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 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) and actor and playwright James Albery. Her maternal grandfather was playwright Henry Arthur Jones, a creative artistic background which inspired her.
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'.
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.
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.
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.
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. 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.
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).
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).