Marjory Allen

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Marjory Allen , Baroness Allen of Hurtwood (born Gill; born May 10, 1897 in Bexleyheath , † April 11, 1976 ) was an English landscape architect and early advocate of early childhood education and state welfare for children. She promoted the concept of adventure playgrounds and worked for UNICEF and numerous other child care institutions.

Life and work

Marjory Gill was born in Bexleyheath , Kent . She studied horticulture at Bedales School and University College, Reading . In the 1920s and 1930s she worked as a landscape architect . In 1930 she became the first woman to become a member of the English professional association Institute of Landscape Architects (ILA; today: Landscape Institute LI), of which she was vice-president from 1939 to 1946. In 1924 she also became managing director of the Worker's Birth Control Group.

In 1921 she married Clifford Allen, a senior member of the Independent Labor Party , who in 1932 was named the first Baron Allen of Hurtwood. After his death in 1939 - during the Second World War - Marjory Allen expanded her activities to include child care. With the support of the British Interior Minister Herbert Morrison, she implemented a concept according to which waste material from the rubble fields was processed into children's toys. Her work alongside UNICEF for displaced and orphaned children in Europe and the Middle East contributed to the passage of the Children Act 1948, which was the first in England to regulate state welfare obligations for children.

She was director from 1942 and president from 1948 to 1951 of the British Organization for Early Education, from which she promoted the idea of ​​building low-cost, high-quality day nurseries across the UK. She was a member of the Central Advisory Board for Education (1945–1949) and a member of the Advisory Board for Children's Films (1944–1950) in England. Based on the concept developed together with Alva Myrdal and other women from European countries, as a result of a UNESCO conference on early childhood education held in Prague in 1948, the OMEP (World Organization for Early Childhood Education) was founded, which is represented in Germany by the AGJ (Arbeitsgemeinschaft for child and youth welfare) as the German National Committee for Early Childhood Education (DNK).

In the post-war period, the situation in newly emerging settlements in English cities prompted them to deal with the play behavior and needs of children for free play with natural materials. She wrote several brochures - Design for Play (1961), New Playgrounds (1965) and a book, Planning for Play (1968), in which she propagated the concept of adventure playgrounds , which she developed in Copenhagen using the example of Endrup Park. Garbage park) by C.Th. Sørensen had met. The underlying playwork theory was suitable, among other things, for war-related remaining space in cities and was also used by Jakoba Mulder and Aldo van Eyck in urban planning. Her trip to the east coast of the United States in 1965 helped spread the concept of adventure playgrounds. Marjory Allen was a founding member of the International Play Association and the former Handicapped Adventure Playground Association, which established adventure playgrounds for disabled children.

Marjory Gill Allen died in 1976.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Allen, Marjory Gill (1897-1976) Birth Control International. November 24, 2016, accessed July 14, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Zaida Muxi: Lady Marjory Allen of Hurtwood 1897-1976. In: un día | una arquitecta. April 15, 2015, accessed June 23, 2020 (European Spanish).
  3. ↑ Allen of Hurtwood, Lady (Marjory Gill Allen) 1897–1976 .: Memoirs of an uneducated lady: Lady Allen of Hurtwood , Nicholson, Mary, 1912-, Thames and Hudson, London 1975, ISBN 0500011338 , p. 157.
  4. ↑ History of OMEP. OMEP, accessed July 14, 2020 .
  5. ^ Papers of Marjory Allen, Lady Allen of Hurtwood (1897-1976), landscape architect, campaigner for pre-school education and promoter of child welfare. Retrieved July 14, 2020 .
  6. ^ Prague Childhood Education. In: UNESCO Courier Volume I No. 4. UNESCO Public Information Section, May 1948, accessed on July 15, 2020 (English).
  7. ↑ Adventure Playgrounds | Play Encyclopedia. Retrieved July 14, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Lady Allen of Hurtwood Archive | UK children's charity | National Children's Bureau. July 12, 2013, accessed July 14, 2020 .

Web links


personal data
SURNAME Allen, Marjory
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gill Allen, Marjory; Gill, Marjory (maiden name); Allen of Hurtwood, Baroness Marjory
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British landscape architect and child rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Bexleyheath
DATE OF DEATH April 11, 1976