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Elisabeth Whitworth Scott (20 September 1898 – 19 June 1972) was a British architect who designed the
Shakespeare Memorial Theatre
The Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) (originally called the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre) is a grade II* listed 1,040+ seat thrust stage theatre owned by the Royal Shakespeare Company dedicated to the English playwright and poet William Shakesp ...
at
Stratford-upon-Avon, England. This was the first important public building in Britain to be designed by a female architect.
[
]
Early life
Scott was born in Bournemouth, England, one of ten children of Bernard Scott, a surgeon. She was a great-niece of the architects George Gilbert Scott and George Frederick Bodley
George Frederick Bodley (14 March 182721 October 1907) was an English Gothic Revival architect. He was a pupil of Sir George Gilbert Scott, and worked in partnership with Thomas Garner for much of his career. He was one of the founders of Watt ...
and second cousin of Giles Gilbert Scott
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (9 November 1880 – 8 February 1960) was a British architect known for his work on the New Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, Battersea Power Station, Liverpool Cathedral, and ...
, 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
The Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, commonly referred to as the AA, is the oldest independent school of architecture in the UK and one of the most prestigious and competitive in the world. Its wide-ranging programme ...
's new school in Bedford Square
Bedford Square is a garden square in the Bloomsbury district of the Borough of Camden in London, England.
History
Built between 1775 and 1783 as an upper middle class residential area, the square has had many distinguished residents, inclu ...
, 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
Louis Emanuel Jean Guy de Savoie-Carignan de Soissons CVO RA FRIBA (1890–1962) was the younger son of Charles de Savoie-Carignan , Count de Soissons ( with claimed descent, through an illegitimate son, from Thomas Francis of Savoy, Prin ...
, a progressive architect producing buildings in the contemporary style for the new garden city of Welwyn
Welwyn is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. The parish also includes the villages of Digswell and Oaklands. It is sometimes referred to as Old Welwyn or Welwyn Village, to distinguish it from the much newer and larger ...
, Hertfordshire (where she worked on the design for the Shredded Wheat Factory, now a listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
) and the modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
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, London, and Chesterton agreed to oversee her proposals for feasibility. (Maurice Chesterton was a cousin of the theatre's publicist A.K. Chesterton
Arthur Kenneth Chesterton (1 May 1899 – 16 August 1973) was a British far-right journalist and political activist. From 1933 to 1938, he was a member of the British Union of Fascists (BUF). Disillusioned with Oswald Mosley, he left th ...
.) Maurice Chesterton's daughter Elizabeth Chesterton, 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
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' suggested that, although the design reflected the building's purpose, its bulk in the small town was "startling...monstrous ndbrutal." ''The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' did not agree, observing how well the building "adapt ditself to the lines of the river and landscape".[ Sir Edward Elgar, 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
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
(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, 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
Gallery or The Gallery may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Art gallery
** Contemporary art gallery
Music
* Gallery (band), an American soft rock band of the 1970s
Albums
* ''Gallery'' (Elaiza album), 2014 album
* ''Gallery'' (Gr ...
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
''The Architectural Review'' is a monthly international architectural magazine. It has been published in London since 1896. Its articles cover the built environment – which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism ...
''.
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
Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge.
The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...
, is of note. In the Post-war period, Scott returned to Bournemouth, 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.][ 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
The Fawcett Society is a membership charity in the United Kingdom which campaigns for women's rights. The organisation dates back to 1866, when Millicent Garrett Fawcett dedicated her life to the peaceful campaign for women's suffrage. Original ...
to promote wider acceptance. Above anything else, she disliked being labelled as a 'female architect' rather than simply an 'architect'. Elisabeth was a Soroptimist 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) to be featured in the design of the new UK passport, to be used for the next 5 years.
See also
* Women in architecture
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
People from Dorset