Geoffrey Alan Jellicoe [commonly known as Geoffrey Jellicoe; G.A. Jellicoe; and as Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe] was born in Chelsea, London, England on 8 October 1900 and studied at the Architectural Association in London from 1919 to 1923. He then travelled to Italy with fellow AA student Jock Shepherd where he gathered material for the first of several books, Italian Gardens of the Renaissance (1925) which was illustrated by Shepherd.
Following his return to London, Jellicoe and Shepherd set up a practice. The partnership was dissolved in 1931 and that year Jellicoe formed a new practice, Jellicoe, Page & Wilson, with Russell Page (1906–1985) and Richard Wilson. [The practice was also known as Jellicoe & Partners and as G. A. Jellicoe & Partners]. A photograph and description of The Garden House in Stanmore, Middlesex, residence of the designer H.G. Hayes Marshall, designed by Jellicoe & Partners is illustrated in Decorative Art vol.32, 1937 p.15; a photograph of same building is illustrated in The Book of the Modern House, edited by Patrick Abercrombie (1939 p. 217) and the architects' are given as Jellicoe, Page & Wilson. In a report on the East Acton Court flats in London designed by the practice in 1936 in Flats: Municipal and Private Enterprise (London: Ascot Gas Water Heaters Ltd., 1938 pp. 164-169), the name of the firm is given as G. A. Jellicoe & Partners.
The partnership with Page and Wilson was dissolved in 1938 or 1939. Jellicoe then practised alone until the mid-1950s when he reactvated G. A. Jellicoe & Partners, with Allan Ballantyne, Francis S. Coleridge and James Dartford as partners. Dartford subsequently withdrew from the partnership. The remaining partners then practised as Jellicoe, Ballantyne & Coleridge from c.1959 to c.1963, Following Ballantyne's departure, Jellicoe and Coleridge practised as Jellicoe & Coleridge from 1964 to 1973. Thereafter Jellicoe acted as a consultant.
From 1929 to 1934 Jellicoe taught at the Architectural Association. In 1934 he received his first significant architectural commission, the Caveman Restaurant, Gough's Cave at Cheddar Gorge. By the late 1930s Jellicoe was well established as one of the leading landscape architects of his generation. He had been a founder member of the Institute of Landscape Architects in 1929 and was passionate in promoting the profession. From 1939 to 1949 he was President of the Institute and in 1948 became the founding President of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA).
During World War Two (1939-1945) he was involved in the provision of emergency housing and the renovation of bomb-damaged properties. He was also Principal of the Architectural Association School from 1939 to 1942.
Much of Jellicoe's work during the post-war years was architectural and it has been calculated that he was engaged on over eighty commissions between 1945 and 1973, some of which were abroad. Jellicoe spent several years in Zambia working on schools, hospitals, airports and hotels.
From 1954 to 1968 he was a member of Royal Fine Art Commission and from 1967 to 1974 a Trustee of Tate Gallery. In 1979 he was knighted for services to landscape design and in 1991 he was elected a Royal Academician (RA). He died in Seaton, Devon on 17 July 1996.
See: Historic England for details of over 60 architectural and garden design projects by Geoffrey Jellicoe
Aldous, Tony. ‘Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe’. Buiolding Design no. 1273, 26 July 1996, p. 12
Bowe, Patrick. ‘Planting modernism’. [Discusses Geoffrey Jellicoe’s work in the landscaping of sutton Place, Surrey] Country Life vol. 190, no. 12, 21 March 1996 pp. 54-59.
Buttery, Helen. ‘Geoffrey Jellicoe: designs for all seasons’. Designers' Journal no. 14, January 1986 pp. 66-71.
Farrelly, E. M. ‘The triumph of Jellicoe: garden, Galveston, Texas’. Architectural Review vol. 178, no. 1063, September 1985 pp. 48-53
Geoffrey Jellicoe. Edited by Sheila Harvey. Reigate: LDT Monographs, 1998
Geoffrey Jellicoe. The Studies of a Landscape Designer over 80 Years. Volume 1: Soundings; An Italian Study 1923-1925; Baroque Gardens of Austria Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors Club Ltd, 1993
Geoffrey Jellicoe: the studies of a landscape designer over 80 years. Vol. 3: Studies in landscape design. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors Club Ltd, 1996
Harwood, Elain. Mid-Century Britain: Modern Architecture 1938-1963. London: Batsford, 2021
Holden, Robert. ‘Landscape revisit. 5. Landscape as art: Sutton Place, Guildford; Landscape architects: Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe’. Architects' Journal vol. 184, no. 47, 19 November 1986 pp. 67-74.
Howes, Karen. ‘Barbadian Palladian.’ [House at Heron Bay, Bridgetown, Barbados, design ed Geoffrey Jellicoe in 1947] House & Garden vol. 46, no. 7 Juy 1991 July, pp. 84-91
Jellicoe, Geoffrey Alan. ‘The House in its Suburnan and Country Setting’ in The Book of the Modern House. A Panoramic Survey of Contemporary Domestic Design. Edited by Patrick Abercrombie. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1939 pp. 205-225
Jensen, Finn. ‘The secret wartime housing estates of Geoffrey Jellicoe’. [Discusses Jellicoe’s supervision of the building estates for war-workers, commissioned by the Ministry of Supply during World War Two] ARQ: Architectural Research Quarterly vol. 12, no. 3/4, 2008, pp. 313-323.
Moore, Kathryn. Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe 1900-1996 Landscape Journal vol. 16, no. 1, Spring 1997 pp. 138-140
Niesewand, Nonie. ‘Haughty culturalist’. House & Garden vol. 49, no. 6, June 1994, pp. 118-122.
Powers, Alan. Modern. The Modern Movement in Britain. London: Merrell, 2005 pp. 152-153
Powers, Alan. ‘In search of the Caveman Restaurant’. [Caveman Restaurant, Cheddar Gorge, designed by Geoffrey Jellicoe and Russell Page in 1934] Thirties Society Journal no. 5, 1985, pp. 18-23.
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Spens, Michael. Gardens of the mind : the genius of Geoffrey Jellicoe. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club, 1992
Spens, Michael. ‘Jellicoe at Shute’. [Shute House, Donhead St. Mary, Dorset] London: Academy Editions, 1993.
Spens, Michael. ‘Sutton Place: a renaissance in time’ [Landscape Architect: Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe] Studio International vol. 196, no. 999, April/May 1983 pp. 16-18.
The collected works of Geoffrey Jellicoe: the studies of a landscape designer over 80 years, Volume 2 - Gardens & Design - Gardens of Europe. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors Club Ltd, 1995
Wells, Karen and Edwards, Nelson. Sir Geoffrey Alan Jellicoe : a biography of a landscape artist. Guelph : School of Landscape Architecture, University of Guelph, 1983.
‘Jellicoe country. Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe talks to Gontran Goulden about his life and work’. Building vol. 237, no. 7113 9 November 1979 pp. 36-38.
‘Kennedy Memorial, Runnymede’ [Architect: G. A. Jellicoe] Institute of Landscape Architects Journal August 1965 pp. 8-10
‘Obituary. Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe’. Architecture (AIA) vol. 85, no. 9, September 1996 p. 49
‘Obituary. Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe’. Architects’ Journal vol. 204, no. 4, 25 July 1996 p. 20-21
‘Sir Geoffrey A Jellicoe (1900-1996)’ Landscape Australia vol. 18, no. 4, November 1996 p. 303.