Basil Spence - Early Career

Early Career

After graduating in 1931, Kininmonth and Spence set up in practice together, based in a room within the office of Rowand Anderson & Paul, in Rutland Square, Edinburgh. The practice was founded on two residential commissions which Kininmonth had obtained that year. In 1933, Spence designed the Southside Garage, on Causewayside, Edinburgh, in an Art Deco style.

In 1934 Spence married, and the Kininmonth & Spence practice merged with Rowand Anderson & Paul. Arthur Balfour Paul died in 1938, leaving Kininmonth and Spence in charge of the renamed Rowand Anderson & Paul & Partners. Spence's work was now concentrated on exhibition design, including three pavilions for the 1938 Empire Exhibition in Glasgow, and country houses. The first two of these, Broughton Place with Broughton Gallery at Broughton near Biggar, and Quothquhan in Lanarkshire, were executed in traditional Scottish styles at the client's request. The third, however, was entirely modern. Gribloch was designed for John Colville, grandson of the founder of Colville's Iron Works, and his American wife. It was designed in a modernist Regency style, with assistance from Perry Duncan, an American architect hired by the Colvilles when Spence was too busy with exhibition work to progress the project.