. Some

objects. An early one was Elspeth Ann Little’s Modern Textiles,

run by complete amateurs as that of Emmeline Pankhurst, others

established in Beauchamp Place in 1926. Elspeth had set out to

by women with at least some basic art or craft training such as

become a painter and to study where her father, a watercolourist,

Dorothy Hutton, who had her Three Shields Gallery in Holland

had studied, at the Slade School of Fine Art, but initially denied

Street, and the Garrett cousins in Gower Street.

entrance she found herself at the Central School of Arts and

The Garretts, Rhoda and Agnes, apprenticed themselves to

Crafts. There was a good deal of snobbery surrounding the arts at

an established practice, that of an architect, Mr.J.M. Brydon. For

the time, as there still is, with the applied arts very much playing

some three years the pair not only worked in his London office,

second fiddle to what were referred to as the ‘fine’ arts, Central

but travelled around the country sketching interiors of grand

being considered more akin to a technical college in comparison

houses, presumably as a design resource for the firm. When they

to the Slade. Nevertheless, in the long run, a period at the Central was to prove more advantageous to her in running her shop than her later studies, when she finally entered the Slade in 1920.

Cecilia Dunbar (Lady Sempill) with her daughters in 1949

14

15

F R O M PA L A C E S T O P R E - FA B S

R E TA I L E R S O F F U R N I S H I N G TA S T E

‘There was a beautiful castle in Scotland, a difficult

Maufe of Heal’s. That she is barely referred to in interior design

husband, a house in London, three daughters,

history or even, for that matter, in accounts of Heal’s is possibly

endless social events and entertaining…’

due to the more publicised reputation of her husband, Sir Edward Maufe, architect of Guildford Cathedral [and incidentally

That was not quite how Cecilia herself put it –

of Heal’s extension] along with the fact of her long term intimate relationship with Ambrose Heal himself! It is said that

‘I just couldn’t face all the new trading rules and

Ambrose’s grief at the death of his son Cecil in the war in 1916

restrictions which had sprung up since the war.’

that estranged him from his wife and ‘drove him into the arms of Prudence’. Elsewhere it is described as ‘a deep and lasting

There is probably an element of truth in both statements.

love affair that survived all sorts of tests’ and one that seems

Nevertheless Cecilia, Lady Sempill continued to be active in

to actually have been accepted by those in the know. Prudence

design activities – as consultant to Liberty’s, on numerous

joined Heal’s in 1915 and remained there through to the 1950s,

committees and councils [R.C.A., D.I.A., CoID [Scottish],

one source describing her as the store’s chief buyer, influencing

L.C.C., Contemporary Arts etc.]; involved in exhibitions [she

more than one generation as to how their homes should be

claimed from Britain can Make It to the Festival of Britain];

furnished through her work in the shop, the exhibitions she

wrote a slight book on English pottery and china in the Britain

mounted, or helped to mount, in Heal’s Mansard Gallery and her

in Pictures series [1947]; and became something of a pioneer in

contribution to the development of the store’s textile business.

relation to the disabled.

Source data on Prudence is slim – the odd untitled

Reflecting on her time running Dunbar Hay, Cecilia felt

photograph in Heal’s archives, a couple of curious press articles

she had no desire to market a particular style – ‘almost anything

from the early 1920s, a recent thesis by Ambrose’s grandson

will mix with anything, if these ‘things’ are good in themselves’ –

Oliver, and Susanna Gooden’s references to her in At the Sign of

and considered she had created ‘only a small world’, summarising

the Fourposter in which Prudence is described as ‘a very active and

her role – ‘I had thought I was a sculptor, but I turned out to be a

influential member of staff’ and as injecting ‘an element of glamour

shop-keeper.’

and fashion.’ A very rare reference to her, but a striking one, occurs

But of all the British women retailing interior style in the Prudence Maufe in the furniture dept of Heals’, 1926

A Mansard Gallery poster

24

in the autobiography of the typographer, John Lewis – Such Things

first half of the twentieth century, the one having perhaps the

Happen – in which he describes his then fiancée, to be his wife, as a

most lasting influence, yet the one least remembered is Prudence

young art student, joining Heal’s in the 1930s –

25

F R O M PA L A C E S T O P R E - FA B S

R E TA I L E R S O F F U R N I S H I N G TA S T E

‘There was a beautiful castle in Scotland, a difficult

Maufe of Heal’s. That she is barely referred to in interior design

husband, a house in London, three daughters,

history or even, for that matter, in accounts of Heal’s is possibly

endless social events and entertaining…’

due to the more publicised reputation of her husband, Sir Edward Maufe, architect of Guildford Cathedral [and incidentally

That was not quite how Cecilia herself put it –

of Heal’s extension] along with the fact of her long term intimate relationship with Ambrose Heal himself! It is said that

‘I just couldn’t face all the new trading rules and

Ambrose’s grief at the death of his son Cecil in the war in 1916

restrictions which had sprung up since the war.’

that estranged him from his wife and ‘drove him into the arms of Prudence’. Elsewhere it is described as ‘a deep and lasting

There is probably an element of truth in both statements.

love affair that survived all sorts of tests’ and one that seems

Nevertheless Cecilia, Lady Sempill continued to be active in

to actually have been accepted by those in the know. Prudence

design activities – as consultant to Liberty’s, on numerous

joined Heal’s in 1915 and remained there through to the 1950s,

committees and councils [R.C.A., D.I.A., CoID [Scottish],

one source describing her as the store’s chief buyer, influencing

L.C.C., Contemporary Arts etc.]; involved in exhibitions [she

more than one generation as to how their homes should be

claimed from Britain can Make It to the Festival of Britain];

furnished through her work in the shop, the exhibitions she

wrote a slight book on English pottery and china in the Britain

mounted, or helped to mount, in Heal’s Mansard Gallery and her

in Pictures series [1947]; and became something of a pioneer in

contribution to the development of the store’s textile business.

relation to the disabled.

Source data on Prudence is slim – the odd untitled

Reflecting on her time running Dunbar Hay, Cecilia felt

photograph in Heal’s archives, a couple of curious press articles

she had no desire to market a particular style – ‘almost anything

from the early 1920s, a recent thesis by Ambrose’s grandson

will mix with anything, if these ‘things’ are good in themselves’ –

Oliver, and Susanna Gooden’s references to her in At the Sign of

and considered she had created ‘only a small world’, summarising

the Fourposter in which Prudence is described as ‘a very active and

her role – ‘I had thought I was a sculptor, but I turned out to be a

influential member of staff’ and as injecting ‘an element of glamour

shop-keeper.’

and fashion.’ A very rare reference to her, but a striking one, occurs

But of all the British women retailing interior style in the Prudence Maufe in the furniture dept of Heals’, 1926

A Mansard Gallery poster

24

in the autobiography of the typographer, John Lewis – Such Things

first half of the twentieth century, the one having perhaps the

Happen – in which he describes his then fiancée, to be his wife, as a

most lasting influence, yet the one least remembered is Prudence

young art student, joining Heal’s in the 1930s –

25

F R O M PA L A C E S T O P R E - FA B S

T H E H O S T E S S D E C O R AT O R S

However marriage was to be her lot, although it was not until she was 27 that she married a patent law barrister, generally considered, by her more sophisticated friends as worthy but boring.

By 1906 she was the mother of two sons, but motherhood did not prevent hostessing, the chance to build up her own ‘magic circle’, which has been suggested to have been a substitute for the family life she never had.

Sibyl, and her husband, Arthur Colefax, travelled widely in England and abroad as far as Canada, she gradually building up her social network using letters of introduction. In London at their house in Onslow Square she held court along with weekends in their country house, Old Buckhurst near Ashdown Forest. Her guests were drawn from both political and literary spheres and included the Chamberlains, Lord Northcliffe, J.M.Barrie and Rudyard Kipling. Their country house visiting book recorded some 800 visitors staying between 1914 and 1921!

By 1921, the pair described as ‘on their uppers’ had sold Old Buckhurst and the Onslow Square property and had bought Argyll House on the King’s Road, next to that of Syrie Maugham, who was to be Sibyl’s great rival both in hostessing and business. It was there that she really established herself, stealing, as it were, cultural knowledge from her guests. Although all this was done in a generous spirit Sibyl was generally considered a lion-hunter and derided behind her back as such. Kenneth Clark said of her – ‘her need to collect celebrities was an

Opposite: Boxwood, 1930s. Designed and produced by Sibyl Colefax

addiction as strong as alcohol or drugs.’

30

Above: Argyll House, Sibyl’s home 1921–36

31

F R O M PA L A C E S T O P R E - FA B S

T H E H O S T E S S D E C O R AT O R S

However marriage was to be her lot, although it was not until she was 27 that she married a patent law barrister, generally considered, by her more sophisticated friends as worthy but boring.

By 1906 she was the mother of two sons, but motherhood did not prevent hostessing, the chance to build up her own ‘magic circle’, which has been suggested to have been a substitute for the family life she never had.

Sibyl, and her husband, Arthur Colefax, travelled widely in England and abroad as far as Canada, she gradually building up her social network using letters of introduction. In London at their house in Onslow Square she held court along with weekends in their country house, Old Buckhurst near Ashdown Forest. Her guests were drawn from both political and literary spheres and included the Chamberlains, Lord Northcliffe, J.M.Barrie and Rudyard Kipling. Their country house visiting book recorded some 800 visitors staying between 1914 and 1921!

By 1921, the pair described as ‘on their uppers’ had sold Old Buckhurst and the Onslow Square property and had bought Argyll House on the King’s Road, next to that of Syrie Maugham, who was to be Sibyl’s great rival both in hostessing and business. It was there that she really established herself, stealing, as it were, cultural knowledge from her guests. Although all this was done in a generous spirit Sibyl was generally considered a lion-hunter and derided behind her back as such. Kenneth Clark said of her – ‘her need to collect celebrities was an

Opposite: Boxwood, 1930s. Designed and produced by Sibyl Colefax

addiction as strong as alcohol or drugs.’

30

Above: Argyll House, Sibyl’s home 1921–36

31

F R O M PA L A C E S T O P R E - FA B S

‘HOW TO DO IT’ WRITERS hen it comes to women putting their ideas on

by Margaret Merivale in 1938 Furnishing the Small Home, and

decorating and designing of interiors down on paper,

the slightly bizarre The New Interior Decoration by Dorothy

they initially seem to have predominated over men,

Todd and Raymond Mortimer in 1929 [she ex-Vogue and on

for a plethora of books to do with the home, some of them entirely

her way down, he on his way up] recommending the likes of

focused on decoration, came on to the market in late Victorian

the Bloomsbury set as the decorators of the moment; but in the

and Edwardian years, as was noted in the Introduction to this

1930s and 40s it was the men who were at the fore – the names

book. To the Garrett cousins, Jane Panton and Mary Eliza Haweis

popping up everywhere including Basil Ionides, John Gloag,

can be added Mrs.Talbot Coke and Dorothy Peel. The former,

Noel Carrington, F.R.S.Yorke, Anthony Bertram, Duncan

perhaps the interior decoration journalist of her time, founded

Miller, Derek Patmore, Henry Stephenson and Oliver Hill.

Hearth & Home for which much of her evangelism on the subject

When it came to advisors and designers for the ‘Home’ section of

was written. Dorothy Peel, who wrote under her husband’s

the Festival of Britain in 1951 there was barely a woman in sight.

name – Mrs.C.S.Peel – was also a sometime journalist of general

However, in the middle of the century, three paperbacks

household matters, but, in 1903, produced a book – ‘The new

on interior decoration by women were published, presumably

home: treating of the arrangement and furnishing decoration of a

in that cheaper format for everyone to be able to purchase.

house of medium size on a modest income’.

These were not glossy coffee table affairs with photographs of

But come the twentieth century, particularly in the inter-

exotic interiors in the Bahamas or Monte Carlo, but down-to-

war years curiously, as women gained more rights and became

earth how-to-do-it manuals of some technical sophistication

more emancipated, fewer books by women on interior decoration

– C.G.Tomrley’s Furnishing Your Home – a practical guide to

appeared. There were exceptions, as the much quoted volume

inexpensive furnishing and decorating [first published in 1940 but republished in 1946]; and then two Penguins – Diana Rowntree’s Interior Design, a Penguin Handbook in 1964 and

Roland Collins’ illustration of designer, Phoebe De Syllas’ living room

44

45

F R O M PA L A C E S T O P R E - FA B S

‘HOW TO DO IT’ WRITERS hen it comes to women putting their ideas on

by Margaret Merivale in 1938 Furnishing the Small Home, and

decorating and designing of interiors down on paper,

the slightly bizarre The New Interior Decoration by Dorothy

they initially seem to have predominated over men,

Todd and Raymond Mortimer in 1929 [she ex-Vogue and on

for a plethora of books to do with the home, some of them entirely

her way down, he on his way up] recommending the likes of

focused on decoration, came on to the market in late Victorian

the Bloomsbury set as the decorators of the moment; but in the

and Edwardian years, as was noted in the Introduction to this

1930s and 40s it was the men who were at the fore – the names

book. To the Garrett cousins, Jane Panton and Mary Eliza Haweis

popping up everywhere including Basil Ionides, John Gloag,

can be added Mrs.Talbot Coke and Dorothy Peel. The former,

Noel Carrington, F.R.S.Yorke, Anthony Bertram, Duncan

perhaps the interior decoration journalist of her time, founded

Miller, Derek Patmore, Henry Stephenson and Oliver Hill.

Hearth & Home for which much of her evangelism on the subject

When it came to advisors and designers for the ‘Home’ section of

was written. Dorothy Peel, who wrote under her husband’s

the Festival of Britain in 1951 there was barely a woman in sight.

name – Mrs.C.S.Peel – was also a sometime journalist of general

However, in the middle of the century, three paperbacks

household matters, but, in 1903, produced a book – ‘The new

on interior decoration by women were published, presumably

home: treating of the arrangement and furnishing decoration of a

in that cheaper format for everyone to be able to purchase.

house of medium size on a modest income’.

These were not glossy coffee table affairs with photographs of

But come the twentieth century, particularly in the inter-

exotic interiors in the Bahamas or Monte Carlo, but down-to-

war years curiously, as women gained more rights and became

earth how-to-do-it manuals of some technical sophistication

more emancipated, fewer books by women on interior decoration

– C.G.Tomrley’s Furnishing Your Home – a practical guide to

appeared. There were exceptions, as the much quoted volume

inexpensive furnishing and decorating [first published in 1940 but republished in 1946]; and then two Penguins – Diana Rowntree’s Interior Design, a Penguin Handbook in 1964 and

Roland Collins’ illustration of designer, Phoebe De Syllas’ living room

44

45

THE DESIGNERS goodly number of women contributed to the

Betty Joel, was not only a furniture designer but a furniture

decoration of interiors by their skill with some

manufacturer and retailer, as well as an occasional interior designer.

specific art or craft without actually influencing the

Born Mary Stewart Lockhart in 1896, she grew up in Hong Kong

overall style and furnishing of whole rooms or workplaces, – the

where her father was Colonial Secretary. He was, in addition, a

textiles designers Phyllis Barron, Dorothy Larcher, Enid Marx,

connoiseur art collector, and when the pair were marooned in a

Jacqueline Groag, or the ceramicists Lucie Rie, Dora Billington,

backwater in North-East China, during World War One [her mother

Susie Cooper, Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie etc. But others, even

and siblings being back in England], Betty was to receive an informal

though focusing on some aspect of furnishing or some particular

education in the arts from him, particularly in the arts of the Orient.

room can be rated as having a general influence on style by

She met and married a naval lieutenant, David Joel, who

what they did. Betty Joel, for example, although primarily a

was serving in the Far East, the couple moving back to London

furniture designer also designed interiors, and Dorothy Braddell,

in 1918. There is little recorded of how they came to be living

although sometimes sidelined as a mere kitchen designer, had

in Hayling Island or decided to set up as furniture makers. A

a considerable impact as such. Then there is a rarity, a woman

great nephew in a talk to a local decorative arts society is said to

whose creativity encompassed a whole gamut of interior design

have hinted the motivation was as slight as friends admiring the

from single objects, to rooms, even to whole buildings; from the

furniture they put together for their first home and commissioning

domestic to the commercial to the public – the unique Gaby

them [much as how several of the hostess decorators got going].

Schreiber. None of these had a particular political axe to grind or

Betty, herself, said simply –

an evangelical mission to fulfill, they were practical imaginative people who took on challenges or set their own.

‘I personally began to design because I despaired of trying to adapt old furniture to the needs of my own entirely modern house.’

Betty Joel photographed by Bassano Limited, 1930s

65

THE DESIGNERS goodly number of women contributed to the

Betty Joel, was not only a furniture designer but a furniture

decoration of interiors by their skill with some

manufacturer and retailer, as well as an occasional interior designer.

specific art or craft without actually influencing the

Born Mary Stewart Lockhart in 1896, she grew up in Hong Kong

overall style and furnishing of whole rooms or workplaces, – the

where her father was Colonial Secretary. He was, in addition, a

textiles designers Phyllis Barron, Dorothy Larcher, Enid Marx,

connoiseur art collector, and when the pair were marooned in a

Jacqueline Groag, or the ceramicists Lucie Rie, Dora Billington,

backwater in North-East China, during World War One [her mother

Susie Cooper, Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie etc. But others, even

and siblings being back in England], Betty was to receive an informal

though focusing on some aspect of furnishing or some particular

education in the arts from him, particularly in the arts of the Orient.

room can be rated as having a general influence on style by

She met and married a naval lieutenant, David Joel, who

what they did. Betty Joel, for example, although primarily a

was serving in the Far East, the couple moving back to London

furniture designer also designed interiors, and Dorothy Braddell,

in 1918. There is little recorded of how they came to be living

although sometimes sidelined as a mere kitchen designer, had

in Hayling Island or decided to set up as furniture makers. A

a considerable impact as such. Then there is a rarity, a woman

great nephew in a talk to a local decorative arts society is said to

whose creativity encompassed a whole gamut of interior design

have hinted the motivation was as slight as friends admiring the

from single objects, to rooms, even to whole buildings; from the

furniture they put together for their first home and commissioning

domestic to the commercial to the public – the unique Gaby

them [much as how several of the hostess decorators got going].

Schreiber. None of these had a particular political axe to grind or

Betty, herself, said simply –

an evangelical mission to fulfill, they were practical imaginative people who took on challenges or set their own.

‘I personally began to design because I despaired of trying to adapt old furniture to the needs of my own entirely modern house.’

Betty Joel photographed by Bassano Limited, 1930s

65

PLANNERS FOR THE MASSES here were a number of women who were not

‘Born in a cottage, and brought up in a rambling

specially interested in decorating houses, or in

country house, Mrs Pleydell-Bouverie has, at various

interior design, from an aesthetic viewpoint, but

times in her life, lived in a small house on a Peabody

whose interest lay in a more general concern for the betterment

Estate, a women’s hostel, a house in suburbia, a town

of living conditions, particularly for the ‘man and woman in the

house, a mews flat and a luxury flat.’

street’. It may then seem rather curious that the first example is one, Mrs. Pleydell-Bouverie, working on behalf of the Daily

Kynaston sneers at this, writing of its description of

Mail, not well-known for its concern with matters of welfare for

her as ‘a housing expert’ as ‘one of her more graphic titles’. As

the common lot. Mrs Pleydell-Bouverie was to spend three and

far as one can glean anything on Mrs.Pleydell-Bouverie, born

a half years surveying what people wanted for their post-war

Millicent Frances Bristow, she in fact seems to have had a very

homes, producing a book of her findings in 1944 – Daily Mail

‘emancipated’ life – writing for films, publicising early film

Book of Post-War Homes.

makers, running a press agency, organising ‘events’, working as

David Kynaston, in In austerity Britain 1945–51 refers

a free-lance journalist – and having two husbands. The evidence

to her scoffingly as ‘unashamedly unemancipated’, suggesting

of her having been a ‘housing expert’ is somewhat slimmer – a

someone who had taken a stereotyped female role; and,

co-authored book with Winifred Burman entitled Housecraft,

certainly, we are not given her personal name, credited as she

and a role as organising secretary of the British Home Building

is, with that of her husband Michael. The Daily Mail, at the

Industries Standing Committee [suggesting she aligned herself

start of its publication, provides a rather different view of her –

with housing developers rather than housing dwellers].

Kensal House, Ladbroke Grove, London designed by Elizabeth Denby

Mail chose to carry out its housing survey, starting in 1941. This

and Maxwell Fry

was no altruistic project by the newspaper for it had to put its

Whichever view of her is valid, it was she who the Daily

84

85

PLANNERS FOR THE MASSES here were a number of women who were not

‘Born in a cottage, and brought up in a rambling

specially interested in decorating houses, or in

country house, Mrs Pleydell-Bouverie has, at various

interior design, from an aesthetic viewpoint, but

times in her life, lived in a small house on a Peabody

whose interest lay in a more general concern for the betterment

Estate, a women’s hostel, a house in suburbia, a town

of living conditions, particularly for the ‘man and woman in the

house, a mews flat and a luxury flat.’

street’. It may then seem rather curious that the first example is one, Mrs. Pleydell-Bouverie, working on behalf of the Daily

Kynaston sneers at this, writing of its description of

Mail, not well-known for its concern with matters of welfare for

her as ‘a housing expert’ as ‘one of her more graphic titles’. As

the common lot. Mrs Pleydell-Bouverie was to spend three and

far as one can glean anything on Mrs.Pleydell-Bouverie, born

a half years surveying what people wanted for their post-war

Millicent Frances Bristow, she in fact seems to have had a very

homes, producing a book of her findings in 1944 – Daily Mail

‘emancipated’ life – writing for films, publicising early film

Book of Post-War Homes.

makers, running a press agency, organising ‘events’, working as

David Kynaston, in In austerity Britain 1945–51 refers

a free-lance journalist – and having two husbands. The evidence

to her scoffingly as ‘unashamedly unemancipated’, suggesting

of her having been a ‘housing expert’ is somewhat slimmer – a

someone who had taken a stereotyped female role; and,

co-authored book with Winifred Burman entitled Housecraft,

certainly, we are not given her personal name, credited as she

and a role as organising secretary of the British Home Building

is, with that of her husband Michael. The Daily Mail, at the

Industries Standing Committee [suggesting she aligned herself

start of its publication, provides a rather different view of her –

with housing developers rather than housing dwellers].

Kensal House, Ladbroke Grove, London designed by Elizabeth Denby

Mail chose to carry out its housing survey, starting in 1941. This

and Maxwell Fry

was no altruistic project by the newspaper for it had to put its

Whichever view of her is valid, it was she who the Daily

84

85

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