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Ernest Trevor Spashett

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Ernest Trevor Spashett was a notable English architect of the late 20th century particularly associated with the design of public and religious buildings. The most significant building was the Church Army Chapel Blackheath.

He was born in Penzance and served in the Royal Air Force 1942-1947. After the war he trained as an architect with the Ministry of Works repairing London after the war, working on Alexandra Palace, Clarence House and Osterley House among others. The zig-zag, half-fenced ramp he designed for the front steps instantly became a racetrack, and had to be heavily-fenced after too many skid turns on the corners created flying wheelchairs.

After qualifying as an architect he worked for Cambridge, Gillingham and Birmingham Councils designing council housing, schools and hospitals. He worked with Yates, Cook and Derbyshire in London from around 1954 to around 1960, then from around 1960 with Austin Vernon & Partners in Dulwich from 1959, leaving after the chapel opening debacle in 1965. He specialised in church design and restoration, so in the 1960s and 1970s he was consultant architect for the Benedictines, taking instructions from Basil Hume. In the 1970s he designed accommodation at two monasteries, including a large, reflective, gold, cross-shaped window (now lost) at Gorton Monastery, Manchester, which at certain seasons caused a gold cross-shaped reflection on the public roadway. From 1965 he was architect for estate agents Geering and Colyer in Tunbridge Wells, then left to work freelance in Tunbridge Wells 1982-1989. He continued freelance work in Herne Bay, Kent until retirement due to ill health in 1992. He died in 1994.

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bostjan, February 22nd, 2016
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