She was an artist and designer, the second of ten children of the Scottish sculptor John Birnie Philip (1824–1875) and his wife, Frances Black (1825/6–1917). She studied art in her father's Chelsea studio and with the architect Edward William Godwin (1833–1886), a leading figure in the aesthetic movement. After her father died Beatrice Philip married Godwin on 4 January 1876; the couple had one son, Edward. She worked in Godwin's studio workshop and collaborated on furniture and house designs, such as decorative brick panels for a house designed by Godwin on the Tite Street corner of Chelsea Embankment. Godwin's lost ‘Beatrice cabinet' bore her panels of the seasons. Similar panels, and designs for tiles, panels and wallpaper, survive, and some were sold to manufacturers, including Minton's and William Watt & Co.