He served his apprenticeship with Alexander Nisbet Paterson, during which he designed his first building, the double villa in Winton Drive, when he was only 18.
[4] Ionides married the Honourable Nellie Samuel, the widow of Walter Henry Levy, daughter of the 1st Viscount Bearsted, in 1930 after meeting her while he was decorating her residence in Berkeley Square.
[6] With a combination of Basil's discerning eye and Nellie's fortune as the Shell Oil heiress, they restored the Park and became important art collectors.
[4] Ionides scavenged architectural pieces from bombed-out buildings around the country with which to rebuild his stately home (now the Buxted Park Hotel).
[9] For the Savoy Hotel's restaurant, he famously sculpted Kaspar, the Black Cat, who acts as a good-luck guest at tables if thirteen would otherwise be present.