Hugh Greville Castle Spencely (1900–1983) (commonly known as Greville) was a British architect. He mostly worked in partnership with

Anthony Minoprio Charles Anthony Minoprio (1900–1988) was a British architect and town planner. Much of his early work was in partnership with Hugh Spencely (1900–1983), a friend since they attended Harrow School together. Later he worked more as a town pl ...

(1900–1988), the two having been friends since they were schoolboys at

Harrow School Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (school founder), John Lyon, a local landowner an ...

Career

Minoprio and Spencely designed the 1932 extension to the Royal School for the Blind, Liverpool, founded in 1791 by

Edward Rushton Edward Rushton (1756–1814) was a British poet, writer and bookseller from Liverpool, England. He worked as a sailor aboard a slave ship as a young man, and became an abolitionist as a result. After losing his own vision, he opened a school f ...

. They also designed Fairacres, Roehampton, a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

four-storey apartment block at Roehampton Lane,

Roehampton Roehampton is an area in southwest London, sharing its SW15 postcode with neighbouring Putney and Kingston Vale, and takes up a far western strip, running north to south, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large counc ...

, London. It was built in 1936, for the property developer Charles Kearley. The block of 64 flats in a semi-elliptical arc is modern in style with 1930s curved walls, but traditional in construction. It is very little altered since being built.

Personal life

In 1931, Spencely married Patricia Emily Manson-Bahr, the daughter of Sir Philip Manson-Bahr. They had four children, Janet Mary, Hugh David, John Despenser and Sally Catherine Spencely. Spencely designed and built an "elegant, idiosyncratic house" for himself and his family in 1936 at

Crockham Hill Crockham Hill is a village in the Sevenoaks district of Kent, England. It is about south of Westerham, and Chartwell is nearby. The village has a population of around 270 people. It contains a 19th-century pub, the Royal Oak, and Holy Trinity ...

, Kent, on land he had bought three years earlier. The New House (now known as Spencely's and listed at Grade II in 2023) combines elements of

Modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

and traditional

vernacular architecture Vernacular architecture (also folk architecture) is building done outside any academic tradition, and without professional guidance. It is not a particular architectural movement or style but rather a broad category, encompassing a wide range a ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spencely, Hugh Greville 1900 births 1983 deaths People educated at Harrow School 20th-century English architects