Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Spiers, Richard Phené
SPIERS, RICHARD PHENÉ (1838–1916), architect, was born at Oxford 19 May 1838, the eldest son of Alderman Richard James Spiers, a leading citizen of Oxford and mayor in 1854, by his wife, Elizabeth Phené, daughter of Thomas Joy, of Oxford. Walter Spiers, a younger brother, was curator of Sir John Soane's Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields, from 1904 to 1917. Phené Spiers was educated at King's College School and in the engineering department of King's College, London. From 1858 to 1861 he was a student, in the atelier Questel, of the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Returning to England, he became assistant to Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt [q.v.], who was then engaged on works, particularly the grand staircase and internal courtyard, at the India Office, Whitehall. Spiers's relations with Wyatt were close and sympathetic.
In 1861 Spiers was elected an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects; in 1863 he gained the silver and gold medals of the Royal Academy, and in 1864 the travelling studentship. In 1865 he won the Soane medallion and £50 for his designs for an ‘Institute for the Study, Practice, and Performance of Music’. In the same year, in company with some artist friends, he set out on a tour of eighteen months through France, Germany, Greece, Constantinople, Palestine, Syria, and Egypt. His companions worked in water-colours, and Spiers was led to follow their example. He became, in fact, very expert, and was well known for his drawings of architecture in colour, which for many years were sold at good prices. He always felt, however, that his professional pursuits prevented him from keeping up with the artistic and technical advance of water-colour painting.
On his return from abroad in 1866 Spiers assisted William Burges [q.v.] in his mediaeval design (which was not accepted) for the new Law Courts in the Strand; in conjunction with Charles John Phipps [q.v.] he submitted a modern French design for the war memorial church of the Sacré Cœur at Montmartre; and with Professor Robert Kerr [q.v.] he competed in a design for the Criterion restaurant and theatre in Piccadilly; he also assisted in designing and building the synagogue in Seymour Street, Edgware Road.
Spiers's executed works are not numerous. They include additions to Umberslade Hall, Warwickshire; restorations of the churches of Hampton Poyle and Weston-on-the-Green, Oxfordshire; a house on Chelsea Embankment for Lord Monkswell; various studios there and in Campden Hill Square; two board-schools in London, and alterations and additions to Beckett Hospital, Barnsley. In conjunction with M. Tronquois, of Paris, he designed Impney Court, near Droitwich.
With his appointment in 1870 as master of the Royal Academy architectural school a fresh phase of Spiers's career opened; but, although he held the post for thirty-six years (until 1906), the outcome was disappointing to his friends. His reputation as an architectural designer and as a water-colourist, his skill as a draughtsman, his close touch with continental tradition, and, above all, his gifts as a teacher, raised hopes that a fresh lead in the development of English architecture would be inspired by the new master of the Academy school. These hopes were not fulfilled. Partly because he allowed his personality and ideas to be overshadowed by those of his brilliant contemporaries, George Edmund Street and Richard Norman Shaw, but mainly because he felt that his influence with and authority over the students were subject to interference by the Academy visitors, Spiers did not give the lead expected of him. It is probable, indeed, that his best teaching was done outside the Academy school; and it was perhaps a matter of regret to his friends that he did not found a private school of his own, where his inspiration and undoubted gifts would have had free play.
In addition to his teaching Spiers pursued incessant investigation into the architecture of all periods and countries. He collected and abstracted a mass of material of all kinds bearing on the subject, and was always adding to it from the reports and studies of the many students with whom he was in constant touch. His point of view was scientific and highly cautious, and no labour was too great with him in ascertaining exact data. His papers thus embodied the results of years of research, and were very carefully compiled, but they possess little charm of style, and are apt to be found rather dry by the average student or amateur. He was in his element in the work of preparing a new edition (1893) of James Fergusson's History of Architecture; though it is unfortunate that his respect for the author prevented his recasting the work and eliminating much that has lost its value. His own book on Architectural Drawing (1887) has been commended for its explanation of technical methods, but some of the illustrations were not happily chosen. His collected papers in Architecture, East and West (1905) contain some of his most valuable work. The book was published in connexion with a testimonial presented to him, on his retirement, by past students of the Academy school and other friends in many parts of the world; a bronze plaque with his portrait, modelled by Edouard Lantéri, was given to him, and smaller replicas were issued to subscribers; a commemorative medal was presented at the same time by the Société Centrale des Architectes Français, of which body Spiers was an honorary and corresponding member. Spiers was president of the Architectural Association in 1867–1868, and served on the council of the Royal Institute of British Architects from 1888 to 1903, and was chairman and member of the literature committee for twenty-two years. He died in London 3 October 1916. He was unmarried.
Spiers is memorable for his modest and disinterested devotion to the study and teaching of architecture. He was a discriminating and fearless critic, who tolerated no lowering of a high artistic standard. He regarded architecture as a rational art, and believed in the prevalence, in all periods and styles, of definite principles not to be transgressed.
[Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, third series, vols. xxiii, xxiv, 21 October and 11 November 1916; Architectural Review, vol. xl, July–December 1916; personal knowledge.]