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Elisabeth Whitworth Scott (20 September 1898 – 19 June 1972) was a British architect who designed the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at
Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...
, England. This was the first important public building in Britain to be designed by a female architect.


Early life

Scott was born in
Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...
, England, one of ten children of Bernard Scott, a surgeon. She was a great-niece of the architects
George Gilbert Scott Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he started ...
and George Frederick Bodley and second cousin of Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect of Liverpool Cathedral. She was educated at home until the age of fourteen, when she enrolled at the Redmoor School, Bournemouth. In 1919, she became one of the early students at the Architectural Association's new school in Bedford Square, London, graduating in 1924.


Career

Scott's first position was with the architects David Niven and Herbert Wigglesworth, a practice specialising in the Scandinavian style. In turn she became an assistant to Louis de Soissons, a progressive architect producing buildings in the contemporary style for the new garden city of Welwyn, Hertfordshire (where she worked on the design for the Shredded Wheat Factory, now a listed building) and the modernist Oliver Hill.


Shakespeare Memorial Theatre

In 1927, a competition for a replacement to the burnt-out Shakespeare Memorial Theatre was announced and Scott entered, with a confidence in her own abilities taken from the sound theoretical grounding at the Architectural Association's school. At the time, she was working for Maurice Chesterton's practice at
Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...
, London, and Chesterton agreed to oversee her proposals for feasibility. (Maurice Chesterton was a cousin of the theatre's publicist A.K. Chesterton.) Maurice Chesterton's daughter
Elizabeth Chesterton Dame Elizabeth Ursula Chesterton, DBE (12 October 1915 – 18 August 2002) was a British architect and town planner. Biography Chesterton was born on 12 October 1915 in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London. Her father, Maurice Chesterton, was an a ...
, herself an architect, claimed in a late interview that the competition entry had been falsely "submitted under Scott's name", suggesting that all research into the practical requirements of theatre function had been her father's. Maurice Chesterton himself "disclaimed any personal share whatever in the successful design". Scott was assisted by two fellow AA students: Alison Sleigh and John Chiene Shepherd. On winning the competition (against seventy-one other entries) the four formed a partnership to prepare the detailed plans and supervise the construction. The reaction to Scott's design was mixed. '' The Manchester Guardian'' suggested that, although the design reflected the building's purpose, its bulk in the small town was "startling...monstrous ndbrutal." '' The Times'' did not agree, observing how well the building "adapt ditself to the lines of the river and landscape". Sir
Edward Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...
, then 75, was to be the theatre's new musical director but, after visiting the building, he so was furiously angry with that "awful female" and her "unspeakably ugly and wrong" design that he would have nothing further to do with it, refusing even to go inside. On the other hand, dramatist George Bernard Shaw (a member of the SMT committee notwithstanding his earlier telegram of congratulations to its chairman on having the unsuitable old building burnt down) was a firm supporter of Scott's design as the only one to show any theatrical sense. Scott herself acknowledged that in her design she had not intended to conceal the functionality of the building. Although most criticism was directed at the building's external form, in the auditorium the performers—although acknowledging that Scott had been at the mercy of her theatrical advisors:
William Bridges-Adams William Bridges-Adams (1 March 1889 – 17 August 1965) was an English theatre director and designer, associated closely with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, from 1919 until 1934. Life and career Early years William Brid ...
, Barry Jackson and stage designer Norman Wilkinson (1882–1934, since 1920 a governor of the SMT)—found that it was curiously difficult to connect with their audience: evidently the large, plain expanse of the cream-painted side walls had the effect of diffusing attention from the stage. Only in 1951, when the gallery seating was extended along the sides, was this overcome. However, the building's lack of "meaningless decoration" was one of the features enthusiastically praised in the special June 1932 edition of the modernist '' Architectural Review''. From today's viewpoint the theatre, now called the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, is regarded as a "nationally significant building" representing the "best modern municipal style of architecture". It was made a Grade II* listed building on 14 October 1980.


Later practice

Scott was joined in the partnership by John Breakwell and—as John Shepherd and Alison Sleigh had married—the practice became "Scott, Shepherd and Breakwell". None of their subsequent commissions had the prominence of the SMT, although their 1938 work on the Fawcett Building at Newnham College, Cambridge, is of note. In the
Post-war In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period c ...
period, Scott returned to
Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...
, working with the practice of Ronald Phillips & Partners. In the 1960s, she joined the public sector, working for Bournemouth Borough Architect's Department on such projects as the new Pavilion Theatre on
Bournemouth Pier The history of Bournemouth and human settlement in the surrounding area goes back for thousands of years. Bournemouth is a coastal city on the island of Great Britain in Dorset, England, United Kingdom. Before Inclosure In 1800, the area was ...
. These relatively mundane schemes were no reflection of Scott's early talent; largely forgotten, she was "unable to live up to her perceived early promise". She retired in 1968.


Feminism

In 1924, when Scott entered practice, there were no prominent women architects and her selection for the project to rebuild the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre after it was destroyed by fire was only through her success in an international competition. Her achievement, and her decision to employ where possible women architects to assist her on the Stratford design, was instrumental in opening up the profession to women. Scott was not an outspoken feminist but was identified with the progressive movement to overturn traditional assumptions about women and the professions. She was by nature more of a quiet and practical feminist, ensuring that women were represented on her design projects and working through the Fawcett Society to promote wider acceptance. Above anything else, she disliked being labelled as a 'female architect' rather than simply an 'architect'. Elisabeth was a
Soroptimist Soroptimist International (SI) is a global volunteer service organization for women with nearly 72,000 members in 121 countries worldwide. According to Soroptimist.org, their mission statement says that, "Soroptimist is a global volunteer organiza ...
and an active member of Soroptimist International of Bournemouth.


Family

In 1936, she married George Richards. She died in Bournemouth on 19 June 1972.


UK passport

In November 2015 it was announced Elisabeth Scott would be one of only two prominent British women (the other being
Ada Lovelace Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (''née'' Byron; 10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852) was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the A ...
) to be featured in the design of the new UK passport, to be used for the next 5 years.


See also

*
Women in architecture Women in architecture have been documented for many centuries, as professional (or amateur) practitioners, educators and clients. Since architecture became organized as a profession in 1857, the number of women in architecture has been low. At t ...


References


Sources

* *Pringle, Marian : ''The Theatres of Stratford-upon-Avon 1875 – 1992: An Architectural History'', Stratford upon Avon Society (1994) *Jellicoe, Geoffrey Alan (1933), ''The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon'', Ernest Benn *Walker, Lynne (1984), ''Women architects: their work'', Sorella Press {{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Elisabeth 1898 births 1972 deaths 20th-century English architects British women architects Feminist artists Feminism and history People from Bournemouth Modernist architects from England English feminists
Elisabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Ships * HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships * ''Elisabeth'' (sc ...
People from Dorset