Anthony Rae

Biographical Information
"I was educated at Harrow County Grammar School alongside Michael Portillo and Philip Sallon (and a few years ahead of me Nobel prize winner Sir Paul Nurse was there). ... I was employed in Manchester in various strategy roles in the Chief Executive’s department of the City Council; then the Economic Development Dept; and finally the Passenger Transport Executive. In the early 1980s (and working with Sir Howard Bernstein, now Manchester’s Chief Executive) we eventually secured – but only with considerable public grant – the very first City Centre mill-to-residential conversion, launching what turned out to be a development wave that would wash through the city for the next two decades, refloating as it went so many previously derelict architectural treasures. I was responsible for a city centre master-planning exercise in the late 1980s from which elements were subsequently utilised after the IRA bombing in 1996; and initiated the project which led to the building of the Bridgewater Concert Hall. I was Head of Tourism and responsible for City Centre promotion...

"In 1984 I moved to Hebden Bridge (and here) and have lived in the same house ever since: a four storey ‘overdwelling‘ characteristic of the town, an end terrace looking onto the woods. It’s filled up with four large collections: a huge library; an equally vast record collection, with shelves of music from the Congo; the Rae family archive; and the papers for my environmental portfolio, seeing that I work from home. My daily commute takes me ten seconds as I walk downstairs; a two minute stroll down the hill and I’m at my public library or buying food in the local shops and market. Small town life!"


 * Founder, Anthony Rae Foundation
 * Former trustee, Friends of the Earth UK