18 minute read
Celebrating the ‘not-seen’
An introduction to the Women of the Welfare Landscape
Lady Allen of Hurtwood
© Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick Library.
2021 marked the 70th anniversary of Brenda Colvin becoming first female president of the Institute of Landscape Architects (today’s Landscape Institute), this year celebrates the 100th anniversary of the founding of her joint practice, Colvin & Moggridge. 2023 will see the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA), in which Colvin also played an important role.
Among these milestones of the profession and professionalisation of landscape architecture, it is crucial that we gain a more thorough understanding of its history, and of the key people who shaped its development, including a number of female professionals whose contribution to landscape architecture in a variety of forms and practices – such as writing, campaigning, teaching, working in policy or professional organisations as well as design – is often ‘not seen’. (1)
While the work of key female professionals such as Brenda Colvin, Sylvia Crowe, Lady Allen of Hurtwood or Jacqueline Tyrwhitt are relatively well known, the Women of the Welfare Landscape project sets out to go beyond understanding their individual contribution, and instead aims to look into women’s collective impact on landscape architecture, both in terms of design, and beyond. As Sylvia Crowe wrote in a letter to Geoffrey Jellicoe, “team-work is the only possible solution in a profession that covers such a wide range of subjects, many of them requiring not only a different training but a separate set of capabilities, and a different type of mentality.” (2) Collaboration between leading thinkers and designers in the post-war period was manifested in a variety of different ways. In their book 'Women and the Making of Built Space in England', Darling and Whitworth argue that “the mythologization of the design process” (3) and the focus on the design product hides the contribution of many other thinkers and actors. Writers, campaigners and educators get much less attention, than their successful contemporaries with design careers. In this short introduction to this ongoing research project, the focus will be on collaboration within and beyond the field of design, to start painting a more nuanced picture of the ways landscape architecture can be practised.
In 1929, when the Institute of Landscape Architects (ILA) – originally the British Association of Garden Designers – was established, two founding members were female: Lady Allen of Hurtwood, at the time working as garden designer in collaboration with Richard Sudell, and Brenda Colvin, who by then was running her own independent garden design practice. Their vision for a changing, independent profession hugely shaped the discipline’s future, and their work through the Institute was a catalyst for this development. As Colvin wrote: “The wider applications of landscape architecture are those of regional planning. While the main work of members may be at present laying out medium sized gardens, we had to remember that our most important contribution to the life of the nation would be in the wider field.” (4)
Brenda Colvin
© MERL Brenda Colvin Collection.
Allen and Colvin both served the Institute in a variety of roles, including playing an active part in various committees and the Council, as well as Lady Allen serving as honorary Vice- President between 1939-46 and Colvin as President between 1951-1953. Soon after the establishment of the Institute, they were joined by other visionaries such as designer and author Sylvia Crowe; designer, author and educator Madeleine Agar; landscape architect, urban planner and educator Jacqueline Tyrwhitt; and architect and landscape architect Sheila Haywood, then working with Geoffrey Jellicoe.
Sylvia Crowe
© MERL Brenda Colvin Collection.
In an article for the ‘Your Daughter’s Future’ section of the Evening Standard in 1936, Lady Allen described landscape architecture as “one of the newest professions for women” and highlighted, that, “as in all growing professions that are not fully recognised, a woman of ability and push must at first actually devise new avenues for the expression of her work.” (5) Her comment and article in general sheds light on two equally important aspects of the profession shortly before and during WW2. Firstly, that it needed to establish itself through a growing membership, professional standards and education. And secondly, that women found many ‘new avenues’ throughout this process, without which the LI and the profession would look very different today.
Wylfa Power Station designed by Sylvia Crowe
Allen’s article describes the different educational pathways to becoming a landscape architect, including the route she and many other women took: training in horticulture. Lady Allen herself held a Diploma in Horticulture from the University of Reading, Brenda Colvin and Sylvia Crowe studied at the Swanley Horticultural College under Madeleine Agar (herself a Swanley graduate under Fanny Wilkinson), while Jacqueline Tyrwhitt had RHS qualifications. This background was significantly different from the majority of (male) members, holding qualifications in architecture or town planning. As Sylvia Crowe remembered, “most of our members were architects and/or town planners and to get them to realise that landscape architecture was a third different profession was not always easy.” 6 With membership numbers being small, the idea to merge with larger, more respected institutions, like the Town Planning Institute (today RTPI) or the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) was a recurring question before and during WW2. In 1934 at the Town Planning Institute’s annual conference and summer school at St Peter’s Hall in Oxford, Gilbert Jenkins, himself a member of the Institute, recommended the merger of the two. 7 Between 1943-1945, the next question – whether the Institute should assimilate with the RIBA – was dominant. As Geoffrey Jellicoe, then President of the ILA who led the discussions described it, “The choice was not easy. On the one hand lay security within a body whose prestige, expertise, resources and powers of patronage were immense; on the other hand, a dangerous road of independence in a world where the Institute numbers were still infinitesimal.”
In the description of the events Jellicoe recalled that “at the Council meeting prior to the decisive meeting the architecturally-minded majority favoured amalgamation and empowered the President to meet the RIBA special committee to inform them that the ILA Council had declared itself sympathetic; and to report back as to whether negotiations could begin.” 8 The Council minutes and the other resources in the Archives of the Institute highlights two main opponents to the idea: Brenda Colvin and Sylvia Crowe, who were tirelessly arguing for the importance of an independent Institute to secure strong enough professional emphasis on the biological and ecological aspects of the profession as well as questions of large scale rural planning, including forestry. Retrospectively, Jellicoe recalled the contribution of the two women as a “famous outburst”, and that it was “thanks largely to those two Furies (‘the friendly ones’ to the Greeks) that the warm embrace of the RIBA had been resisted.” (9)
Deciding to take the ‘dangerous route to independence’ meant a renewed effort to establish the Institute and the profession’s reputation. Building links with other professional bodies in the field was a key goal in this process. According to Geoffrey Jellicoe’s recollections, in 1946 not long after the decision by the Institute to keep its independence, at a council meeting, “Joan [Lady] Allen had popped up and said ‘let’s call an international meeting, and possibly have an international federation arising from it’. We all agreed – it sounded awfully easy – and the motion was passed.” Organising an international conference and exhibition wasn’t awfully easy. However, the ILA found an extremely capable member to undertake the task. Returning from active military service, Sylvia Crowe was asked to take on the position of Chairman of the International Conference Committee. 11 The conference and the associated exhibition was held in the London County Council’s County Hall in August 1948. After the conference a meeting was convened of the representatives of 14 countries in Jesus College Cambridge on 14th August where the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) was established. Not surprisingly, the presidential post was given to the British – as convener of the conference, and Geoffrey Jellicoe became its first lead. Brenda Colvin was nominated as representative of ILA, and Sylvia Crowe became Honorary Secretary. Crowe held the position for two years, during which time the constitution of the Federation was written and accepted. She stepped back after two years but had a seat for life on Council. In 1953 she was elected Vice-President, and was Secretary General between 1956-59 (while also acting as President of ILA).
Evening Standard Article.
Warwick University Archive © Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick Library
Colvin, Crowe and Jellicoe saw IFLA as a key achievement, and in 1976, when the Institute was considering leaving the Federation, they strongly argued for it, when they stated that IFLA is “essential for us to break out of insularity into a very much wider world than that of our daily experience” and that the Federation is “a power for peace”. As they argued, the aims of the founders were “first, to promote understanding and knowledge throughout a war-shattered world through the common language of landscape; second, to raise universally the prestige of landscape in the public mind; and third, to enable member countries to keep abreast of world ideas” (12) – a vision and dedication that could not be more important in our current global crises. As Crowe said in 1979, at the occasion of the Institute’s 50th anniversary, “We have contributed much, gained much and still have a vital role to play”. (13)
Maintaining and strengthening the independent Institute and its international standing was one way to establish a recognised profession, but education and educational standards – another key aspect discussed in Allen’s 1936 text – was equally important. Establishing educational standards has been a key goal of the Institute from its early days, and its Educational Committee played a leading role in this. Madeleine Agar and Brenda Colvin were long term members of this committee, together with other leading professionals, such as Gilbert Jenkins and Peter Youngman. Their work resulted in the 1941 First Provisional Syllabus, as well as the 1946 Examination Syllabus, that defined the knowledge requirements to join the Institute.
However, education – as well as practice – took many formats, especially during the war, and women played indispensable roles in this. Colvin and Madeleine Agar were both members of the Women’s Farm and Garden Association (WFGA), through which Colvin – together with Jacqueline Tyrwhitt – launched a course to train female gardeners who could not afford tuition fees for horticultural colleges. The 6-month course specialising in food production started in 1942, and the collaboration of the two of them led to further educational projects. In 1942, Colvin started to teach landscape architecture in the Regent Street Polytechnic to architecture and planning students and Tyrwhitt taught the history of town planning. A year later Colvin started to teach surveying and drawing to Diploma students at Studley
Horticultural College for women, and also started to teach for the renowned Architectural Association. Her famous book, Land and Landscape was developed from her lecture notes. Here, she taught an intensive course on trees, as well as design studios and history of landscape architecture. The same year – most probably on the basis of their experiences in architectural schools – she and Tyrwhitt embarked on their next joint project: a book, that only two years after the first publication was already in its third edition. Trees for Town and Country described 60 trees suitable for general cultivation in Britain aiming to show them in different periods of their growth.
The intention was to help visualise how trees would look as they matured, for the benefit of professionals with no education in planting or horticulture but who might oversee strategic tree planting, including architects and planners.
Together they also organised a postgraduate evening course through the School of Planning and Research for National Development (SPRND) that Tyrwhitt was leading throughout the War. The SPRND course led to the final examination that allowed students to enter both the Town Planning Institute and the Institute of Landscape Architects, and Colvin worked as a lecturer there until the 1950s.
Writing about the legacy of Sylvia Crowe, Jack Lowe recalled that “Full training for the landscape qualification in the years immediately after the Second World War was not easily found. Only one British school offered a comprehensive course and there was no longer a pupillage system. For students already qualified in related professions and studying to pass the entry exams, the greatest hurdle was in design subjects – suitable tuition, books, and journals being scarce. It was in that void that the writings of Sylvia were eagerly sought; and they were highly influential not only among the emerging landscape profession, but in sending clear signals to the world outside.” 14 If we add to this Peter Youngman’s statement, that Brenda Colvin’s Land and Landscape was a pioneer book which had an enormous influence in “spreading the wider view of landscape” whilst also considering Tyrwhitt’s many publications, like the Town and Country Planning Textbook and Planning and the Countryside, the understanding of their educational profile and their role in creating a common understanding of what landscape architecture is, becomes even more profound.
In her 1936 article for the Evening Standard, Lady Allen argued that “if it is left too exclusively to men, the rehousing of our people may result in towns where too little regard is paid to those whose lives are spent in the home”, and that “for those who can succeed, it is a profession which is not only one of the most delightful in the world, but one that offers a great contribution to the happiness of mankind.”
Drakelow Nature Reserve, designed by Colvin & Moggridge.
Brenda Colvin, Sylvia Crowe, Lady Allen of Hurtwood, Jacqueline Tyrwhitt and their collaborators continued to advocate for the profession of landscape architecture throughout their careers. Brenda Colvin designed landscapes across the country at every scale from private gardens to power stations and New Towns. She went into partnership with Hal Moggridge in 1969, establishing Colvin & Moggridge, which is the longest running landscape practice in the country today, with a greatly varied portfolio of projects.
Sylvia Crowe authored several books, and also ran a successful design practice as well as working closely with the Forestry Commission. She co-authored her last book with landscape architect Mary Mitchell.
Lady Allen’s work and advocacy for children’s welfare and adventure playgrounds saw her to become an important member of the International Playground Association, as well as working with the UN. Her many books and articles as well as talks benefitted hugely the development of children and children’s play.
Jacqueline Tyrwhitt worked extensively with CIAM, and taught planning and urban design in Canada and at Harvard. She was remembered as a hugely influential teacher as well as someone whose organisational and editorial skills were crucial in the formation of international networks and publications.
Allen, Colvin, Crowe and Tyrwhitt collaborated very widely and contributed to the development of British landscape. While this short summary can only give a glimpse into some of their activities, the Women of the Welfare Landscape project will uncover their work and most importantly their networks in more detail. We aim to learn more about women’s agency and contribution to the landscape profession and understand more about how they contributed to ‘the happiness of mankind’ by creating landscapes for the welfare of all.
Luca Csepely-Knorr
Luca Csepely-Knorr
Dr Luca Csepely-Knorr is a chartered landscape architect and art historian, researching the intersections of the histories of landscape architecture, architecture and urban design from the late 19th century to the 1970s. She is leading the AHRC funded ‘Women of the Welfare Landscape’ project, and is Co-Investigator of the project ‘Landscapes of Post-War Infrastructure: Culture, Amenity, Heritage and Industry’. She is incoming Research Chair in Architecture at the Liverpool School of Architecture.
(1) Darling, Elizabeth (2020) ‘The Not-Seen’ HTTPS:// www.sahgb.org. uk/features/the-notseen-ggz64
(2) Letter from Crowe to Jellicoe MERL SR LI AD 2/2/1/25
(3) Darling, Elizabeth & Withworth, Lesley (2007) ‘Introduction: Making Space and Re-making History’ in Women and the Making of Built Space in England, 1870–1950 London: Routledge p. 3
(4) Rettig, S (1983) The Creation of Professional Status: The Institute of Landscape Architects between 1929 and 1955. Unpublished manuscript p. 3 MERL SR LI AD 2/1/1/28
(5) Hurtwood, Lady Allen of (1936) Your Daughter’s Future. 1. Landscape Architecture Evening Standard, Monday, September 21. pp. 24-25.
(6) Interview with Sylvia Crowe. Published in: Harvey, Sheila (ed) (1987) Reflections on Landscape. The lives and work of six British landscape architects. London: Gower Technical Press. P. 34
(7) Gibson, Trish (2011) Brenda Colvin. A career in landscape. London: Frances Lincoln Limited. P. 124
(8) Jellicoe, Geoffrey: The Wartime Journal of the Institute of Landscape Architects. In: Harvey, Sheila & Rettig, Stephen (1985) Fifty Years of Landscape Design. London: The Landscape Press pp. 9- 26 . 22.
(9) Jellicoe, Geoffrey (1979): ‘War and Peace’ Landscape Design February 1979 p. 10
‘Women of the Welfare Landscape’
‘Women of the Welfare Landscape’ is an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) supported research project that commemorates the network of women and their collaborators who have had a major impact on shaping the post-war designed landscapes of the British Welfare State. The research focuses on understanding Brenda Colvin’s networks and collaborations and through these the wider questions the role of women in the creation of the landscapes of the Welfare State. The project aims to shift attention to the women’s role as educators, campaigners or advocates; and projects of the everyday: landscapes in service of communities. It will analyse landscapes of public housing, public and country parks funded by municipalities and landscapes of infrastructure commissioned by publicly owned, nationalised industries, as material examples of landscapes for social benefits and ‘fair share for all’: a key objective of Welfare Planning.
A travelling exhibition is designed to return the work of Colvin & Moggridge to the communities they designed for. By taking it to the universities in Edinburgh, Reading, Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, Belfast and London the exhibition will be a freely accessible event allowing the local community, staff and students of each institution to engage with the research. The places to hold the exhibition were chosen to facilitate a discussion between the past of landscape architecture and its future: all of the partnering universities are centres for training landscape architects. Through collaboration with the Modernist Society, The Gardens Trust, the Garden Museum, the Museum of English Rural Life and Historic Environment Scotland, the exhibition will also feature in public galleries and spaces, such as East Kilbride Library, in the centre of Colvin’s first New Town project in the 1950s.
At each stage of the travelling exhibition, public-facing events are being organised in tandem with a ‘Show and Tell’ event to collect visual resources (family photos, postcards etc.) and memories of the landscapes of Colvin & Moggridge and the post-war period. The collected materials will be organised and publicised on a crowd-sourced HistoryPin archive.
Through a series of widely accessible online and blended public symposia organised in collaboration with educational charities such as the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain (SAHGB), TGT and international research networks such as the Women in Danish Architecture Project, ‘Women of the Welfare Landscape’ will widen the discussions to involve international audiences.
In partnership with the LI, a series of online CPD events will be organised to help students and academics, as well as chartered members of the Institute, to gain a better understanding of methodological and theoretical questions for researching post-war Welfare Landscapes.
If you would like to learn more about our activities, please follow us on: Twitter: @WomenWLandscape, Instagram: @women.welfare.landscape or HistoryPin: https://www.historypin.org/en/ women-of-the-welfare-landscape/ pin/1173722/
We would like to hear about projects, memories, photos etc. that you think might be relevant to this project. Please do get in touch with us through wowela@gmail.com. Dr Luca Csepely-Knorr & Dr Camilla Allen
Further reading:
Darling, E & Walker, N (2019) Suffragette City: Women, Politics, and the Built Environment (London: Routledge) Darling, E & Whitworth, L (eds) (2007) Women and the Making of Built Space in England, 1870-1940. London: Ashgate; Darling, E & Walker, N (eds) (2019) Suffragette City. London: Routledge Duempelmann, S. (2004) Maria Theresa Parpagliolo Shephard (1903- 1974). Ein Beitrag zur Entwicklung der Gartenkultur in Italien im 20. Jahrhundert (Weimar: VDG); Duempelmann, S. and Beardsley J [eds.] (2015) Women, Modernity and Landscape Architecture (London: Routledge) Gibson, T (2011) Brenda Colvin: A career in landscape (London: Frances Lincoln Publishers). Mozingo, A and Jewell L. (eds) (2012) Women in Landscape Architecture: Essays on History and Practice (London: McFarland & Co) Powell, W. & Collens, G. (eds) (2000) Sylvia Crowe (London: The Landscape Design Trust) Shoshkes, Ellen (2013) Jaqueline Tyrwhitt: A Transnational Life in Urban Planning and Design (London: Routledge) Way, T. (2009) Unbounded Practice. Women and Landscape Architecture in the Early Twentieth Century (Charlottesville & London: University of Virginia Press)
Campaigns and projects:
‘Women Taking the Lead’ campaign by The Cultural Landscape Foundation: https://www.tclf.org/women-takinglead MOMOWO: Women’s creativity since the modern movement 1918-2018 http://www.momowo.polito. it/#3/17.39/-3.25 Women in Danish Architecture project https://www.womenindanish architecture.dk/?lang=en
