Beryl Dean MBE, ARCA, FSDC

© The Beryl Dean Archive

Beryl was born in Bromley, Kent

© The Beryl Dean Archive

Beryl, left, with her mother and sister.

One of her earliest memories - Stitching clothes for her dolls.

© The Beryl Dean Archive

Bromley High School

Excelled in Art and Needlework

© The Beryl Dean Archive

Royal School of Needlework Distinction for final examination piece.   More information.

© Gawthorpe Textiles Collection

Teaching and studying at Bromley School of Art

New influences: Rebecca Crompton and Elizabeth Grace Thomson.  More information.

Photo: Robert Kennard  Reproduced with the permission of Twisted Thread. © The Beryl Dean Archive

Beryl achieved early success at Exhibitions

Photo © Iveta Olejkova. Collection of and reproduced with permission of the Embroiderers' Guild

Double Distinction in Industrial Design: Leatherwork and Dress design

Bromley School of Art

© The Beryl Dean Archive

Won a Royal Exhibition Scholarship to study at Royal College of Art.

Until 1960 the RCA did not have its own premises.  In 1930s it was based within the V&A Museum Building.

© Royal College of Art

Diploma Show, RCA Graduation

© The Beryl Dean Archive

Head of Women's Crafts, Eastbourne School of Art.

Becoming Acting Director

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Began designing and making sets and costumes for a number of wartime ballet companies

© Iveta Olejkova. The Beryl Dean Archive

Senior Lecturer, Department of Fine Art, Kings College, Newcastle, University of Durham.

© Sarah Cossom.  Wikimedia

With Renee Hetherington set up a Couture Studio in Pimlico, London.

© Iveta Olejkova. The Beryl Dean Archive

Beryl was commissioned by Dorothy Allsopp, Head of Needlework Development Scheme to make exhibition pieces.

St Peter, 1953.

Photo © The Beryl Dean Archive, Collection of the V & A Museum.

Head of Royal School of Needlework

© Look and Learn / Peter Jackson Collection

Hammersmith College of Art and Building at Lime Grove, Shepherds Bush, West London.

© London Metropolitan Archive

© The Beryl Dean Archive

Beryl set up the first Ecclesiastical Embroidery Course and led it for the nexxt 20 years.

© The Beryl Dean Archive

Solo Exhibition at British Colour Council, London, opened by Elizabeth Grace Thomson

© J E Lowe / The Beryl Dean Archive

Beryl's first book. Featuring practical contemporary design and technique, it linked historic and modern embroidery and connected church fabric and vestments to modernist architecture.  More information about the book

10 Years in the making the Hammersmith Cope, designed by Susan Riley, was a class project, managed by Beryl and gifted to St Paul’s Cathedral.    More information on the cope.

© The Beryl Dean Archive. Reproduced by permission of the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral

Numerous commissions followed from cathedrals and churches across Britain. Information about this altar frontal

Photo © Nigel Roberson. Reproduced with permission of The Priory Church of St. Margaret, King's Lynn

USA Lecture Tour

© The Beryl Dean Archive

Organised and curated with Constance Howard "New Ecclesiastical Embroidery" Exhibition at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

© The Beryl Dean Archive

Beryl in her studio at Canonbury Grove, Islington, London. New commission for 5 panels for St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

© W Taylor.  The Beryl Dean Archive

The Windsor Panels completed

Photo: Jeremy Marks, © Woodmansterne 1984

"Beryl Dean and Her Students" Exhibition at St Andrews Church, Holborn.

© David Field, The Beryl Dean Archive

Beryl married Wilfrid Phillips

New studio at Thornhill Square, Islington, London

© The Beryl Dean Archive

MBE for Services to Embroidery in the Church

© The Beryl Dean Archive

Major collaborative project of Beryl's advanced Embroidery class at Stanhope Institute, London: The Jubilee Cope, a gift to St Paul's Cathedral, Worn by Bishop of London at all Jubilee services since 1977.  More about the cope here

© Nigel Roberson.  Reproduced with permission of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's Cathedral

Broderers Company Midsummer Prize (runner up)

© The Beryl Dean Archive

Retires from Teaching to focus on commissions and writing.

More information about the book

Enthronement cope and canons copes for Canterbury Cathedral designed by Beryl Dean and worked mainly by Elizabeth Elvin.  More information.

© The Beryl Dean Archive

Beryl began work on some of many commissions she had received from the United States.

Cope for St Mark's Church, Philadelphia

© The Beryl Dean Archive

Major commission for 'Cathedral in the Forest', Newland, Forest of Dean, in association with long time friend and collaborator, Sylvia Green.  More information.

© The Beryl Dean Archive Reproduced by permission of the PCC of All Saints, Newland

Hanging for East Wall, Chelmsford Cathedral.  More information

© Nigel Roberson. With permission of the Dean and Chapter of Chelmsford Cathedral

Twelfth Night (a Private commission)

© The Beryl Dean Archive

Organised and curated British Ecclesiastical Embroidery Exhibition at St. Paul’s Cathedral opened by Lord Palumbo. Over 190 exhibits and 12 lectures.  More information

© The Beryl Dean Archive

Beryl's last large commission, a sculptural piece, incorporating leather work and using glovemaking techniques learnt in 1933.
Golden Madonna and Altar frontal for Church of All Saints, East Finchley, London.

© The Beryl Dean Archive

Rebecca Crompton and Elizabeth Grace Thomson: Pioneers in stitchery in the 1930s.  
Beryl Dean co-authored with Pamela Pavitt and self published with the assistance of Thelma Nye.

Beryl Dean Gallery at Knitting and Stitching Show, (to mark Beryl’s Birth Centenary) curated by June Hill and Elizabeth Elvin.  More information about the Gallery.