Jessica Albery (1908–1990) was a British architect and town planner, and one of the first generation of professional women architects in the UK in the early 20th century.^[1]

Early life and education

Jessica Mary Albery was born in London on 11 June 1908, the only daughter and the eldest of the three children of Irving Albery, a wealthy stockbroker who was later Conservative MP for Gravesend (1924–45) and was knighted in 1936 for political and public services, and of his wife, Gertrude ("Jill") Mary, née Jones (1884–1967). Both parents came from theatrical families. Her paternal grandparents were actress and theatrical manager Mary Moore (later Lady Wyndham)^[2] and actor and playwright James Albery. Her maternal grandfather was playwright Henry Arthur Jones, a creative artistic background which inspired her.^[1]

Albery was the god-daughter of Eleanor ("Nellie") Farjeon, the author, poet, biographer, historian, satirist, journalist, broadcaster and award-winnet. As her separate biographical entry in Wikipedia points out, Nellie Farjeon lived much of her life among the literary and theatrical circles of London, and she had a wide range of friends with great literary talent. Albery remained close to her godmother for the whole of her life.

In due course, but only at a time when it became necessary for Albery actually to do something, her mother eventually encouraged her to study architecture, but neither of her parents ever expected or encouraged her to become a 'serious professional'.^[3]

Although Albery was by no means unsociable, unintelligent, homesick or a late developer, her parents chose to have her educated not at an ordinary school, as (even then) was the case with most middle-class girls, but by means of virtually unqualified private governesses, followed, but only briefly, by a period of time at a small private finishing school in Paris. That was not the choice which her parents made for her two younger male siblings, both of whom were sent to school in the ordinary way.

She trained at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, in London, for five years in the late 1920s alongside fellow students and life-long close friends Judith Ledeboer, Justin Blanco White, and Mary Beaumont Crowley (later Medd), all of whom, unlike Albery, had had the benefit of parents who ensured that they received a proper education. At the Architectural Association they all developed a commitment to housing reform and to social concerns which impacted upon their later careers.^[1]

Works and career

As there was little work available at the time when she completed her training, Albery began her career by observing buildings under construction in the City of London, including Sir Edwin Cooper's Royal Mail Office, thereby learning in a hands-on way from close contact with foremen, clerks of works and the wider building trades.

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Albery then worked with her fellow student from the Architectural Association and life-long friend Judith Ledeboer. During the 1930s Albery actually worked as an architect in Ledeboer's office and also in that of another former Architectural Association student, Judith Townsend.

It was in this period that Albery designed and built five chalk pisé houses, influenced by the Arts and Crafts style, near Andover, Hampshire. These chalk houses were built by local labourers under a foreman supervised by Albery, drawing upon her personal experience of working on building sites.^[4]

During part of the Second World War, Albery worked as a volunteer ambulance driver for the London Auxiliary Ambulance Service.

Also during the Second World War Jessica Albery moved into working on town planning, for example, with Max Lock at Middlesbrough.^[5][6] Albery later worked at Basildon New Town.

Albery continued to work as an architect, but later became assistant regional planning officer to the Ministry of Town and Country Planning.^[4]

Albery was a member, later a Fellow, of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a co-author, along with Ledeboer, Jane Drew and Elizabeth Denby, of an influential report in 1944. She was also a member, later a Fellow, of the Royal Town Planning Institute, and held a Diploma in Town Planning.

Her interest and experience in this area are evident in an unbuilt competition entry dating from about 1946 for housing on the site of Churchill Gardens in Pimlico (ultimately occupied by a scheme designed by Powell & Moya).^[7]

Amongst other things, Churchill Gardens were famous at the time for having their hot water supply relayed directly from the Battersea Power Station.

Albery was a member of the Institute of Landscape Architects (now the Landscape Institute).

For a while Albery worked in the Kent County Planning Office at Maidstone, Kent.

Albery also taught the principles of architecture and of building construction at The Brixton School of Building.

In due course Albery became one of Her Majesty's Town & Country Planning Inspectors at the Ministry of Housing & Local Government (later the Department of the Environment), conducting public planning enquiries across the country.

Personal life

Albery did not marry but adopted two very young boys in the early 1950s, whom she saw through public school.

Between 1953 and 1954, Albery designed and personally supervised (being on site virtually every day) the construction of a family house known as Cobnuts, Sparepenny Lane, for them in Farningham, Kent, the village where her parents lived in the local and central Manor House.

Albery's parents, although wealthy, gave her no financial assistance towards the cost of Cobnuts, but they did allow Albery and her two young children to live in The Manor House, Farningham, whilst Cobnuts was being built for them, about one-half mile away. That enabled Albery to be on site at Cobnuts virtually every day, talking to the foreman, the construction workers, the clerk of works and the various contractors (plumbing, electrical, etc. etc.).

A sensitively-architectrually-designed family house, Cobnuts was remarkable, amongst other things, for having a roof made not of traditional materials but of copper, which over a period of time, and as Albery had duly anticipated, turned into a very striking shade of bright green.

The very large garden at Cobnuts was carefully and sensitively designed and landscaped by Albery's friend Sylvia Crowe (later Dame Sylvia Crowe DBE, the landscape architect and garden designer).

Cobnuts itself was built on one of five plots of land on a large freehold site which Albery had originally purchased entirely by herself. Albery sold off the other four plots at cost-price to various friends, mainly fellow architects, who then designed and built their own houses on those other four plots.

Albery had already designed, free of charge, the Farningham Village Hall, built upon a readily-accessible freehold site located in the very centre of Farningham Village, upon freehold land given to the village free of charge by her father (Sir Irving Albery).^[2] Farningham Village Hall, which has an internet website of its own, still plays a central part in the life of the village of Farningham, and one of its rooms has been named "The Albery Room".

In politics Albery became increasingly left-wing. She was an enthusiastic supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and frequently attended the Women's Peace Camp near RAF Greenham Common, Berkshire (set up to protest against the presence of nuclear weapons). She was not in the least deterred by the failure of any of her numerous female friends or relations to join her, despite being asked. Albery was fond of claiming that people became increasingly left-wing as they grew older. In younger life she herself had been an enthusiastic canvasser for her father, the Conservative candidate and MP.

Socially, Albery was extremely hospitable. She frequently had guests to stay at Cobnuts, and equally frequently gave both small and large parties for family, neighbours and for a wide circle of friends.

An ardent and competent croquet player, Albery was not particularly interested in most competitive pursuits except tennis, which she played well. A keen swimmer for the whole of her life, both in the sea and in the local river at Farningham, in later years Albery took up body surfing on the north Cornish coast with great enthusiasm. In her youth, on family holidays, Albery had been a keen and enthusiastic ski-er.

Albery always took a keen and active, not to say vigorous, interest in gardening.

Albery was a keen though not particularly an active member both of the National Trust and also of English Heritage.

In religious matters, Albery was a member of the Church of England, but she did not believe in each and every one of its literal or conventional doctrines (such as the whole the Apostles' Creed, or each and every one of the 39 Articles). Albery regularly attended her local village church (the Church of St Peter & St Paul's, Farningham, Kent) each Sunday upon a weekly basis, and was a long-standing and dedicated member of the Farningham Parochial Church Council.

For many years, Albery was also the Parish of Farningham's specially-chosen unpaid Representative or Delegate on the Deanery Synod of the Diocese of Rochester (one of the three most ancient Dioceses in the entire Church of England, with a continuous history dating back to the year 604, when it was founded by Augustine of Canterbury with the authority of King AEthelberht of Kent). The other two most ancient Dioceses in the entire Church of England are the Diocese of London (also founded in 604, the same year as Rochester); and Canterbury.

Although eventually funds did not actually permit any works to go ahead, Albery at one stage drew up (entirely free of charge) extremely sensitive and innovative and typically public-spirited architectural designs to create a Community Space within or near the Bell Tower of her local church, The Church of St Peter & St Paul's, Farningham, Kent (which was and still is a Grade 1 Listed Building) (constructed between the years 1225 and 1245).

Albery did a relatively large amount of unpaid voluntary work in designing and supervising works to almshouses in Kent and the surrounding area.

Albery also designed, and personally supervised works to, a number of private houses in Farningham and elsewhere.

Always interested and well-read in literary matters, Albery was a long-standing and enthusiastic supporter of the local Sevenoaks Poetry Society. This particular Society held regular monthly poetry recitals in the private houses of its members. They were often to be found at Cobnuts.

Albery took a keen and well-informed interest in the theatre in general, and in her two local amateur dramatic societies in particular.

Albery gave regular and very large amounts to charity. At the end of each calendar year, it was her practice to add up her earned and private income, to deduct her annual and relatively modest overheads and expenses, and then to give the entire surplus to charity. This fact became known only after her death.

One of Albery's favourite sayings was "moderation in all things". By and large she faithfully observed this prudential maxim herself, with the two possible but completely innocuous exceptions of the substantial time and effort which she regularly devoted to gardening (with the result that in later life she was often physically exhausted), and to the very large amounts of money which she annually gave to her carefully-chosen charities.

Albery died of cancer on 16 January 1990 at the age of 81 at her new home in Farningham (the Garden House).^[2]

Immediately following her death, the Royal Institute of British Architects (the RIBA) requested Albery's family to let the RIBA have all of Albery's surviving architectural drawings, in order for them to be archived by the RIBA itself. Albery's family duly complied with this request.

References