page_title: Basil Spence
section_title: Coventry Cathedral
hierarchical_section_title: Basil Spence / Postwar career / Coventry Cathedral
caption_attribution_description: English: Coventry Cathedral exterior, Coventry, West Midlands, England.
context_page_description: Sir Basil Urwin Spence, OM OBE RA was a Scottish architect, most notably associated with Coventry Cathedral in England and the Beehive in New Zealand, but also responsible for numerous other buildings in the Modernist/Brutalist style.
context_section_description: On 14 November 1940, Coventry's Anglican Cathedral was extensively damaged by German bombing, a year into World War II.
  In 1944, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott submitted a design proposal to rebuild the cathedral but this was rejected by the Royal Fine Arts Commission. In 1950, a competition was launched to find the most suitable design from a Commonwealth of Nations architect. Over 200 entries were received, and Spence's radical design was chosen. Work began in 1956 and the structure was completed in 1962. Spence was knighted in 1960 for his work at Coventry, while the cathedral was still being built.
  On 23 February 2012 the Royal Mail released a stamp featuring Coventry Cathedral as part of its "Britons of Distinction" series.
caption: Coventry Cathedral (1956–1962)
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