Elizabeth Denby
Elizabeth Denby (1894 – November 3, 1965), was an English social architect and housing consultant.
Biography
In 1932 Denby was the organising chairman of the first "New Homes for Old" exhibit at the building trades exhibition at Olympia and in 1934/35 she held a Leverhulme Research Fellowship into low cost housing in Europe. In 1936 she became the first women to address a sessional meeting of the Royal Institute of British Architects; her paper on 'Rehousing from the Slum Dweller's point of view' shocked those in attendance.[citation needed] Her sociological inclinations and commitment to consideration of family welfare were relatively explicit when she declared forthrightly that:
"In short, the general working class opinion seems to be that the blocks of flats would be all very well for people who can afford to send their children to boarding school, and go off by themselves by car for the weekend and for the holidays, but that they were definitely inadequate for families whose lives must centre in and around the home."[citation needed]
Denby focused on constructing affordable homes which reflected working class needs. Several prominent architects worked with her. Notably Maxwell Fry collaborated with her with his essays on the Modern Movement style: the scheme for low rental apartments at Sassoon House in Peckham which was completed in 1934, and the later Kensal Rise flats developed by Charles Kearley in North Kensington. She is credited with prompting Fry to adopt a more progressive style. Denby's work to create more affordable living for the working class eventually resulted in houses that appeared cheap and unrealistic.[1]
Denby demonstrated her interest in social housing during World War II when she lived in London. In May 1942 she organised with Noel Carrington an exhibition "Living in Houses" in London, a sequel to the successful exhibition "Living in Cities" held the previous year, showing solutions to the problem of providing, after the War, new houses "suitable and convenient for the ordinary man and his wife and children".[2] On 27 March 1943 Denby gave a talk in the National Gallery on "The homes we want".[3]
After the war Denby wrote of her various concerns with the government's proposals for the new National Health Service in a letter to The Times - particularly the rights of "overworked" general practitioners.[4]
Bibliography
- Europe Re-Housed, with a Foreword by The Rt. Hon. The Lord Horder, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1st ed. 1938
- Europe Re-Housed - Re-building Europe after World War Two, London, George Allen & Unwin, 2nd ed. 1944