Charles Anthony Minoprio (1900–1988) was a British architect and town planner. Much of his early work was in partnership with
Hugh Spencely (1900–1983), a friend since they attended
Harrow School
Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (school founder), John Lyon, a local landowner an ...
together. Later he worked more as a town planner, particularly the
New Town
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz
* New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
** New (Paul McCartney song), "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013
* New (EP), ''New'' (EP), ...
of
Crawley
Crawley () is a town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a populat ...
.
Early life and education
Minoprio went to
Harrow School
Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (school founder), John Lyon, a local landowner an ...
and the
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
, then studied for five years
at the
University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...
's School of Architecture, where he obtained a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1925 and an MA three years later.
His
Beaux-Arts training informed his later work on designing "visually striking" town plans.
His architectural training also came in Liverpool under
Charles Herbert Reilly
Sir Charles Herbert Reilly (4 March 1874 – 2 February 1948) was an English architect and teacher. After training in two architectural practices in London he took up a part-time lectureship at the University of London in 1900, and from 1904 to ...
, "a believer in grand
neoclassical designs of wide avenues".
This influenced his views on the importance of good architecture being an integral part of the town planning process and an important feature in a town's civic pride.
He worked for a few months at an architectural firm in New York, then was awarded a scholarship to the
British School at Rome
The British School at Rome (BSR) is a British interdisciplinary research centre supporting the arts, humanities and architecture established in Rome. Historical and archaeological study are at the core of its activities.
History
The British Sc ...
to study architecture. He went into architectural practice in 1928 and initially worked on commissions for country houses.
Career highlights
In 1932, Minoprio and Spencely designed an extension to the
Royal School for the Blind, Liverpool, founded in 1791 by
Edward Rushton.
Four years later, they designed
Fairacres, Roehampton, a
Grade II listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...
four-storey apartment block at Roehampton Lane,
Roehampton
Roehampton is an area in southwest London, sharing its SW15 postcode with neighbouring Putney and Kingston Vale, and takes up a far western strip, running north to south, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large counc ...
, London.
It was built for the property developer
Charles Kearley. The block of 64 flats in a semi-elliptical arc is modern in style with 1930s curved walls, but traditional in construction. It has been very little altered since being built.
The two architects worked together again between 1944 and 1946 when they produced an outline plan for the postwar redevelopment of
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Engl ...
. Their plans showed extensive areas of open space and parkland, especially around the
cathedral
A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...
, and a combined shopping centre and bus station, among other features.
Post-war work
Minoprio was heavily involved with town planning after World War II, both in England and elsewhere. In September 1944 he prepared a survey and plan for the redevelopment of part of the
Essex
Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
county town,
Chelmsford
Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...
. He proposed major changes to the town centre, which he considered to be "of no particular architectural merit", and a riverside civic centre with surrounding open space reminiscent of Oxford and Cambridge.
The "somewhat grandiose vision" was completed by two major new roads and ten residential "neighbourhood units".
Nothing came of the plan, but elements of it made their way into the 1952 Development Plan for the County of Essex which guided Chelmsford's later development.
Three years later,
Crawley Development Corporation appointed him as consultant planner in place of
Thomas Wilfred Sharp after the latter's sudden decision to resign soon after submitting his master plan—"an extraordinary decision
.. which wasnever completely explained".
By June 1947 Minoprio had prepared a new draft plan, and this was approved and published in December 1947.
This time, Minoprio's vision of a carefully planned and balanced community was seen through to its conclusion by the Development Corporation
under the leadership of its "dogmatic and highly successful" chairman
Thomas Bennett.
Crawley is now much larger than originally anticipated: the plan's target population of 50,000 was exceeded within 13 years of work beginning,
and there are now more than 105,000 residents.
Nevertheless, the town's design and layout remain substantially similar to Minoprio's plan.
Minoprio worked again with Spencely and another town planner, Peter Macfarlane, on master plans for several cities outside England in the 1950s and 1960s. They designed plans for
Kuwait City
Kuwait City (; ) is the capital and largest city of Kuwait. Located at the heart of the country on the south shore of Kuwait Bay on the Persian Gulf, it is the political, cultural and economic center of the emirate, containing Kuwait's Seif Pal ...
in 1951,
Baghdad
Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...
in 1956,
Dhaka
Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...
in 1959 and
Chittagong
Chittagong ( ), officially Chattogram, (, ) (, or ) is the second-largest city in Bangladesh. Home to the Port of Chittagong, it is the busiest port in Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal. The city is also the business capital of Bangladesh. It ...
in 1961.
Back in England, Minoprio later designed the
Whitgift Centre, a large split-level shopping centre in
Croydon
Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...
. The development was built between 1965 and 1970 by
Fitzroy Robinson & Partners. Architectural historians
Ian Nairn and
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...
stated that "most of the architectural details are banal, but the centre functions unusually well as a shopping precinct".
Publications
Minoprio published the following works:
*''The Minor Domestic Architecture of Gloucestershire'' (1931, with Arthur T. Broadbent)
*''A Restoration of the Basilica of Constantine, Rome'' (1932)
*''Chelmsford Planning Survey 1945: A Survey and Plan for Chelmsford Borough and Rural District'' (1945)
*''An Outline Development Plan for the County of the City of Worcester'' (1946, with Hugh Spencely)
*''The Town and Country Planning Act, 1947 Administration in Counties: Together With the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947 Delegation to County Districts'' (1948, with G.N.C. Swift and C.W. Seddon)
*''A Master Plan for Crawley New Town'' (1949)
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Minoprio, Anthony
1900 births
1988 deaths
People educated at Harrow School
20th-century English architects
British urban planners
Alumni of the University of Liverpool