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Sir Basil Spence
Event ID 567342
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Sir Basil Spence
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/567342
Building Notes
In 1946 the newly established practice of Basil Spence & Partners began designing a large council housing estate for the Burgh of Selkirk to be built on the south side of the town. The practice inherited the commission from Rowand Anderson Paul & Partners where Basil Spence was a partner before the war. Building work began in 1947 and continued in phases throughout the 1950s and early 1960s.
Bannerfield estate consists of rows of terraced houses and three-storey blocks of flats grouped around grassy squares. The housing is built of harled brick with concrete balconies, window frames and canopies above front doors.
The scheme is considered significant in Scotland in terms of town planning as it was the first to adopt the Radburn system of traffic segregation which separated motor and pedestrian traffic.
Archive Details and Summary
The Sir Basil Spence Archive contains one presentation perspective drawn by Spence that shows from above what the entire scheme was intended to look like. This was exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1947. The Spence Glover & Ferguson Collection, also held at RCAHMS, contains one plan for the shopping area of the estate.
This text was written as one of the outputs of the Sir Basil Spence Archive Project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, 2005-08.
