32 C O N T E X T 1 2 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1 SMG Sisters at St Mary’s Convent, Brentford, under construction in around 1894 Kate Jordan Representing women’s history Architectural history reveals how 19th and early 20th century Roman Catholic nuns commissioned, designed, project managed and even built their own convents. In recent years there has been a drive to promote diverse histories in architectural heritage; the histories of those whose contributions have been eclipsed by the traditional story of buildings and builders. Undoubtedly there have been oversights in the past, perhaps none more so than the role of women in place-making. One of the difficulties of representing women’s roles is that the nature of their involvement in building is sometimes hard to describe. This is often due to the perception that, until the 20th-century, women were largely confined to the domestic sphere.This assumption has led both scholars and heritage professionals towards readings of architectural history that can accommodate women’s indirect role in place-making. Is this approach satisfactory or does it further entrench women’s position as passive bystanders? The following case study offers a picture of women builders who were, most emphatically, not passive bystanders. Evidence is emerging that, during the 19th and early 20th-centuries, Roman Catholic nuns were commissioning, designing, project managing and even building their own convents. In short, they were actively involved in almost every aspect of the construction process at a time when, as many historians have suggested, middle-class women rarely ventured out of the home. This article considers how the story of nuns and convent building is reflected in standing architecture, and highlights some of the problems that are attendant on broadening representations of history in built environment heritage. St Marye’s Convent in Portslade, Sussex (now Emmaus Brighton and Hove) was founded in 1904 by the Congregation of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God (SMG), a religious order whose ministries in the community included the care and rehabilitation of former prostitutes.The site, which at the turn of the last century comprised an early 19th-century manor house and the remains of a 12th-century domestic building, was gifted to the Sisters by a Miss Kathleen Nelson. Over the proceeding 90 years, a number of buildings were added by the SMGs. These included a laundry (1908), which provided suitable work for the ‘fallen women’, and a residential block and chapel, both built in the mid-1930s. The SMG archives reveal a great deal about the development of the site and the construction of the later buildings. The sisters, as was the case in most religious communities, raised and controlled their own funds. This allowed them an entirely free hand in the design of the spaces. They themselves sketched plans for the site, decided which buildings would go where, and how they would be fitted out and decorated, and conducted all the negotiations with the architects and tradesmen (often driving a hard bargain). Perhaps most significantly, the chapel was built to the designs of one of the sisters, Mother Mary Lucy Forrestal. The extant buildings at St Marye’s, which include the residential block, chapel and laundry, are largely intact. Indeed, much evidence of the original laundry machinery remains – a feature which makes the building something of a rarity.The site was laid out by the sisters in a form consistent with many convents of this type and era.The manor house operated as the formal entrance to the convent and the visitors’ rooms, sisters’ cells, dining area, sewing room and infirmary were located in the building. Annexed to this was the residential block that housed the lay women, with a connecting corridor to the chapel. The infirmary, as with many large or purpose-built convents, was located on the first floor with a window that overlooked the chapel so that the sick could participate in the Mass. The role of the sisters in the design and construction of this building was vital. The architecture selfconsciously invokes their spirituality and mission; the two most important buildings, the laundry and the chapel, reflecting the centrality of work and prayer in Mother Mary Lucy Forrestal of St Marye’s Convent, Portslade Manor Novices at St Marye’s Convent, Portslade Manor, in 1905 (Photos reproduced by permission of the Generalate of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God)
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