Spence, Basil Urwin (1907–1976)

Scottish architect. For nearly 20 years his work comprised houses, factories, theatres, and the Scottish Pavilion at the Empire Exhibition in 1938. In 1951 he won the competition for Coventry Cathedral, and in 1952 began the Nuclear Physics Building at Glasgow University. He was professor of architecture at the Royal Academy, London, from 1961 to 1968.

Spence was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), trained in Edinburgh, and started private practice in 1930. His work has included university buildings at Edinburgh, Southampton, Nottingham, Durham, and Liverpool (1954–58); the church of St Francis, Wythenshawe, Manchester (1958); Hampstead Town Hall (1958); multi-storey residential flats at Glasgow; buildings at Sussex University (1962–63); rebuilding of Knightsbridge Barracks; and the new British Embassy at Rome.

He was knighted in 1960 and awarded the Order of Merit in 1962.