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.

Early life and education

Jessica Albery was born in London on 11 June 1908, the daughter of the stockbroker and Conservative MP for Gravesend, Kent, Irving Albery, a stockbroker who was later Conservative MP for Gravesend (1924–45) and was knighted in 1936, and his wife, Gertrude Mary, ''née'' Jones (1884–1967). Both parents came from theatrical families, her paternal grandparents were actress and theatrical manager Mary Moore (later Lady Wyndham) and actor and playwright James Albery. Her maternal grandfather was playwright Henry Arthur Jones, a creative artistic background which inspired her. Her mother encouraged her to study architecture, but her parents did not expect her to become a 'serious professional'. She trained at the Architectural Association, London, for five years in the late 1920s alongside students and close friends

Judith Ledeboer Judith Geertruid Ledeboer OBE (8 September 1901 – 24 December 1990) was a Dutch-born English architect. She was most active in London and Oxford, where she designed a variety of schools, university buildings and public housing projects. Ear ...

, Justin Blanco White, and Mary Crowley (later Medd), where they developed a commitment to housing reform and social concerns which impacted their later careers.

Works and career

As there was little work available at the time when she completed her training, she began her career by observing buildings under construction in the City of London, in particular Sir Edwin Cooper's Royal Mail Office. At this time she worked for several months with her fellow student and friend

. During the 1930s she 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 she designed and built five chalk pisé houses, influenced by the

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

style, near Andover, Hampshire; these were built by local labourers under a foreman supervised by Albery, drawing on her experience of working on building sites. During the Second World War Jessica Albery moved into working on town planning, for example, with

Max Lock Max Lock (1909–1988) was a British postwar urban planner who emphasised the importance of incorporating social research in the planning process. His most notable contributions were associated with planning in Middlesbrough, where he worked w ...

at Middlesbrough. After the war, she worked on architecture and town planning projects in

Basildon New Town Basildon ( ) is the largest town in the borough of Basildon, within the county of Essex, England. It has a population of 107,123. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1159. It lies east of Central London, south of the city of Chelmsford and ...

created under the 1946 New Towns Act and later became assistant regional planning officer to the Ministry of Town and Country Planning. Albery also Albery was a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects Housing Group and a co-author, along with Ledeboer, Jane Drew and

Elizabeth Denby Elizabeth Denby (1894 – 3 November 1965) was an English social housing expert and consultant. Biography Denby was from Bradford, Yorkshire, the daughter of a doctor. She went to Bradford Girls Grammar School and then studied at the London ...

, of an influential report in 1944. 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 Churchill Gardens is a large housing estate in the Pimlico area of Westminster, London. The estate was developed between 1946 and 1962 to a design by the architects Powell and Moya, replacing Victorian terraced houses extensively damaged durin ...

in Pimlico (ultimately occupied by a scheme designed by

Powell & Moya Sir Arnold Joseph Philip Powell (15 March 1921 – 5 May 2003), usually known as Philip Powell, was an English post-war architect. He was educated at Epsom College and then the Architectural Association. He was the father of "Humane modern ...

Personal life

Albery did not marry but adopted two very young boys in the early 1950s. Between 1953-54 she built the Garden House for them in Farningham, Kent, where her parents lived. She later designed the village hall in the village. She died on 16 January 1990 at her home in Farningham.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Albery, Jessica Mary 1908 births 1990 deaths British women architects 20th-century British architects British urban planners Alumni of the Architectural Association School of Architecture Architects from London