Towndrow, Frederic Edward 1897 - 1977

Frederic Edward Towndrow [also known as Frederick Edward Towndrow] was born in Dalston, London, on 11 January 1897. He studied at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College, London, where he won 2nd Prize in the Lever Prize Competition.  

He subsequently practised as an architect in London. In 1934 he formed an architectural partnership with Eugen Carl Kaufmann (1892-1984) [later known as Eugene Charles Kent], a recent German émigré as Towndrow & Kaufmann. Projects by Kaufmann and Towndrow included housing in Wimbledon, Angmering-on-Sea and Gerrards Cross; shops and commercial premises for Moss Bros., Rothmans and others; and extensions to schools in Hampstead and, with Godfrey Samuel, Otterden, Kent.  Following the outbreak of World War Two in 1939, the partnership was dissolved.

A design for a bedroom by Towndrow is illustrated in 'The Studio Yearbook of Applied Art' 1921 (p.65).  He was the author of 'Architecture in the Balance: An Approach to the Art of Scientific Humanism' (London: Chatto & Windus, 1933). He also edited 'Replanning Britain, being a summarized report of the Oxford Conference of the Town and Country Planning Association, Spring, 1941' (London: Faber & Faber, 1941).  

On 2 October 1947 Towndow left the Port of London for Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and by 1949 was living in Woollahra, Wentworth, New South Wales. During the 1950s he was Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Architecture & Building at New South Wales University of Technology.  He appears to have returned to England, as he left again from the Port of London bound for Sydney on 30 December 1954

Towndrow was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1922 and later a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA).  He died in 1977