I have put together this post in my appreciation for Geoffrey Jellicoe (1900 -1996).
Jellicoe was an architect, landscape architect, historian, traveller, lecturer and author. He has been a lasting inspiration for me.
When I studied landscape Architecture at the University of Edinburgh it was Jellicoe who was the guide for my mind’s eye. Without Jellicoe I would not have gained distinction in all subjects along with the award of the Scottish Chapter prize. I was not a good draughtsman but I had uncultivated ideas. Six years of training in Medicine (at the University of Aberdeen) had stifled my creative and imaginative self and I was altogether rather too tight and rigid. I reckon that this was a consequence of the unhelpful divide between the so-called ‘two cultures’.
In what follows I have ‘borrowed words’ of my betters, taking three quotes from a number of my favourite authors. Fragments that for me somehow seem to say something about Jellicoe and the ‘two cultures’.
To play this film please click here or on the image above.
