BRIEFING
Annabel Downs on
Geoffrey Jellicoe 1. Geoffrey Jellicoe. © MERL/Landscape Institute Collection
Having been involved in the landscape profession for over three decades, and like others on voluntary committees, I have been fortunate to encounter many talented and generous landscape architects who have influenced the way I think, see or operate.
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My first boss was Peter Shepheard, his practice at SEH was forward looking, cultural, interested in its staff and a fun place to be. He was a talented and engaging designer and he definitely shaped me, so it may seem quirky to identify someone else whom I scarcely knew but who changed my life in an entirely unanticipated way. As part of his move from Highpoint in London, to Devon, Geoffrey Jellicoe had arranged with Sheila Harvey, the LI librarian, for her to take a stack of books as well as his plan chest of drawings. The early ILA (Institite of Landscape Architects) Constitution’s aims of those first members (of whom
Jellicoe was one), was to establish an archive of books and lantern slides; the former for its members, the latter to explain to other professions and the public what their work was about. It took years for the library to be established, but when Jellicoe handed over his drawings in 1994 the most exciting part of the LI archive had just begun. Sheila invited me to volunteer to catalogue the drawings. We both assumed this was a discrete collection and a short term role, but it seems that Jellicoe knew exactly what he was doing and following a visit to the RIBA about conservation methods and their archive (which then had 600,000 drawings), it became obvious that this was the beginning of something much bigger for the LI. And so it was that the archive expanded and within 13 years it had become the largest collection of twentieth century landscape drawings and papers in the UK, rich in information on design, designers, ideas, techniques and individual sites, providing an invaluable resource for academics, students, practitioners, other professions and government agencies. Although the LI archive has
now been transferred to the MERL, University of Reading, the archive still needs to be kept alive and growing with a range of new projects, including digital material. Do bear this in mind when your most favourite commissions reach the end of their liability period, or you downsize your office, and please contact FOLAR in the first instance. Considering the range of work the archive spanned, it surprised me that the most requested project from our archive was Jellicoe’s Kennedy Memorial. In comparison with other schemes, we had hardly anything on this apart from Susan Jellicoe’s brilliant photos and Jellicoe’s writings. A few years ago I was asked by the Landscape Design Trust to write a piece about the design of the Kennedy Memorial as part of a HLF project engaging children with designed landscapes. I thought it would be a couple of paragraphs but I have carried out my own research and found a hoard of papers across many archives and am hoping to publish the full story of this project and Jellicoe’s remarkable contribution next year, coinciding with the long-overdue exhibition on Geoffrey and Susan Jellicoe.
Annabel Downs CMLI FSGD. LI archivist 1995–2009. Editor of Peter Shepheard LDT monograph, winner of LI research award (2006). Chair of FOLAR (friends of Landscape Library and Archive at Reading).Member of LI Plant Health and Biosecurity Group.
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