Geoffrey Jellicoe collection

AR JEL

1960s-1990s

Geoffrey Jellicoe was a founder member of the Institute of Landscape Architects, an architect, town planner, landscape architect and writer. He played a pivotal role shaping the Institute into an identifiable and viable organisation. He was visionary and determined in his approach, a man of phenomenal energy, broad interest and charisma, evident in his involvement both with the institute and in his own practice. He was elected president of the ILA in 1939 soon after the outbreak of WW2, but in his case, the usual two year office lasted for 10 years. During this time the Institute operated from his office and shared his secretary. So between Jellicoe, Ellen Heckford and especially Mrs Douglas [Gwen] Browne, communication lines were kept open with members: he produced occasional war time editions of the journal following the collapse of Landscape and Garden, and continued to run Council and committees. In addition to all this he subsidised the running of the Institute both during his term as president and for several decades after, and he diverted fees from one of his jobs to help establish the landscape course at Newcastle. In 1948 he became founding president of the International Federation of Landscape Architects. Although his training was in architecture, from the beginning of his time in practice in the 1920s, his work included garden and landscape design as well as architecture and town planning. He was to become one of the most celebrated landscape architects during his lifetime. In his favour was long life, hard work, and good opportunities in terms of visionary clients, good commissions and budgets; he was also an extremely effective communicator through his writing, speaking and teaching. But he clearly delighted in his work and in very few of his designs does he adopt an obvious or easy option. There are common hallmarks throughout including structured geometry, vistas, water, and designing to a human scale, but each of his designs is an inventive response to the site and the brief; he was invariably moving the game on, evolving from English traditional to modernist to allegorical and unclassifiable, and always at the forefront. All his books focus on aspects of landscape and gardens. By the early 1970s when Jellicoe was in his early 70s and had earned himself an international reputation in landscape architecture, he launched into his most productive and creative period of work. Practice: 1925 Joins Tubbs, Son and Duncan, 1925-31 Shepherd and Jellicoe [Jock Shepherd architect, illustrator]; 1931-38 Jellicoe, Page and Wilson 1939 G A Jellicoe c1955 GA Jellicoe and Partners [Allan Ballantyne, FS Coleridge, James Dartford] 1957 GA Jellicoe and Partners [Allan Ballantyne and FS Coleridge] c1959 Jellicoe, Ballantyne & Coleridge 1964-1973 Jellicoe & Coleridge 1973 - Jellicoe Coleridge and Wynn [Jellicoe as consultant] 1970s-1995 GA Jellicoe

The collection largely contains drawings from the 1960s to 1990s, and includes drawings by other landscape architects, architects, and Ordnance Survey plans. Objects, such as Jellicoe's drawing equipment, form a part of the collection and will be catalogued as objects in the MERL object database. Photographs of some of Geoffrey Jellicoe's projects (many of which are not represented in the drawing collection held here at MERL), including some architectural projects, can be seen in the Susan Jellicoe photograph collection, P JEL.

349 items

fonds

Landscape design, Architecture

AR THO, 2019/8, 2019/9/1-3, 2019/10, 2019/11, 2019/12/1-11, 2019/13, 2019/14, 2019/15/1-2, 2019/16, 2019/17, 2019/22/1-2, 2019/18, 2019/19, 2019/20, 2019/21, 2019/23, 2019/24/1-4, 2019/25/1-5, 2019/26, 2019/27/1-2, 2019/28, 2019/29, 2019/30/1-21, 2019/32, 2019/33, 2019/34/1-2, 2019/35/1-2, 2019/36/1-3, 2019/38, 2019/40, 2019/37/1-2, 2019/39, 2019/31, 2019/41/1-4, 2019/42/1-27, 2019/47, 2019/48