Anthony Minoprio

Sir 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 together. Later he worked more as a town planner, particularly the New Town of Crawley.

Minoprio went to Harrow School and the University of Oxford, then studied for five years at the University of Liverpool'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, "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 to study architecture. He went into architectural practice in 1928 and initially worked on commissions for country houses.

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 four-storey apartment block at Roehampton Lane, Roehampton, 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. Their plans showed extensive areas of open space and parkland, especially around the cathedral, and a combined shopping centre and bus station, among other features.

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