Picture credit: CC-BY-NC-ND Image Courtesy of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
Today is International Women’s Day and we are celebrating all those women who have been and are trailblazers and those changemakers of the future. Architect Indujah Srikaran from our planning team has looked to a lady who had a significant impact on Stratford-upon-Avon and her profession as a whole.
As a planning and architecture team at Sheldon Bosley Knight, we are fortunate to be based in Stratford-upon-Avon surrounded by many inspirational buildings and historic architecture.
As part of Women in Construction week, and International Women’s Day, the team wanted to shed light on a particular woman architect who has provided a significant contribution to this town as well as the architecture profession as a whole.
In 1928, Elisabeth Betty Scott changed the course of history becoming one of the first women architects to win a major international architectural competition and design a notable public building in the UK.
The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (now known as the Royal Shakespeare Theatre), was designed by Scott after the original was destroyed by a fire in 1926.
Scott’s design was described as “remarkable in a place of such strong and live traditions” by art and architectural historian, Nikolaus Pevsner.
However it was criticised by the musical director Sir Edward Elgar, as “unspeakably ugly and wrong”, and who described Scott as an “awful female” and refused to enter the building.
Furthermore, the press at the time wrote headlines such as “Girl Architect Beats Men” or “Unknown Girl’s Leap to Fame”.
These comments show the challenges women architects faced at the time, despite their talent. Scott, herself, is even known for disliking being labelled as a “female architect” rather than simply an “architect”.
The theatre is now a Grade II* Listed Art Deco theatre and stands proudly on the banks of the River Avon in the centre of Stratford-upon-Avon. Although redesigned both internally and externally a few years ago, it remains a momentous piece of architecture within the town centre.
Overall, Scott’s success with the theatre initiated a transformation for women working in architecture within the 20th century. Her career continued to remain successful within her lifetime, collaborating on schemes such as the Marie Curie Hospital and Newham College in Cambridge. In the late 50s, Scott joined Bournemouth town council architects’ department and continued to practice in the architecture field until she was 70 years of age.
We in the planning and architecture team have been inspired by Scott and other women who have been trailblazers within the profession.
We hope to do the same for young women keen to make a career in this incredible sector.
