Basil Spence (1907–1976) was a Scottish architect best known for Coventry Cathedral and for the Beehive in Wellington, New Zealand, and the designer of many other buildings in a modernist and brutalist manner. Born in Bombay, he was sent to school in Edinburgh and studied architecture at Edinburgh College of Art. In 1929–30 he worked in the London office of Sir Edwin Lutyens on designs for the Viceroy's House in New Delhi, a lasting influence on his style. He was President of the Royal Institute of British Architects from 1958 to 1960 and was knighted in 1960 for his work at Coventry.
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The old cathedral at Coventry was destroyed by German bombing in 1940, and in 1950 Spence won the competition for its replacement. Coventry Cathedral (1962) stands beside the ruins and tower of the old one, the two together a symbol of wartime destruction and of reconciliation. The Mortonhall Crematorium in Edinburgh (1967), is an example of his post-war expressionist style and is listed Category A. In the 1960s he made the concept design for the Beehive (1981), the executive wing of New Zealand's Parliament, completed after his death.
