Gertrude Leverkus

Gertrude Leverkus (26 September 1898 – 8 November 1989) was a German-British architect.

Early life and education Gertrude Wilhelmine Margaret Leverkus was born on 26 September 1898 in Oldenburg, Germany. She was the second of three daughters of Ida Christine Rosalia, née Schmidt and Otto Leverkus, an export merchant. She completed her Bachelor of Arts in architecture from 1916 to 1919 at UCL, and was the only woman among 500 men to take the final exams.

She was articled to Horace Field from 1919 and his assistant from 1922. In that year, with Arthur Stratton and Professor A. E. Richardson, Field proposed her for associate member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), making her one of the first three women to do so. She completed a certificate in town planning at UCL in 1925.

Career In 1923, Leverkus was hired by the Women's Pioneer Housing Limited to convert its properties into flats for women. One of these projects was the conversion of 31 Gledhow Gardens, also known as the Gunter Estate, in Earls Court into flats to house women workers. In 1924 she was officially appointed as WPHL's architect.

In 1930 she moved into a flat she converted from the former ballroom of one Women's Pioneer property, 65 Harrington Gardens in Earl's Court, and remained a tenant of the association until her retirement. She served as the committee Secretary in the 1930s and their work promoted the interests of women architects, encouraged and advised recent graduates as well as recording cases of discrimination. In 1935, Leverkus reported that almost thirty architect firms were "entirely run by women" whilst emphasising the increasing numbers of women architects working in municipal offices. She considered the greatest drawback for women architects at that time to be "the lack of precedent, which makes it an extraordinary thing for a woman to be entrusted with large important work."

Leverkus was also involved in the Women's Provisional Club, alongside other professional women including MP Eleanor Rathbone, engineer Caroline Haslett, Lady Rhondda and Dr Louisa Martindale. She was a member of the Women's Voluntary Service, and the International Federation of Business and Professional Women.