Pauline Baines ( Behr; 10 September 1917 – 10 November 2020) was a British book designer and typographer. Born in

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...

into an observant Jewish family with origins in Lithuania, although in adulthood she did not consider herself part of Anglo-Jewry. She was the second child of Moses and Sonia Behr, both originally from Lithuania. The family moved to London and she grew up in

Cricklewood Cricklewood is an area of London, England, which spans the boundaries of three London boroughs: Barnet to the east, Brent to the west and Camden to the south-east. The Crown pub, now the Clayton Crown Hotel, is a local landmark and lies north- ...

. She first went to a small school in Hampstead, then to Brondesbury and Kilburn School for Girls when the family moved to Willesden Green. She wanted to attend university as her brothers had done but instead went to Willesden Art School (now part of

College of North West London The College of North West London (CNWL) is a large further education college in north-west London, England. It was established in 1991 by the merger between Willesden Technical College and Kilburn Polytechnic in the London Borough of Brent. Today ...

) and the Central School of Art (now Central Saint Martins), where she trained in illustration and graphic design. She did

war work War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

in a factory and also as a Red Cross volunteer. Later she worked for the Ministry of Information, which was in charge of publicity and propaganda. In preparation for the 1951

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people: ...

, she developed displays for the exhibition ship HMS Campania. From 1958 until her retirement she worked for

Thames & Hudson Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...

, the London-based book publishers, where she was responsible for books such as the '' catalogue raisonné'' of the French artist

Honoré Daumier Honoré-Victorin Daumier (; February 26, 1808February 10, 1879) was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the Revolution of 1830 to the fall of the second N ...

. In 1952, she married Harry Baines (1910–1995), a Realist painter and muralist from Manchester. At the beginning of their married life, the couple and a group of their friends formed a co-operative housing society and commissioned Ernő Goldfinger to design a small block of flats for them. The building on the

Regent's Park Road Regent's Park Road is a street in the Primrose Hill area of London, England. Located in the London Borough of Camden, it runs in a curving crescent shape. For some of its route it follows alongside the eastern edge of Primrose Hill park and als ...

, which draws on the architect's own Hampstead home

2 Willow Road 2 Willow Road is part of a terrace of three houses in Hampstead, London designed by architect Ernő Goldfinger and completed in 1939. It has been managed by the National Trust since 1995 and is open to the public. It was one of the first Moder ...

, was

Grade II listed 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 ...

in 1998. For the rest of their lives the Baines lived at this address in

inner London Inner London is the name for the group of London boroughs which form the interior part of Greater London and are surrounded by Outer London. With its origins in the bills of mortality, it became fixed as an area for statistics in 1847 and was use ...

, between

Camden Town Camden Town (), often shortened to Camden, is a district of northwest London, England, north of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Camden, and identified in the London Plan as o ...

and Primrose Hill. The couple traveled extensively, particularly in India and Italy. She was a committee member both for her neighbourhood association and for the local Labour Party. She outlived her husband by 25 years but never remarried. She died in London, aged 103.

References

External links

An interview with Pauline Baines
on ''Encounter'', the architecture and design radio series from Monitor Production in Sound {{DEFAULTSORT:Baines, Pauline 1917 births 2020 deaths Alumni of Central Saint Martins People from Willesden People from Cricklewood People from the London Borough of Camden Book designers British book publishers (people) British typographers and type designers Ernő Goldfinger buildings Festival of Britain Labour Party (UK) people British centenarians Women centenarians