Richard Phené Spiers was born in Oxford, England on 19 May 1838 and was the son of Alderman Richard James Spiers (1806–1877), a bookseller and stationer.
He studied engineering at King's College, London, and, from 1858 to 1861, trained as an architect in the atelier of Charles Auguste Questel (1807-1888) at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Following his return to England, he was an improver in the office of Matthew Digby Wyatt (1820-1877) from 1862 to 1864. He passed the voluntary architectural examinations in 1863 and 1864. During this period he attended the Royal Academy Schools in London where he was awarded Gold and Silver Medals. In 1865 he won the Soane Medallion. He was also awarded the Royal Academy Travelling Studentship and from 1864 to 1866 travelled in Continental Europe and the Near East.
Following his return to England in 1866, Spiers worked for William Burges (1827-1881) on the Law Courts competition, and for Wyatt on the National Gallery competition. In 1868 Spiers established his own architectural practice in London and in 1870 he was appointed Master of the Royal Academy Architectural School, a post he held until 1906.
In addition to his work as an architect and teacher, Spiers was the author of several books on the history of architecture, architectural theory and architectural drawing.
Spiers was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1861 and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1877. He was also a Fellow of the Society of Architects (FSA); an honorary and correspondin member of the Société Centrale des Architectes Français; and President of the Architectural Association in 1867-68. He died in London on 3 October 1916.
Additions to Umberslade Park in Warwickshire; two board schools in London; the restoration of the churches of Hampton Poyle and Weston on the Green, Oxfordshire; alterations and additions to Beckett Hospital in Barnsley, Yorkshire; with Auguste Tronquois, the design of Château Impney, near Droitwich, Worcestershire (1869–75); alterations to Locke Park Tower Locke Park, Barnsley, Yorkshire (1875-77); and a house on the Chelsea embankment in London for Robert Collier (1878)
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 2: L-Z. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001
Edgar, James. ‘The Salt King's château at Impney’ [Discusses Château Impney - or Impney Hall, designed by Auguste Tronquois and Richard Phené Spiers for John Corbett MP in the 1870s] Studies in Victorian Architecture & Design vol. 8, 2023, pp. 64-75.
Gray, A. Stuart. Edwardian architecture: a biographical dictionary. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd., 1985
'Obituary’. RIBA Journal vol. 23, 21 Oct 1916, pp. 334-36
'Obituary’. The Builder vol. 111, 13 Oct 1916, pp. 222, 224-25, 227
‘Obituary’. RIBA Journal vol. 24, 1917, pp. 13, 31, 129, 137, 189