Architect and Ceramist: Nell McCredie’s architectural works

Abstract

Nellie (Nell) McCredie (1901-1968) worked as both an architect and a ceramist. She was enrolled in the second cohort of the Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Sydney between 1919 and 1923. However, after graduating, McCredie was unable to find employment in architecture; instead, she found work in various drafting roles in Sydney. In her search for full-time employment in architecture, she moved to Cairns in July 1925 and spent four months working for a small architectural firm, Lawrence and Lordan.[1] In November 1925, McCredie moved to Brisbane and joined the Queensland Government’s State Advances Corporation in the Workers Dwelling Board (WDB). She stayed there for three years designing affordable homes, funded by government-backed loans, for working and middle class families. During this time, she designed at least one house as a private commission, outside of her employment with the WDB. While in Brisbane, McCredie started taking classes in ceramics with LJ Harvey at the Central Technical College.[2] McCredie returned to Sydney in 1929 at the beginning of the Great Depression. Upon returning home, she undertook further training in ceramics, learning to throw pottery on a wheel.[3] What started as a hobby transformed into McCredie’s full-time career throughout the 1930s.[4] By 1932 she had started her own ceramics teaching and production business based out of a studio on George Street in Sydney’s CBD. McCredie also continued to practice architecture independently in Sydney during the 1930s and 1940s. One of her most significant architectural works in Sydney was her design for a purpose-built ceramics studio in Epping in 1936. She operated her ceramics business from Epping with her brother Robert until she died in 1968.[5]Existing histories on McCredie’s career have focused on her ceramics rather than her architecture. The lack of attention paid to McCredie’s architecture is not because her work was insubstantial but because of the complexities in attributing authorship by architects to their buildings.[6] This thesis details McCredie’s career in architecture for the first time, which has been made possible by the discovery of her architectural archive. McCredie’s architectural archive provides a rare opportunity to discuss the built work of one of Australia’s early women architects. This research has led to the identification of 12 previously undiscovered houses by McCredie, including seven houses in Queensland and five in Sydney’s northern suburbs. Of these 12, 10 are extant. Prior to this research, only one of her houses had been identified, Uanda (1928) in the Brisbane suburb of Wilston. It was only discovered after an application to demolish the house was submitted to Brisbane City Council in 1998. The council sought an interim heritage protection order for the house, which the then owners of Uanda disputed in the Queensland Land and Environment Court in 1999. Fortunately, the decision to protect Uanda was upheld, and it was included on the Queensland Heritage Register in 2000. The court case over the heritage listing of Uanda is an important departure point for this thesis, especially in terms of how the aesthetic merits of the house were debated between heritage expert Richard Allom and historian Judith McKay.[7] The discussion of McCredie’s architectural works presented in this thesis also provides new insights into the careers of the architects she worked alongside. McCredie was among the first identifiable cohort of Australian women in architecture, who as Julie Willis wrote, emerged in earnest in the 1920s.[8] This study builds on existing research on Australia’s early women architects completed by Willis, McKay and Bronwyn Hanna. In particular, it provides new details about the careers of Australian interwar women architects, Ursula Jones, Eunice Slaughter, Dorothy Brennan, Lorna Lukin, Marjorie Hudson, Rosina Edmunds and Heather Sutherland. Additionally, McCredie’s archive also contributes to existing histories about the institutions that she was involved with throughout her career, including new findings into the histories of the WDB and the curriculum delivered into Australia’s first Bachelor of Architecture degree at the University of Sydney. [1] Nell McCredie Employment Statement, Department of Public Works, 1928, Queensland State Archives document: WOR/A 1194 Department of Public Works Administration series files Brisbane, Australia [2] Judith McKay, “Designing women: pioneer architects”. Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, Vol. 20, No. 5, (Feb 2008): 174-175. [3] Robert McCredie, “McCredie Pottery: 1922-1974” McCredie Ceramics Archive, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia, 1 [4] “Where Pottery is Made By Hand: Sydney Girl’s Fascinating Hobby” The Sydney Morning Herald 20 October, 1936: 5 [5] Robert McCredie, “McCredie Pottery: 1922-1974,” 6 [6] Julie Willis, Invisible Contributions: The PRobertlem of History and Women Architects, Architectural Theory Review, 3:2, (1998): 61 [7] Michel v. Brisbane City Council, Qpelr 374, 1999 [8] Julie Willis, Aptitude and Capacity: Published Views of the Australian Woman Architect, Architectural Theory Review, 17:2-3, (2012): 323