Designer who specialised in creating simple, elegant and lavish cruise ship interiors

John McNeece was born in Govan, Glasgow within sight of the ship yards at the river Clyde. Excelling at sketching and art in general, he studied at The Glasgow School of Art where he graduated in 1962, also winning a post graduate scholarship.

During his early youth, he was regularly seen at the shipyards near his birth home, sketching the ships being built on the slopes there.

Immediately after finishing art school, he participated in the design of three Caledonian MacBrayne ferries, Columba Hebrides and Clansman, one of which still sails today as the luxury cruise ship Hebridean Princess chartered in 2006 by the British Royal family for a cruise to celebrate the Queen’s 80th birthday and Queen Elizabeth II chartered her again in 2010 for a two week holiday.

With his friend and fellow designer Alastair Fletcher, McNeece founded the first interior design practice in Glasgow, Scotland. Until then designers had worked as part of  architectural firms. They were succesful from the start and soon Fletcher McNeece were involved in the design of pubs, offices,and even casinos and law courts.

As the company received a significant amount of work from England and London (international clients) in particular, they opened an office in King’s cross, London, in 1982.

By then they had obtained such a good reputation that they were being commissioned to larger design projects: parts of Gatwick Airport and even the desert palaces and London residences of the Saudi royal family.

The company’s first maritime work concerned  an offshore accommodation module for North Sea oilworkers followed by a contract for the design development of North Sea Ferries’ Norsea, to be built by Govan Shipbuilders, Glasgow in 1986.

In 1985 John McNeece and his second wife Norma had moved to live in London to be near the company’s head office.

Now, the next step for Fletcher McNeece was to enter the the rapidly growing cruise market.

In 1986-1987 they worked on the interior design of Royal Caribbean’s Sovereign of the Seas, the first of the mega cruise ships and RCL’s answer to NCL’s Norway, the converted liner France which had beeen a huge succes.

A long list of cruise ship commissions followed, as Fletcher Mc Neece worked on

• The Crown Odyssey for Royal Cruise Line in1988,
• The first five ships for Celebrity Cruises, including the Horizon and Zenith in 1990 and 1992,  
• The supervision of the renovations of both Cunard Countess and Princess in the early 1990’s,
• McNeece also  secured the contract to design the complete interior and exterior public area design of two four-masted barquentine passenger sail cruise liners built for Royal Clippers of Antwerp, Belgium. in 1991 and 1992, Star Flyer and Star Clipper. This is the first time that McNeece was involved with sailing vessels,
• The Project Lifestyle-refit of Cunard Line’s  QE2 in 1994 to bring her more up-to-date concerning catering, service and onboard revenue earning processes,
• P&O’s Oriana (1995) and Aurora (2000),
• The internal and external designs of eight ships for Renaissance Cruises R-Class built between 1998 and 2001 which all still sail today for Azamara and Oceania cruise lines,
• His last and most challenging project was The World (2002), at the time the the largest private residential ship ever constructed. It had 165 apartments all owned by its permanent residents.

Besides cruise ships Mc Neece also deigned ferry interiors and won private commissions for super yachts.

His last, unrealised, project was for a 240,000-ton floating city, The Cruise Bowl mother ship with its two130,000GRT satellite-ships, which would house 12,500 people. Estimated costs were $ 1.5 billion. It was part of the -never realised- Saltire project involving futuristic designs for the cruise industry.

Having worked on over 40 passenger ship interiors and in some cases exteriors, he had become a leading designer between the 1980’s and 2008.

Over the years he won several awards like the National Design Award (1980 and 1982), Scottish Designer of the Year (1982) and also the Sea Trade Safety Innovation Award.

Furthermore he was Honorary Secretary of the Chartered Society of Designers, a Fellow of the Institute of Interior Designers and a Fellow of the Society of Industrial Artists & Designers.

When McNeece retired in 2008, he and his wife Norma moved back north to Edinburgh.

For the next three years he was president of the Scottish Arts Club in Edinburgh, a role  he fulfilled with flair. Known for being a great communicator as well as his great sense of humour, new members came to the Scottish Art Club in great numbers.

In 2012 the couple moved back South again to at Hampshire village where they lived until he passed away in 2015.

John McNeece was known for his simple but elegant interiors, here are two examples of the Oriana of P&O Cruises delivered in 1995