Jane Drew

Jane had an older sister, Dorothy Stella Radcliffe Drew (1909–1989), who became a physician and student of F. M. Alexander.

Jane Drew was educated at Woodford School in East Croydon, then at Croydon High School where she became Head Girl.

Among her friends at Woodford School were actresses Diana Wynyard and Peggy Ashcroft.

At Croydon High she was friends with the mural artist and book illustrator Barbara Jones and the women's rights campaigner Nancy Seear.

Dame Jane Drew, (24 March 1911 – 27 July 1996) was an English modernist architect and town planner.

She qualified at the Architectural Association School in London, and prior to World War II became one of the leading exponents of the Modern Movement in London.

At the time Drew had her first office, with the idea of employing only female architects, architecture was a male dominated profession.

She was active during and after World War II, designing social and public housing in England, West Africa, India and Iran.

With her second husband, Maxwell Fry, she worked in West Africa designing schools and universities.

She, Fry and Pierre Jeanneret, designed the housing at Chandigarh, the new capital of the Punjab.

She designed buildings in Ghana, Nigeria, Iran and Sri Lanka, and she wrote books on what she had learnt about architecture there.

In London she did social housing, buildings for the Festival of Britain, and helped to establish the Institute of Contemporary Arts.

After retiring from practice, she travelled and lectured abroad, receiving several honorary degrees.

Jane Drew studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture (1929–1934).

In 1933 she married architect James Thomas Alliston, who had been a fellow-student at the AA.

In 1934, Drew found first employment as an architect with Joseph Hill (1888–1947), where she was also introduced to members of bohemian London who would have a lasting impact on her work.

After partnering with her husband, Alliston, they won a competition in 1937 for a cottage hospital in Devon.

Their home and small practice (Alliston & Drew) was at 24 Woburn Square in London, and their principal work was housing in Winchester.

The couple had twin daughters.

Drew and Alliston's marriage was dissolved in 1939.

Drew soon became involved in the Modern Movement, through the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM), whose guiding spirit was the Swiss architect Le Corbusier, and became one of the principal founders of the Modern Movement in Britain, which was represented by MARS (Modern Architectural ReSearch), CIAM's British subsidiary.

It was an association of architects, painters and industrialists, and its stated principle was the "use of space for human activity rather than the manipulation of stylised convention".

It was through this group that she met Le Corbusier, Elizabeth Lutyens and Maxwell Fry (one of the co-founders of the movement).

Drew married Maxwell Fry in 1942.

After seeing Drew's projects in West Africa, Indian Prime minister Pandit Nehru asked her and Maxwell Fry to design the new capital of Punjab, Chandigarh.

She was heavily involved with the Festival of Britain at the time and was unsure of her ability to take on such a large role in the project.

Drew used her considerable charm to great effect, convincing Swiss Architect Le Corbusier to involve himself in the project.

Le Corbusier was responsible for the main plan of the city and the principal government buildings – the High Court, Assembly, the Secretariat, etc. Drew first met Le Corbusier before the War at C.I.A.M. (Congrès International des Architects Modernes).

She was impressed by the breadth of his knowledge, his experience in addressing the problems of housing in under developed countries, by the power of his personality, and the lucidity of his razor sharp logic.

According to Drew, despite his greatness,

“he made many mistakes – as does anyone who tries anything new.

Among these were the concrete brises soleil to his buildings which acted as heat sinks, radiating heat all night, without cooling, before reheating in the sun the following day.

Another mistake could have been the separation of shopkeeper's living quarters from their shops.

With the greatest difficulty I persuaded him to allow people to live above their shops!

Despite everything, we became firm friends.”

She was awarded the DBE in the 1996 New Year Honours, gazetted 30 December 1995, only seven months before her death.

Drew was born as Iris Estelle Radcliffe Drew in Thornton Heath, Croydon (then part of Surrey), but her name was registered a few days later as Joyce Beverly Drew.

Her father, Harry Guy Radcliffe Drew (grandson of Joseph Drew), was a designer of surgical instruments and the founder of the Institute of British Surgical Technicians: he was a humanist who "despised the profit motive and abhorred cruelty".

Her mother was Emma Spering Jones, a school teacher, who when Jane was only four became lame for the rest of her life as the result of a road accident.

She encouraged her daughters in observation of nature and appreciation of art, and she had a keen business sense.