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Peta Levi |
Journalist who inspired generation of young designers
PETA Levi, who has died aged 69, will be remembered for promoting the UK’s design industry – and being a founding member of a school that established new ways of teaching pupils with special needs. Its continuing success has helped educate thousands of young people in mainstream schools.
Peta was born in West Hampstead. Her father David was a surgeon, while her mother Vera had been a journalist.
Her mother’s success in the 1920s in a predominantly male occupation inspired her. When she met her husband, Michael, a solicitor, in 1958 she was writing gossip pieces for London’s evening papers. She continued to write occasional articles through the 1960s while bringing up her three children.
It was in 1970 that Peta turned her attention to an educational project that is still running today. When a school her daughter attended in Cavendish Square, Marylebone, closed, Peta played a major role, with other parents, in establishing a new school in Arlington Road, Camden Town, to continue the superb education her daughter was receiving. The Cavendish School continues today in the same premises Peta helped find.
She was involved socially in Hampstead. Her mother had helped run Hampstead Lunch Club, based at the Railway Tavern in West Hampstead. Members were encouraged to bring children and one memorable event saw a zoo-keeper arrive with a bag of snakes and a baby alligator for diners to hold between courses.
But it was in the world of design that Peta’s legacy will perhaps be best remembered. After returning to journalism in the 1970s, she worked for glossy magazine House and Garden and began writing on design. In the early 1980s she was put in charge of organising an exhibition for design graduates. Starting at a warehouse in Elephant and Castle, it quickly grew and moved to Islington’s Business Design Centre.
In 1993 she was awarded an MBE and in 1994 set up The Design Trust, best known under the name of Design-Nation. Ten years later, Peta was behind the establishment of Eureka, which brought together designers, manufacturers and shops.
Her huge influence on British designers can be gauged by the fact that the New Designers exhibition, which was her brainchild, is regarded as one of the best in the world. Her friends recall her abilities as a hostess, her energy and the unstinting help she gave to others. Many of Britain’s leading designers, such as Thomas Heatherwick and Tom Dixon, owe a debt of gratitude to her.
She is survived by husband Michael and three children.
DAN CARRIER |
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