(1900–96)
English architect, landscape-architect, and writer. He published his first book, Italian Gardens of the Renaissance (with J. C. Shepherd (1896–1978) ) in 1925. During the 1930s his was a powerful influence in the establishment of the Institute of Landscape Architects. He prepared a village plan for Broadway, Worcs. (1933), and in 1934 with Russell Page (1906–85), the restaurant and visitors' centre at Cheddar Gorge, Som., one of the first examples of International Modernism in England. Among his gardens of the 1930s may be mentioned Ditchley Park, Oxon. (1935–9), Royal Lodge, Windsor Park, Berks. (1936–9), and Mottisfont, Hants. (1936–9). He also worked on housing estates (e.g. in Acton (1934–5) and Bestwood, Notts. (1938–40) ) and industrial installations (e.g. Calverton Colliery, Notts. (1937–40), where he demonstrated that the effects of industry on the landscape need not be catastrophic). He was responsible for very many conversions of sites where clay and gravel were extracted, turning them into recreational amenities, notably in the Hope Valley, Derbys. After the 1939–45 war he received many commissions for landscape and planning works, including Hemel Hempstead, Herts. (1947–50), Church Hill, Walsall, Staffs. (1950s), the Rutherford High Energy Laboratory, Harwell, Oxon. (early 1960s), and the John F. Kennedy Memorial, Runnymede, Berks. (1963–5). His interventions in the centre of Gloucester have not worn well, and indeed several of his public planning works (e.g. his landscape work for English motorways (1964–72) ) quickly became dated. He published Motopia (1961), a proposal for a town where cars would travel on raised roads and helicopters would be the main means of travel, delivering people directly to their front doors, which is equally dated. In 1980–4 he landscaped the garden at Sutton Place, Guildford, Surrey (an allegory of creation and aspiration in life), and carried out two large garden designs for the Italian cities of Modena and Brescia. He also prepared designs for the Moody Historical Gardens, Galveston, TX (1984–92—in which the history of landscape architecture was alluded to by association). His garden at Shute House, Donhead St Mary, Wilts. (1968–75), has been much admired. Among his other publications, Baroque Gardens of Austria (1931), Studies in Landscape Design (1959–70), and The Guelph Lectures on Landscape Design (1983) should be mentioned. Towards the end of his life he claimed not to know about plants, and that he ‘loathed’ gardens.
Bibliography
Architectural Review ,clxxxvi/1111 (Mar. 1989), 85–92- Kalman (1994)
House & Garden ,xlvi/11 (1991), 130–3- Jellicoe (1988)
- Jellicoe & Jellicoe (1995)
- Jellicoe et al. (1996)
- Spens et al. (1994)
- Daily Telegraph (9 July 1996)
The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)
