Sir Basil Spence
Event ID 567336
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Sir Basil Spence
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/567336
Building Notes
Queen Elizabeth opened Spence Glover & Ferguson's Glasgow Airport terminal on 2 May 1966. The building, designed by Sir Basil Spence, was a rectangular block with a distinctive chunky concrete barrel-vaulted roof. Originally two long corridors, or piers, extended from the terminal to take passengers to and from their flights. The building has since been extended so that it is not easy to see the original design. Spence's partner in his Edinburgh practice, Peter Ferguson, was the architect in charge of ensuring that the airport was built to Spence's design; Dame Sylvia Crowe was the landscape architect; and the Scottish artist Robin Phillipson contributed a mural.
Archive Details
The Sir Basil Spence Archive contains the first letter from the Ministry of Aviation from May 1961 offering Spence Glover & Ferguson the job to design the terminal. At this time Spence, architect of the nearly-completed Coventry Cathedral, was highly regarded, but had never designed an airport before. The Archive contains notes that he and Ferguson made on a whirlwind tour of four European airports showing their thoughts on how airports worked and how things like luggage conveyor belts and check-in desks might fit into their design. Also included are Spence's original designs for the terminal, which was to have thick, glass-plate zigzag walls on all four sides: it was decided, however, that this would be too expensive and it was not executed.
Press cuttings in the Archive reveal that plans to build Glasgow Airport were controversial, as the government had already committed millions to the nearby Prestwick Airport. Letters dated 1963 show that debates in Parliament and in the press affected the architects, as they were unsure as to whether the project would ever be built.
Spence's talents as an interior designer are shown in letters discussing the airport's artwork, colour scheme and original furniture; his designs for bar stools were so successful that a Birmingham company wanted to manufacture them for others.
Archive Summary
In total, the Sir Basil Spence Archive contains 56 drawings, 67 photographs and three manuscript folders containing correspondence and news cuttings on Glasgow Airport. The drawings are largely sketches of the unexecuted design and the early development of the built design, rather than information detailing the technical construction. Photographs include Spence's model of the airport and publicity shots taken by the professional photographers shortly after the terminal opened.
RCAHMS also holds the Spence Glover & Ferguson Collection that includes eight further photographs taken by professional photographers and 123 slides of airports that Spence and Ferguson visited or knew about.
This text was written as one of the outputs of the Sir Basil Spence Archive Project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, 2005-08.
