About
Designer of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in England, the first important British building to be designed by a female.
Before Fame
She was homeschooled until she was 14. She enrolled in the newly opened Bedford Square branch of the Architectural Association, from which she graduated in 1924. She was first hired by David Niven and Herbert Wigglesworth, who showed her the Scandinavian style of architecture.
Trivia
She retired in 1968, having not been able to live up to the success of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre.
Family Life
Her father was a surgeon; she had nine siblings growing up. She married George Richards in 1936; her great-uncles were famed architects George Gilbert Scott and George Frederick Bodley; her second cousin was Liverpool Cathedral architect
Associated With
Her design for the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre was highly controversial and hotly debated, but George Bernard Shaw proved to be a great advocate for her handling of the project.
