Sir Basil Spence
Event ID 883991
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Sir Basil Spence
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/883991
Building Notes
In the 1930s Dunbar Town Council decided to regenerate the town's Victoria harbour front for the fishing industry by providing housing to accommodate fishermen and their families and to attract newcomers to the area. Spence was involved in two phases of this regeneration. In 1934, Kininmonth and Spence was commissioned to provide a small development of terraced houses. Basil Spence and Partners was commissioned to build a further 20 houses on Victoria Street (1949-52, extended 1955-6) irregularly distributed over four separate sites, all grouped amongst existing properties. It was intended that the extension would provide a further 19 houses on another nearby site, however only the first of these blocks, containing nine dwellings, was built. The last houses in the second phase were completed in August 1952, the same year that the extension was commissioned, although this was not completed until 1956. The second phase of housing was awarded a Saltire Society Award for good design in 1951.
The buildings are a combination of two and three storey blocks, mostly arranged around courtyards designed as a place for fishermen to hang their nets. The stone-clad lower storeys contain either single-level flats or storage space for fishing tackle, while the harled or rubble-faced upper storeys are generally maisonettes, accessed from a railed veranda and external stairs. Walls were finished with colour wash, and bright colours were also used on the doors, windows and ironwork. Pitched roofs covered with red pantiles, slates in the later development, complete the schemes, integrating the blocks with the surrounding architecture. The red sandstone used in the cladding of the lower storeys was also from the local area, some of it having been reclaimed from the old harbour wall.
Archive Details and Summary
The Sir Basil Spence Archive holds two manuscript files for this project containing news-cuttings and journal articles relating mainly to the Saltire Society Award. These emphasise the fact that the sites on which the developments were built were created by a system of slum clearance and that, as an infill development, it was important to retain a feeling of town's existing character. This, it was felt, was achieved through the use of traditional materials and construction methods.
The Sir Basil Spence Archive also holds 21 photographs, but no drawings for the project. The Spence, Glover and Ferguson Collection, also held by RCAHMS, has 102 drawings and a large amount of photographic material relating to housing at Dunbar. RCAHMS holds a copy of a 1950 perspective by Spence showing both phases of the scheme.
This text was written as one of the outputs of the Sir Basil Spence Archive Project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, 2005-08.
