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Judith Ledeboer (1901-1990)
Judith Geertruid Ledeboer, architect, was born at Almelo, in the Netherlands, the daughter of the banker, Willem Ledeboer (1873–1943) and Harmina Engelbertha van Heek (1873–1959). More or less immediately the family moved to London where she was educated at Wimbledon high school; and later Cheltenham Ladies' College; Bedford College,London; Newnham College, Cambridge (college scholar in history, 1921–4; MA, 1945). She attended Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts (AM, economics, 1925). She trained at the Architectural Association, London (1926–31), won the Henry Florence travelling studentship (1931), and travelled to Germany, Sweden, and Italy. She was inspired by the success of the architect Elisabeth Scott, worked as an assistant on Scott's Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford upon Avon and thought. architecture 'was the job I was meant for’.

Ledeboer practised architecture from 1934 in partnership with David Booth (1939–41 and 1946–62) and with John Pinckheard (1956–70). The firm of Booth, Ledeboer, and Pinckheard had offices in London and Oxford, designing mainly for clients in universities and the public sector. Commissions included the Institute of Archaeology and Classical Studies (1953–8), University of London; the Waynflete Building (1958–61), Magdalen College, Oxford; and housing for Lewisham and Newham borough councils in the 1950s and 1960s. Designed as part of the Festival of Britain (1951), Ledeboer's best-known project was the old people's home on the Lansbury estate, Poplar—a building type which she promoted in her writings and developed in a half-dozen other projects. Her Nuffield House (1951), Harlow, Essex, is a model of an architecturally interesting, low-cost local health centre; she was most closely concerned, however, with housing, and planned Bennetts End, an entire neighbourhood unit at Hemel Hempstead new town (1950–55), which included houses, flats, and maisonettes, as well as shops.

Well-illustrated in the architectural press, Ledeboer's work was consciously not stylish, but thoughtfully designed, detailed for everyday use, and carefully considered in relation to its site and surroundings, which she often landscaped. Efficient and extremely able, she extended her practice to housing research, exhibition organization, and committee work devoted to providing social architecture. She succeeded Elizabeth Denby as organizer of the ‘New homes for old’ exhibitions (1934, 1936, 1938), which analysed the social and architectural problems associated with the slums; she proposed their clearance and replacement with modern, healthier accommodation, and added an assessment of rural housing (1938). At this time, as head of exhibitions at the Housing Centre Trust (HCT), a member of the committee, and later chairman (1951–63), she persuasively put the case for improved housing and social amenities through HCT lectures, exhibitions, publications (especially its Housing Review), and, most distinctively, through films.

Ledeboer became one of the most significant voices in post-war housing policy, helping to set housing standards that raised the quality of public-sector accommodation; at the Ministry of Health (1941–6) she was the first woman employed by the department then responsible for housing. She served as secretary to both the Dudley committee, which produced Design of Dwellings (1944), and the Burt committee (1942–6), which advised on construction methods—notably prefabrication. A member of the Building Research Board of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (1951–6), she sat on the influential Parker Morris committee (1961), whose space standards became mandatory in all public-sector housing (1967–81). At home in the corridors of power she believed in the efficacy of institutions and organizations and was an active member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (1932–76) and of the Institute of Landscape Architects (1942–77). An associate of Newnham College (1942–56), she was interested in education, especially girls' education, and designed kindergartens, adventure playgrounds, and a girls' school. She was appointed OBE in 1966.

Tall, and in her youth athletic, Ledeboer, who remained single, loved the countryside and designed two houses and gardens for herself in Surrey, where she enjoyed walking, raising livestock, and gardening. She died on Christmas eve 1990 at her home, Hilltop Farmhouse, Hambledon, near Godalming, where her ashes were scattered along a neighbouring track.

Sources

private information (2004) [Rita Brooking Clark, sister] · [A. B. White], ed., Newnham College register, 1: 1871–1923 (1964), 324 · associates' nomination papers, 1933; fellows' nomination papers, 1953, RIBA BAL · photographs and documents, RIBA BAL, Ledeboer MSS · G. Darley, ‘Women in the public sector’, ''Women architects: their work'', ed. L. Walker (1984), 37–9 · The Independent (25 Jan 1991) · Housing Review (March–April 1991) · Schlesinger Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Radcliffe Archives · Landscape Design Extra (March 1991) · RIBA BAL, Photographs collection, MAL 91 · RIBA BAL, manuscripts and archives collection, SAG/88/4, DB/1-47 · articles and illustrations in the building press, including Architect & Building News, ''Architectural Review, Housing Review, RIBA Journal, The Builder, Architects' Journal, Architectural Design'' indexed by artist's name and building type in ‘grey books’, RIBA BAL · J. Fletcher Pott and L. B. Walker, interview, 1984 · membership lists, Institute of Landscape Architects, London · private information (2004) [M. Cleaver] · plan of Hughes Parry Hall, London, LMA, GLC/AR/BR/17/055326 · RIBA Journal, 69 (1962), 302–3 [obit. of David Booth] · The Times (1 Oct 1977) [obit. of John Pinckheard] · court minutes, 1952/3–1967/8, U. Lond. · MSS, Housing Centre Trust archive, London · Building Research Establishment Library, Elisabeth Denby papers · [E. Leopold], ''Housing standards: a survey of new build local authority housing in London, 1981–1984'' (1986) · private information (2004) [E. Leopold].

Archives

LMA · priv. coll., papers · RIBA BAL, photographs collection · RIBA BAL, manuscript and archives collection

FILM

BFINA

Likenesses

photograph, c.1918, priv. coll.

Lynne Walker, ‘Ledeboer, Judith Geertruid (1901–1990)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011 [http://0-www.oxforddnb.com.catalogue.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/view/article/66415, accessed 15 Oct 2015]

Judith Geertruid Ledeboer (1901–1990): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/66415