This talk is part of the Online Winter Lecture Series 2025 called Victorian and Edwardian Women in Architecture. Follow this link to book all of the lectures.
Organised by Lynne Walker
The spring lecture series provides the opportunity to engage with recent, path-breaking research by leading experts which gives a fresh perspective on women’s diverse roles in nineteenth and early twentieth century architecture as designers, patrons, clients, philanthropists, and businesswomen, as well as their emergence as professional architects by 1900. In the broad context of Victorian society, this series considers themes and issues which both facilitated and limited women’s agency and contribution in a male-dominated world, most notably, family, social and political networks, widowhood and wealth.
Rhoda and Agnes Garrett, ‘House Decorators, Cabinet Makers, and Designers of all the Details of Household Furniture and Upholstery’: the History of a Business, 1874–1905,
by Elizabeth Crawford
Tue 4 February, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Agnes (1845–1935) and Rhoda (1841–82) Garrett were the first women to run a professional interior design business. Thinking it essential to have a training, they served a three-year apprenticeship with the architect J. M. Brydon before embarking on an enterprise that, despite Rhoda’s early death, continued into the 20th century.
Elizabeth Crawford is the author of numerous articles and books, including Enterprising Women: the Garretts and their Circle (2002), which describes in detail the work of R. and A. Garrett – and that of their female friends and relations who did so much to transform the lives of women.
All attendees will be sent a recording of the talk.
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