Chitty, Anthony Merlott 1907 - 1976

Anthony Merlott Chitty [also known as Anthony Chitty] was born in Eton, England, on 10 December 1907 and studied at the University of Cambridge and at the Architectural Association in London.

Chitty was one of the six ex-Architectural Association students - Godfrey Samuel (1904-1982), Valentine (Val) Harding (1905-1940), Michael Dugdale (1905-1970), Francis Skinner (1908-1998) and Lindsay Drake (1909-1980) - recruited by the Russian émigré architect Berthold Lubetkin(1901-1990) for his architectural collective Tecton in London in 1932.  

A photograph and two plans of a house in Bogner Regis, Sussex designed by Chitty and Tecton is illustrated in Decorative Art vol.31, 1936 (p.33); and two photographs and a plan of a timber house at Churt, Surrey, designed by and Tecton are illustrated in Decorative Art vol.32, 1937 (p.30)

In 1937 Chitty left Tecton to form his own practice, Hening & Chitty, with Robert Hening (1906-1997). During the late 1930s the practice designed a number of municipal airports for Whitney Straight, including for Exeter and Ipswich. The Ipswich airport, which was built in 1938, was listed in 1996.  

Hening & Chitty ceased activities during World War Two whilst the two partners were engaged on war service. They practice reopened after the war.  Later work by the partnership included housing, commercial, industrial and a number of schools.  They designed six-storey flats (274 units in 12 blocks) in Cromer Street, St Pancras in 1946-50, built mainly for railway workers and seven- and ten-storey flats in Dombey Street, Holborn, London in 1947-49.  

Chitty was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1933 and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1939. He was President of the Architectural association in 1950-51.  He was Chairman of the Board of Architectural Education from 1952 to 1954. He was also a member of the Governing Council of Kumasi College College in Ghana from 1956 to 1959, and architect and planner of new universities in Nairobi and Lusaka 1960s.

Chitty's retired from architectural practice in the mid-1960s and died in Kingsbridge, Devon on 21 October 1976.

Chitty is credited with being the first architect of the 'Modern' period to use the "monopitched roof in England" in his cottages at 'Bron-y-de', Churt, of 1935, which were timber-framed with 'traditional' weather-boarded elevations [Modern Houses in Britain, 1919-1939 by Jeremy Gould. Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, 1977 p.24]