Spence, Sir Basil Urwin

Spence, Sir Basil Urwin (1907–76). Scottish architect who leapt to prominence with his prize-winning design for Coventry cathedral (1951; completed 1962) which brought together such artists as Geoffrey Clarke, Jacob Epstein, Elisabeth Frink, John Hutton, John Piper, Patrick Reyntiens, and Graham Sutherland. Spence trained at Edinburgh College of Art, worked for Lutyens on the Viceroy's House, New Delhi, in 1929–30, and practised in Edinburgh during the 1930s. Spence designed the Sea and Ships Pavilion at the Festival of Britain in 1951, and with partners undertook extensive university work at Cambridge, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Southampton, Sussex, and elsewhere. His other buildings include churches, housing, schools, and the chancery at the British embassy, Rome (1971). Spence was a gifted designer and draughtsman, with a powerful belief in the creative role of the architect, and his architecture was often picturesque—as at Mortonhall crematorium, Edinburgh (1967), set in a rolling landscape and calling to mind Gunnar Asplund's Woodland Crematorium, Stockholm. Like Lutyens before him, Spence was knighted and held the Order of Merit.

Peter Willis