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BASIL SPENCE
Sir Basil Urwin Spence (13 August 1907 – 19 November 1976) was a Scottish architect, most notably associated with Coventry Cathedral and the Beehive, but also responsible for numerous other buildings in the Modernist/Brutalist style.
Training
Spence was born in Bombay, India but was sent back to Scotland to study. He attended George Watson's College in Edinburgh, then the architecture school of the Edinburgh College of Art, before completing his architectural studies at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London.
Early career
His first post was as an assistant in the London office of Sir Edwin Lutyens (whose work was to have a profound influence on Spence's style), where he worked on designs for the Viceroy's House in New Delhi, India. He subsequently joined the London office of Rowand Anderson & Paul, where he worked with Sir William Kininmonth, then returned to Edinburgh in 1930.
Spence served in the British Army from 1939 - 1945, reaching the rank of major.
Global recognition
During the war, Coventry’s Anglican Cathedral had been almost completely destroyed during enemy bombing. In 1944, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott submitted a design proposal to rebuild the cathedral but this was rejected by the Royal Fine Arts Commission. In 1950, a competition was launched to find the most suitable design from a Commonwealth of Nations architect. Over 200 entries were received, but Spence's radical design was ultimately chosen. Work began in 1956 and the structure was completed in 1962. Spence was knighted in 1960 for his work at Coventry, and also served as President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (1958-1960).
He was also responsible for designing high-rise housing developments in Glasgow, Scotland. These were intended to replace the notorious slum tenements in the Gorbals area of the city. However, a combination of social deprivation and exclusion in the relevant areas, coupled to poor execution of his designs meant that the developments created as many problems as they solved. His most derided project, the Hutchesontown C scheme, was demolished in 1993.
Lord St John of Fawsley remarked that "Basil Spence's barracks in Hyde Park ruined that park; in fact, he has the distinction of having ruined two parks, because of his Home Office building (50 Queen Anne's Gate), which towers above St James's Park."
Other projects
- Gribloch (a house near Kippen, Stirling) (1938-39)
- Sea and Ships Pavilions for Festival of Britain (1951)
- Duncanrig High School, East Kilbride 1953
- Thorn EMI House, 5 Upper St. Martin's Lane, London (1959) (Spence's original exterior was demolished in the 1990s; reborn as Orion House with a full-height floor plate addition and re-skinned elevations)
- Erasmus Building, Friars Court, Queen's College, Cambridge (1959-1960)
- Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre (originally 'Swimming Baths'), London (1962-4)
- Spence House, near Beaulieu, Hampshire (designed 1961, for Spence's own use and listed Grade II)
- The initial campus design at the University of Sussex (1960s) including Falmer House (1962, now a Grade I listed building)
- Hutchesontown C flats, Gorbals, Glasgow (1962 – demolished in 1993)
- Nuffield Theatre, Highfield Campus, University of Southampton (1964)
- The "Beehive", the executive wing of the New Zealand Parliament Buildings Wellington, New Zealand (1964)
- St Aidan's College, University of Durham
- Library Edinburgh University
- Glasgow Airport (1966)
- Hyde Park Barracks, London (1970)
- British Embassy, Rome (1971)
- 50 Queen Anne's Gate (the former Home Office building), London (1976)
- Civic Centre, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1967)
- Civic Centre, Sunderland (1970)
From 1961 to 1968, Spence was Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy. Sometimes compared with Robert Adam for his attention to detail, particularly in incorporating bespoke furniture and other elements into interior spaces, Spence died in 1976 in Eye, Suffolk and was buried at Thornham Parva, Suffolk.
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