The work of the UK’s first female chartered building surveyor prioritised the wellbeing of some of the poorest people in the country ‘Everyone wants to build, nobody wants to do maintenance,’ wrote the author Kurt Vonnegut. Irene Barclay (1894–1989), Britain’s first female chartered building surveyor and secretary of the St Pancras Housing Association, however, wanted to do – and did – both. During a career spanning more than 50 years, Barclay penned reports on housing conditions across the country, spearheaded slum clearance and construction of modern blocks of flats, ran a surveying practice, started a nursery school for children under five, took landlords to court, and managed the day‑to‑day running of housing in Somers Town, near St Pancras, in London. She was a socialist who put her beliefs to material use, pursuing practical work for better housing and improved health for the so‑called slum dweller in London and across the country. The daughter of pacifist Christian minister Basil Martin and Alice Turberville, Barclay was born Irene Turberville Martin in Hereford in 1894. Her parents were adamant that Barclay and her siblings receive the best possible education, but Barclay’s unorthodox home background, which encouraged independence and free‑thinking, did not always make her formal schooling easy; in People Need Roots, a book she wrote in 1976 on her work at the St Pancras Housing Association, Barclay mentions being ‘utterly miserable’ and an outcast at Monmouth High, the boarding school she attended. Regardless, following the family’s move to London in 1913, Barclay studied history and social science at Bedford College.  Irene Barclay was a prominent advocate of improved conditions for impoverished people, commissioning social housing projects in her role at St Pancras Housing Association. Here, Barclay (left of image) studies the drawings of the third phase of St Richard’s House, built in 1967 and part of the Eversholt Estate, with a colleague at St Pancras Housing Association Margaret White Credit: Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre Barclay then worked with Maud Jeffery at the Crown Estate (the organisation that manages property held by the British monarch), where she became a rent collector and social worker – a unique type of role championed specifically for women by social reformer Octavia Hill. It was here that Barclay was mentored and encouraged, following the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act of 1919, to pursue a qualification in surveying. She enrolled and was qualified in 1922. Evelyn Perry, who was the second woman pursuing the degree, graduated the year after. The two women founded a joint surveying practice in 1924 and enjoyed a long‑lasting professional partnership. One of the first pieces of work Barclay and Perry undertook was a survey of housing conditions in London’s Chelsea. The document, revealing dangerous levels of overcrowding and poor‑quality dwellings, later served as proof in litigation against the landlords. The practice produced a number of similar surveys, which were sometimes illustrated with plans and other drawings, and went into the detail of architectural deficiencies and public health hazards. Statements from residents and witnesses were also included: for example, a teacher’s testimony to the bad effects of living in damp homes on children’s health. In the survey of housing in Kensington, they wrote of the mews dwellings in Bolton Road that they were ‘badly ventilated and unhealthy’.  ‘Barclay saw housing as inseparable from public health’ Barclay and Perry did not stop at condemning these issues, they also offered solutions: alternative arrangements of modern blocks of flats and financial calculations of their construction are outlined. The surveyors visited vast numbers of families when preparing these surveys, and the resulting documents were an important way of bearing witness to the struggles of city dwellers living in poverty – but also served to empower them, influence public opinion, and most importantly to pave the way for reform.  Barclay and Perry’s view of the built environment was holistic: they paid attention to ceiling heights, ventilation, furniture, greenery and the general state of repair. They saw housing as inseparable from public health; they lamented ‘houses that are dangerous and injurious to health’. In the introduction to the Survey of Housing in the Royal Borough of Kensington, they thanked the medical officer of health and members of his department, suggesting a close relationship between their surveying practice and public health officials. Irene Barclay was the UK’s first female chartered surveyor. A key part of her practice involved documenting the state of existing housing conditions, such as this report of housing in St Pancras, made in 1933 Barclay was involved in the construction of several estates in Somers Town, including the Drummond Estate – she is pictured (centre of image) at the new St Joseph’s Flats on the estate with the Duchess of Gloucester (left of image) in 1936 Credit: Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre The new flats advocated by Barclay replaced housing with inadequate sanitation provision in a dire state of repair. In contrast, the new flats included running water and hot-water boilers In her broader writings, Barclay appears to be a jack of all trades: well versed in financial arguments, interested in sanitation, public health, policy, design and, most of all, people. Although not an architect, she had big ideas about the design of the built environment. Informed by her upbringing in the countryside and her early work for Louis de Soissons, architect of Welwyn Garden City, spaces ‘about buildings’ – encompassing courtyards, gardens, playgrounds and laundry drying yards – were for her of the utmost importance. In the Kensington survey, Barclay and Perry described the drab greyness of an area, bemoaning the absence of flowers and trees, the monotony of discoloured brick and smoking chimneys. Writing about Somers Town in People Need Roots, Barclay clarified her understanding of the term ‘environment’, noting that it must cater for social living and include the way a place looks, sounds and smells – ‘all that impinges on an individual as he or she leaves a dwelling’.  Among a rich variety of engagements – including speaking, broadcasting and sitting on the boards of a number of housing associations – Barclay’s work as honorary secretary and estates manager of the St Pancras Housing Association, a dual position she held for 48 years, is best documented. In Somers Town, she oversaw slum clearance and the construction of new blocks of flats, as well as the founding of a nursery, a subsidised furniture shop and a country house where local children could spend holidays, among other initiatives. In Barclay’s correspondence with Ian Hamilton, the architect of the Drummond Estate (1936) and Sidney Street Estate (1938) in Somers Town, she relayed various defects and issues reported by the estates’ residents, revealing her involvement in the day‑to‑day maintenance of the flats and her intimate knowledge of the buildings and their particularities. Hamilton’s letters, on the other hand, give a glimpse of the relationship in which Barclay clearly figures as a client, as he repeatedly asked for her sign‑off and approval on various design details. Unlike council housing, the projects built by St Pancras Housing Association were funded by donations to the Christian charity. In 1934, the Archbishop of Canterbury blessed the newly completed St Nicholas Flats, part of the Sidney Street Estate (below) Credit:  Smith Archive / Alamy Credit: RIBA Collections Communal washing lines, provided to avoid the damp caused by drying clothes indoors, were adorned with decorative finials designed by Gilbert Bayes (below), since largely destroyed or stolen Credit: Hulton Archive / Corbis / Getty Credit: Bonhams In Somers Town, the drive towards better health was manifested in sanitation improvements. The existing back‑to‑back brick terraces with small yards and narrow lanes were poorly laid out and overbuilt, the damp interiors infested with bedbugs. Pest control measures, which included emptying the homes and fumigating furniture in Bangor Wharf in Camden Town, only went so far in alleviating the issue. In its early days, the St Pancras Housing Association, founded as the St Pancras House Improvement Society by priest and housing reformer Father Basil Jellicoe in 1924, undertook refurbishment of such homes but it was quickly decided that only construction of new buildings would provide a truly improved environment. The same bedbug eradication regime was applied before people moved into their new flats and the pests became part of the mythology of the publicity‑conscious association, who photographed opening ceremonies where effigies of bedbugs and other vermin were burnt in bonfires.  Flats in the four and five‑storey neo‑Georgian brick blocks of the Sidney Street Estate were accessed from external decks that faced bright, airy courtyards. State‑of‑the‑art services were installed in the homes: running water, tubs for washing and hot‑water boilers. The courtyards featured plant beds, trees, a playground and purpose‑built laundry drying yards, the spaces contrasting starkly with the small backyards of the demolished terraces, where laundry flapped against the dirty brick walls, or was dried indoors, causing unhealthy levels of moisture in the overcrowded homes. The concrete washing‑line posts were topped with ceramic sculptures, or as Barclay described them ‘decorative devices’, inspired by Christian and folk tales and made by sculptor Gilbert Bayes, providing not only utility, but also delight, bringing art to the doorsteps in Somers Town. The first estates built in Somers Town, and later dubbed ‘garden estates’ by the association for their privileging of gardens and courtyards, provided a model not only for the association’s similar projects in Kentish Town and Tufnell Park, such as the Athlone Estate (1937) and York Rise Estate (1938), but also for the 1930 Housing Act. This policy was more radical than previous legislation passed in 1909 and 1919, as it empowered local councils to buy unfit homes from private landlords and provided subsidies based on the number of people rehoused, encouraging large‑scale demolition of some of the country’s unhealthiest housing stock. In addition to housing, Barclay supported the provision of nurseries for children, such as St Christopher’s Nursery School, installed on the top floor of a block on the Sidney Street Estate in 1934 Credit: Hulton Archive / Topical Press Agency / Getty Barclay moved her office into St Martin’s House on the Eversholt Estate, built by St Pancras Housing Association in 1940, and worked there until her retirement in 1972. A blue plaque was installed on the building in May 2024 Credit: Spudgun67 / Wikimedia One of the most important aspects of the huge resettlement project in Somers Town was that communities were to be kept intact. This of course provided a logistical challenge and the new buildings had to be built quickly and efficiently. Barclay, during her long tenure at the housing association, became embedded in the community. As more new homes were built, other initiatives began. St Christopher’s Nursery School for children under five was perched on the rooftop of a block built in 1934 on the Sidney Street Estate, a location born out of lack of space but a decision that turned out to have many advantages: it was private and quiet, the air cleaner than at street level. Although there was initial opposition from the London County Council to a nursery on a rooftop, Barclay’s campaigning and perseverance eventually won them over. It was a safe and modern facility with an outdoor terrace protected by tall glass barriers above flower beds; the features were enviable even by contemporary standards (though it closed in 1994) and included a climbing frame, a mattress to jump on, bicycles, toy cars, a paddling pool and a sand pit.  Unlike an architect, who may follow clients and projects around the country, or even around the world, Barclay was invested in a particular place and community for an extended period of time. She commissioned the buildings but also stayed to oversee maintenance, gaining the trust of the residents in the process. In 1964, Barclay’s office, originally located in Finsbury and later in Euston, moved to St Martin’s House, built by the association in 1940 as part of the Eversholt Estate; she located herself where she could be seen, approached and held to account by the community she was serving. While the association’s model of operation was paternalistic by design, Barclay’s style of management was empathetic and direct.  In 1966, Barclay received an OBE for her work with housing associations, and in 1972 she retired and moved to Toronto, where she died in 1989. Throughout her career Barclay never confined herself to either social work, public health, estate management or housing. Instead, she saw all these disciplines as integral parts of her work towards improving the health and wellbeing of the people she worked with. In the pursuit of this holistic vision she left no stone unturned, enthusiastically advocating improved housing for some of the poorest in society.  Lead illustration: Yeyei Gómez for The Architectural Review 2025-04-20 Kristina Rapacki Share AR April 2025Buy Now