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The following list is arranged in by modern street addresses; when
a commercial building or block of tenements runs along more than one
street, the name placed alphabetically is that of the principal street
range. Contiguous buildings are listed together, even when in different
streets.
For places outside the modern Glasgow City boundary, the historic
counties of Scotland are used.
The cost of the job and the name of the builder is given, if
known, followed by the location of any extant drawings and the published
and manuscript sources which enable an attribution to be made.
Where extended information is given, hyperlinks to new pages are
provided.
ADELAIDE, South Australia
HOLMWOOD, 20 Devonshire Street, North Walkerville
New house, for William Austin Horn, built posthumously from published
designs, 1885
ATSN no.14 December 1995*, no.17 November 1996*
This Antipodean Holmwood was built from the drawings of Holmwood
House in Cathcart, q.v., published in Blackie. Externally the house
closely resembles Thomson's original, although it is larger, with a
verandah and a wing to the left of the principal elevation containing a
billiard room and there is no wall connecting with the coach house to
the right; internally, the plan was modified and the details are quite
different. Horn was a mining magnate and pastoralist, a Member of
Parliament, a writer, sculptor and public benefactor. The estate was
sold to the Crawford family in 1911, subdivided in 1955-56, and, in
1998, sold to new owners.
AIRDRIE, Lanarkshire
ARRANVIEW
?New villa, for Gavin Black Motherwell, solicitor, 1868, with later
additions
Crook*; G&W*; Alan Peden, The Monklands: An Illustrated
Architectural Guide, RIAS 1992*; Sam McKinstry in ATSN no.6 January
1993*
Thomson's authorship of this Thomsonian villa in red sandstone has
been disputed and there is no documentary evidence for the attribution.
It may be by Robert Thomson, but David Walker wonders if it was built or
completed to ‘Greek’ Thomson’s design but without his
superintendence.
ANNAN,
Dumfriesshire
TOWN HALL
‡Unexecuted competition design, 1875
Gildard; Brian Edwards in ATSN no.4 June 1992*; ATSN no.5 October
1992*
Perspective drawing in Mitchell Library
According to Gildard, “the last work of this great architect - that
at which he was working within two days of his death - was a design for
a town-hall” and his description corresponds to the surviving drawing.
In his manuscript, Gildard wrote ‘Hawick’ but then deleted it, and
it is most likely that the design was for the Annan Town Hall
competition, for which entries were invited by 1st April 1875.
BAILLIESTON
GARROWHILL HOUSE
see GLASGOW: GARROWHILL HOUSE, MAXWELL DRIVE, Baillieston
BALFRON, Stirlingshire
BALFRON SOUTH MANSE
New house, for the Revd James Robertson, minister of Balfron old
Relief congregation, c.1858
£1,000
Memorial; John Guthrie Smith, Strathendrick and its Inhabitants from
early times, Glasgow 1896, p.47; Robert Small, History of the
Congregations of the United Presbyterian Church from 1733 to 1900,
Edinburgh 1904, vol.i, p.215; Worsdall; McFadzean*; Jim Thomson, The
Balfron Heritage, Balfron 1991*
Asymmetrical villa, with timber used on the projecting gabled bay.
The old Relief Congregation formed part of the United Presbyterian
church in Balfron.
BALFRON CHURCHYARD
Headstone for the family of the Revd James Thomson, 1864
McFadzean
The Revd James Thomson (no relation) was minister at Holm Kirk from
1812 until 1860: see Holm of Balfron.
HOLM OF BALFRON,
Stirlingshire
SMALL CHURCH & MANSE
‡Unexecuted design for combined church and manse, for Ministers,
Elders and Managers of the United Presbyterian Church Holm Balfron,
c.1860
Drawing showing plan and elevations in Mitchell
McFadzean*; Andrew MacMillan in S&McK*
Unique design for a rectangular church with shorter narrow aisles and
a walled forecourt, combined with a contiguous manse to the same width,
all marked by a strong horizontality, low pitched roofs with generous
eaves. As both a church and a manse at Holm of Balfron to the east of
Balfron were mentioned in the list of Thomson's works in the Deed of
Trust for the Alexander Thomson Memorial and as the executed building
has a very similar plan (see below), it is assumed that this remarkable
unlabelled and unexecuted design was for this commission.
CHURCH & MANSE
?New combined church & manse, for Ministers, Elders and Managers
of the United Presbyterian Church Holm Balfron, 1860-61
£1,400
Memorial; John Guthrie Smith, Strathendrick and its Inhabitants from
early times, Glasgow 1896, p.47; Robert Small, History of the
Congregations of the United Presbyterian Church from 1733 to 1900,
Edinburgh 1904, vol.i, p.213
Built for an United Presbyterian congregation descended from the Holm
Kirk of Balfron, an Anti-Burgher congregation formed in 1737. The new
building consisted of a church with 300 sittings placed back-to-back
with a manse, on the same plan as Thomson’s drawing in Mitchell (see
above) but in an uncharacteristic and pedestrian style - the severely
ordinary church having Gothic windows, while the conventional Victorian
manse exhibits no trace of Thomson’s individuality. Possibly it was
merely Thomson’s general plan that was adopted - yet both the U.P.
church and the U.P. manse at Holm of Balfron were separately cited in
the list of works attached to the Thomson Memorial deed of trust.
The
Revd James Thomson, who commissioned Thomson shortly before his retiral,
was minister at Holm Kirk for 57 years after 1812: see Balfron:
Churchyard; he was succeeded by the Revd Robert Muir in 1860. The church
opened in December 1861 and in 1880 the Holm Kirk Anti-Burghers joined
the U.P. congregation in Balfron village. The church was converted for
domestic use in 1950s, the pulpit surviving.
BEARSDEN,
Dunbartonshire
CARRICK ARDEN, 22 DRYMEN ROAD
?New villa, for John Henderson, shipowner, c.1855
Italianate Romanesque style; attribution undocumented and unlikely.
BLAIRMORE,
Argyllshire
ST ANN'S LODGE, Shore Road
?New double-villa, c.1853
Peter McNeill & David M. Walker, 'A Note on Greek Thomson',
Glasgow Review, vol.ii, no.2, Summer 1965;
Attribution on stylistic grounds as similar to Seymour Lodge, q.v.
Oakleigh Villa in Blairmore, by John Gordon of 1863, was inspired by
Thomson's Craig Ailey at Kilcreggan, q.v.
BLANTYRE,
Lanarkshire
BARDYKES HOUSE, Bardykes Road
?New house
Walker
A large building in Thomson's villa style subsequently used as a
school ; an unlikely attribution, according to McFadzean; possibly by
Turnbull.
BOTHWELL,
Lanarkshire
GLEN EDEN VILLA, Laighlands Road
New house, 1855
Worsdall; McFadzean
Villa in round-arched style similar to Craig Ailey, Kilcreggan, q.v.,
subsequently divided into two dwellings with one half known as ‘Craigievar’.
GREEN BANK VILLA, 20 Green Street
New villa, ?for John Macdonald, ship owner, wine merchant &
bonded warehousekeeper, 1855
Worsdall; McFadzean*; G&W*
At the 1861 Census, the house was inhabited by John Macdonald; later
additions.
HUNTLY LODGE
†New Villa
Worsdall
Demolished after a fire before 1960
Romanesque style, similar to Glen Eden, Bothwell, q.v.
BUSBY, Lanarkshire
BUSBY HOUSE, Field Road
†Large addition to existing house, for Durham Kippen or for Inglis
& Wakefield, 1856-57
CATHCART
BRAEHEAD VILLA
see GLASGOW: 74-76 NETHERLEE ROAD
HOLMWOOD HOUSE
see GLASGOW: 61-63 NETHERLEE ROAD
CLYNDER
NORTH & SOUTH VILLAS
?New villas
Symmetrical pair of houses similar to Seymour Lodge, Cove, q.v.
COVE, Dunbartonshire
ANCHORAGE (OLD MANSE), Church Road
?New house, 1850s
Gothic style, with details similar to Craigrownie Castle; attribution
undocumented. The nearby Cove chapel (Church of Scotland), for which
this was the manse, was designed by H.H. Mackinney of Liverpool and is
also Gothic.
ASHLEA / ELLERSLIE (COVE COTTAGE), Rosneath Road
?New pair of semi-detached villas, ?for James and Robert Couper,
paper manufacturers, 1850s
Worsdall
Symmetrical pair of houses in Gothic style, opposite Cove pier and
originally called Cove Cottage; attribution undocumented. Trefoil
decoration on timber gable bargeboards since removed. Were these the
summer houses built by James and Robert Couper as copies of Braehead
Villa in Cathcart, q.v.?
BARON CLIFF (BARON’S POINT VILLA), Rosneath Road
†?New villa, for John McElroy, developer & railway contractor,
1860s?
Destroyed by fire 1988
W.C. Maugham, Rosneath, Past and Present, Paisley & London 1893,
p.261; Peter McNeill & David M. Walker, 'A Note on Greek Thomson',
Glasgow Review, vol.ii, no.2, Summer 1965; Worsdall
In Tudor style; attribution undocumented; house placed high on cliff,
approached from Shore Road below. The boundary wall and gate piers
survive.
CRAG OWLET (IVY CAVE COTTAGE), Rosneath Road
New pair of semi-detached houses each containing two dwellings, for
John McElroy, 1850s
Worsdall; McFadzean; Frank Arneil Walker with Fiona Sinclair, The
North Clyde Estuary, RIAS Edinburgh 1992*
A sophisticated development of the “later Gothic” style of
Seymour Lodge, q.v. with bay windows with concave facets as in the
corner of Thomson’s Queen’s Park Terrace in Glasgow, q.v.;
attribution undocumented but very likely. This terrace of four houses
was owned by John McElroy and originally called Ivy Cave Cottage.
Central chimney-stack now truncated.
CRAIG AILEY (ITALIAN VILLA), South Ailey Road
New villa, for John McElroy, developer, railway contractor &
ironfounder, c.1852
£1,154:16:6d
Drawings (of modified design) in Blackie*
Amelia; Memorial; APSD; W.C. Maugham, Rosneath, Past and Present,
Paisley & London 1893, p.261; Barclay; Law; Worsdall; McFadzean*;
Frank Arneil Walker with Fiona Sinclair, The North Clyde Estuary, RIAS
Edinburgh 1992*; Glendinning, MacInnes & MacKechnie, A History of
Scottish Architecture, Edinburgh 1996*
Villa with belvedere in round-arched manner designed, as the
architect (presumably) wrote in Blackie, as "only a summer
residence," which "affords a good example of the capabilities
of the Italian style, and how that style may be made to combine modern
requirements, such as large and numerous windows, oriels, balconies,
&c., with graceful forms and picturesque grouping." External
walls of shist rubble and freestone, with the battered basement formed
of vertical courses of rubble stone.
But there is confusion over the
name of this house as the document compiled for the Thomson Memorial
lists both Craig Ailey, Kilcreggan, and the Italian Villa under 'Villas'
(the APSD only lists the Italian Villa), yet on the 1st edition 1862 Ordnance
Survey map, surveyed in 1860, the Italian Villa is marked where
Craig Ailey stands today while no other house is labelled 'Craig Ailey.'
Further confusion is created by the fact that Craig Ailey is not in
Kilcreggan - as both Villa and Cottage Architecture and the Memorial
state - but in Cove. The Italian Villa (but not Craig Ailey) is
mentioned in the 1871 Census as occupied by the Newman family.
John
McElroy (1802-76) was a successful railway contractor and “proprietor
of houses,” born in Ireland and resident at Craigrownie Cottage in
1861, who was also an ironfounder whose firm, Weir & McElroy,
supplied much of the ironwork for the St Vincent Street Church. With
Thomas Forgan, McElroy built Cove pier in 1852 and he took the feus on
land running south on which were built Baron Cliff, Craig Ailey,
Hartfield, Baron’s Hall, Glen Eden, Craigrownie House and other
villas, some but not all of which were designed by Thomson. Craig Ailey
was built on part of an eight acre plot also containing Craigrownie
House and Craigrownie Cottage which was feued in 1852, although the
account in Blackie gives the date 1850 for the house.
CRAIGROWNIE CASTLE (HOUSE), Rosneath Road
New house & boundary wall, for John McElroy, developer,
ironfounder & railway contractor, c.1854
Amelia; APSD; Barclay; Worsdall; McFadzean; Frank Arneil Walker with
Fiona Sinclair, The North Clyde Estuary, RIAS Edinburgh 1992*;
House in Baronial style, and may seem an unlikely attribution to
Thomson although it was mentioned in the memoir written by his widow. It
seems that at the beginning of his career, Thomson was prepared to use
any appropriate style and the original part of Craigrownie House
suggests that he could have become an accomplished exponent of the Scots
Baronial manner. The building history is undocumented; originally called
Craigrownie House and built in the 1850s by John McElroy on land sold by
the Duke of Argyll in 1852. Internal joinery and other details similar
to those in Craig Ailey and Seymour Lodge, qq.v. Bought by Alexander
Abercrombie in 1858 from John McElroy; wing added in 1890s and further
additions made in 1960s, now demolished. Rugged boundary wall with
unusual trabeated openings almost certainly by Thomson.
FERNDEAN VILLA, Rosneath Road
?New villa, ?for Robert Blackie, publisher
Gothic design, probably by Thomson.
FERNDEAN VILLA GATES & GARDEN WALL
[†]New gate & boundary wall, for Robert Blackie, publisher,
1863
£56:19:11d
Drawing in Blackie*
Memorial; Worsdall; McFadzean; Frank Arneil Walker with Fiona
Sinclair, The North Clyde Estuary, RIAS Edinburgh 1992*
The implication of the description of the gate and wall in Villa and
Cottage Architecture is that the villa had also been designed by Thomson
as “the decorative treatment is a free rendering of the Gothic style,
but is more rustic than the character of the villa itself.” As the
client was his friend Robert Blackie, this is highly likely. The gate
was of “red pine timber, with ornamental studs and spikes of iron,”
the wall of schist with copings of whinstone and freestone - like
Thomson’s other boundary walls in Cove. The gate itself is no longer
extant but the gatepier and boundary wall survive.
GLEN EDEN, Rosneath Road
New villa, for John McElroy, developer, ironfounder & railway
contractor, c.1856, or earlier?
W.C. Maugham, Rosneath, Past and Present, Paisley & London 1893,
p.261; Worsdall; Frank Arneil Walker with Fiona Sinclair, The North
Clyde Estuary, RIAS Edinburgh 1992*
Extraordinary house with round arched windows, but with some
square-headed windows on the west side elevation and pointed arches on
the east side; giant triglyphs used as a decorative motif and guttae on
chimneystacks. Authorship undocumented, but the unbroken low-pitched
roof over the main volume, the recessed planes of the ground floor
external wall on the flanks of the front elevation, the monolith
mullions of the trabeated bay window and the shape of the outbuildings,
together with the plan and internal joinery and plasterwork details
(such as a lyre within a wreath above an ornamental ventilation strip in
the tympana above the doors) similar to those in Craig Ailey nearby,
q.v., suggest that an attribution to Thomson is very likely: who else
could have designed it?
Gate piers of massive rubble stones and (white)
quartz with neo-Classical resonances may also indicate that the design
may be an exploration of the origins of architecture, possibly suggested
by the name of the house. Finial flanked by serpents (?) above pediment
now missing. The curious main entrance, with its primitive arch head
formed by three large stones within a false round arch, may reflect
Thomson’s growing concern with the instability of arcuated structures
and was possibly derived from a section of a tomb near the Pyramids of
Gizeh published in 1855 in James Fergusson’s Illustrated Handbook of
Architecture. This house, together with the neighbouring Kirklea, q.v.,
and Hartfield (demolished), was built by McElroy; it was sold to John
Edmond Swan, metal broker of Glasgow, who made internal alterations.
GRAFTON (LODGE), Rosneath Road
?New villa, 1860s
Attribution on stylistic grounds; some windows with round arches, and
with low-pitched gables. The house is not marked on the 1862 Ordnance
Survey map.
ITALIAN VILLA, see CRAIG AILEY
KIRKLEA (BARON’S HALL), Rosneath Road
?New house, for John McElroy, c.1860
W.C. Maugham, Rosneath, Past and Present, Paisley & London 1893,
p.261
Highly unusual Gothic house with tall pitched roof and projecting bay
windows with a central mullion; authorship undocumented, but certain
details - e.g., recessed planes of ground floor masonry flanking the
front elevation - appear on houses by Thomson. Originally called Baron’s
Hall on Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1860. The house and land was
sold to Robert McClure, merchant, in 1860 for £1425.
KNOCKDERRY CASTLE
New house, 1855?
APSD; Barclay; Law*; Worsdall; McFadzean; Frank Arneil Walker with
Fiona Sinclair, The North Clyde Estuary, RIAS Edinburgh 1992*
House in Baronial style; additions by John Honeyman 1869 (£1,600)
for William Miller; additions by William Leiper 1896. This may seem an
unlikely work by Thomson, and Fiona Sinclair notes that John Honeyman
built a house in Cove for a Mr Campbell in 1856; at the 1861 Census the
head of household was John Campbell, wholesale druggist, who had earlier
bought Seymour Lodge, q.v., from the developer Thomas Forgan.
SEYMOUR LODGE, Rosneath Road
New villa, with detached coach-house, for Thomas Forgan, 1850
£966:4:8½d
Drawings of modified design published in Blackie*
Amelia; Memorial; W.C. Maugham, Rosneath, Past and Present, Paisley
& London 1893, p.261; Barclay; Law; Worsdall; McFadzean*; Frank
Arneil Walker with Fiona Sinclair, The North Clyde Estuary, RIAS
Edinburgh 1992*
A villa in what Thomson described as "an adaptation of the later
Gothic," sold in 1852 to John Campbell junior, wholesale druggist,
who sold the house in 1855 Elizabeth Campbell of Glasgow, who was there
at the 1861 Census (when John Campbell was at Knockderry Castle, Cove,
q.v.). Walls of shist rubble with the principal elevation of dressed
freestone; additions were made before 1868 and the exterior stonework
was subsequently painted. This villa generated many imitations nearby,
e.g., Dunvronaig and Dunvorleigh in Kilcreggan, q.v., on the Shore Road
(later Rosneath Road), a carriage drive laid out in 1848 by the Duke of
Argyll (whose seat was Rosneath Castle).
Kilcreggan Pier was built in
1850 and Cove Pier in 1852, allowing steam boat services to encourage
the development of villas on land feued from the Duke of Argyll. Cove
Pier was built by John McElroy and Thomas Forgan, and the latter
developed the land north of the pier, building Cove Cottages, Rocklea,
Seymour Lodge and Ferndean.
How many of the similar houses in Cove and
Kilcreggan Thomson actually designed himself is not documented; many
look like Seymour Lodge, but whether these were inspired directly or
resulted from its design (along with that of Craig Ailey, q.v.) being
published in Blackie's Villa and Cottage Architecture in 1868 cannot be
established. Some are possibly by Thomson's sometime partner, John
Baird, whose cottage of 1863 at Roseneath was also included in the
Blackie book; others are by William Motherwell.
SHORE ROAD BRIDGE, Rosneath Road
New bridge over Dowall Burn, for the Cove Bridge Committee, c. 1873
McFadzean*
Arched opening in massive retaining wall of rubble stone forming
curved abutments at either end. £12 was still owing to Thomson at his
death, indicating that the job was begun before the partnership with
Turnbull. The chairman of the committee was Thomson's client and friend,
the publisher Robert Blackie (who resided at Ferndean Villa as well as
at no.7 Great Western Terrace in Glasgow, qq.v). Shore Road was later
renamed Rosneath Road.
CRAIGMORE, ROTHESAY,
ISLE OF BUTE
TOR HOUSE (UPPER CLIFTON HOUSE), Ardencraig Road
New villa, for John Wilson, bookseller & stationer, 1856-57
DALMUIR, Dunbartonshire
MELBOURNE HOUSE, Regent Street
?New villa, for A.J. Campbell, general manager of Beardmore's
shipyard, c.1877-80
Worsdall
Attribution unlikely; probably by Turnbull according to Worsdall, who
also cited several other Thomsonesque buildings in Dalmuir by Turnbull,
1877: 19 The Crescent / 45-47 Duntocher Road (left incomplete in 1878)
and a group of three houses: Holmfield, Westfield & Glenlee (or
Ravenswood, The Tower & Uladah Towers)???? in Duntocher Road, all
destroyed during the Second World War.
DULLATUR, Dunbartonshire
CRAIGARD, Victoria Road
?New villa, 1875-76
DUNLUCE, Prospect Road
?New villa, 1875-76
Attribution by McFadzean, but possibly by Turnbull
HILLCROFT?
?New villa, 1875-76
?Demolished
RICHMOND HOUSE, Prospect Road
?New villa, 1875-76
?Demolished
Attribution by McFadzean, but possibly by Turnbull
STANLEY HOUSE, ?Prospect Road
†?New villa1875-76
Demolished
WOODEND, Prospect Road
?New villa, 1875-76
Feuing plan in Glasgow City Archives
Francis H. Groome, ed., Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, new edition
Attribution by McFadzean, but possibly by Turnbull although the
designs are more taut and coherent than his Lenzie villas, q.v.; the
Ordnance Gazetteer noted that "Dullatur Villas here, on a plot of
164 acres, around the old mansions of Dykehead and Dullatur, were
erected in 1875-76." The feuing plan of the lands of Dullatur
invited application to Duncan Lennox, J.L. & T.L. Selkirk and A.
& G. Thomson & Turnbull, and indicated some fifty new houses.
DUNOON
ARGYLL HOTEL, Argyll Street
?New building, c.1850
Frank Arneil Walker with Fiona Sinclair, The North Clyde Estuary,
RIAS Edinburgh 1992*
Unlikely undocumented attribution to Thomson on stylistic grounds;
two-storey wing added 1876. Worsdall also cited Lyall Cliff, Esplanade,
Dunoon.
DUNTOCHER, Dunbartonshire
PARKHALL U.P. MANSE
†New house, for the Revd John Stark, 1874-75
EASTWOOD
OLD CEMETERY, WODROW MONUMENT:
see GLASGOW, EASTWOOD OLD CEMETERY
EDINBURGH
ST MARY'S FREE CHURCH, BROUGHTON STREET
‡Unexecuted competition design, c.1858
THE KNOWE, 301 ALBERT DRIVE / SHIELDS ROAD, Pollokshields
New villa, for John Blair, hat & cap manufacturer, c.1852, 1854
&c.
Amelia; Memorial; Francis Worsdall, typescript notes in Glasgow City
Archives in Mitchell; Worsdall; McFadzean*; G&W; BofS*; List; Ronald
Smith, Pollokshields: Historical Guide and Heritage Walk, Glasgow 1998*
Villa in Italianate Romanesque style designed by Baird & Thomson
1850 and built ?1852-53 on land feued from Nether Pollok estate 1851;
the client also commissioned a warehouse in the city centre [see Dixon
Street / Howard Street]. House enlarged to north c.1855-58 with new
study and drawing room; Shields Farm to the east demolished 1870 and
Shields Road extended south over its site, allowing the enlargement of
the gardens: new boundary walls with new entrance in Aytoun Road
(formerly Lower Shields Road) c.1873, &c.
The Knowe was originally
no.1 Albert Drive; name changed to 'Nile Park' when bought by William
Hood, butcher, in 1892; original name restored by next owner in 1909.
Large new billiard room added to south-east by John Campbell McKellar
1899; boiler room added 1895 and workshops 1902 by John Ballantyne.
Interior plasterwork survives; most of chimneypieces replaced in 1890s,
but original white marble chimneypiece with incised laurel (?) ornament
and integrated overmantel survives in drawing room. Grounds built over
with blocks of flats by Messrs Bovis - Knowehead Gardens & Knowehead
Terrace - 1974.
THE KNOWE LODGE, ALBERT DRIVE, Pollokshields
New coachman's house & gates, for John Blair, 1852, c.1873
&c.
McFadzean*
Coach house part of original build and later partly demolished and
altered for new entrance.
336-338 ALBERT DRIVE
?New house, 1877
Worsdall; McFadzean*; List
Probably designed by Thomson and executed by Robert Turnbull after
his death; now divided into two dwellings.
BEAUFORT GARDENS, 19-23 GARTURK STREET / 265-289 ALLISON STREET / 34
DAISY STREET
New block of tenements with shops below, 1875-78
Worsdall; McFadzean; G&W; BofS; List
Scheme begun by Thomson and then executed to simpler design by
Turnbull c.1878
7-20 ATHOLE GARDENS
?New terrace of houses
Walker
BUCK'S HEAD BUILDINGS, 59-61 ARGYLE STREET / 1 DUNLOP STREET
New commercial premises with shops below, for Henry Leck, accountant,
1863-c.1868
Amelia; Memorial; Gildard; Glasgow and its Environs: A Literary,
Commercial and Social Review, Past & Present..., London 1891*;
Henry-Russell Hitchcock, 'Early Cast-Iron Facades', Architectural Review
cix, February 1951*; Law*; Worsdall; McFadzean*; Architects' Journal 6th
May 1854*; G&W*; BofS; Brian Edwards in S&McK*; List
Curved corner building with external elevated iron columns proud of
trabeated masonry facade - a combination not repeated in Thomson’s
work. The building history of this block and its southern extension
along Dunlop Street has been problematic, but owing to the researches of
Raymond Nicol, the chronology can now be established. This eponymous
commercial building replaced the Buck's Head Hotel, an 18th century
mansion facing Argyle Street, which was demolished in 1863 together with
its rear extensions. At this point Dunlop Street was widened.
The
external iron colonettes on the curved facade may possibly have been
added after a dispute with John Carrick, City Architect, about the
structural stability of the building: a partly illegible copy [in the
Archives] of a letter Carrick sent to Thomson on 4th December 1863 reads
that
“I am really ashamed at the delay at the Bucks Head Building.
There is a threatened [?] rebellion [?] in the neighbourhood &
rumour of a Petition to the Town Council... The financial audit of the
speculation [?] is suffering, and I am annoyed with calls, as to the
stability of the structure. Let me know from you [?] as the Fiscal is
threatening to raise an action...”
Internally, Thomson used McConnel
composite iron beams, a combination of wrought iron and cast iron
sections which had been patented in 1855. Parapet sculpture by J. &
G. Mossman. The basic articulation of the facade but with a two-storey
pilastrade and without the external ironwork was later continued in the
extension along Dunlop Street, which was once erroneously thought to
precede the Buck's Head Building in date. In 1870 the ground floor of
both buildings was occupied by the Glasgow Clothing Co., which expanded
to all five floors after the Buck's Head Building “was considerably
enlarged and improved in 1878-79.” Henry Leck, who bought the site in
1858 and sold it in 1869, was an accountant and developer for whom
Thomson gave evidence in his disputed claim against the Caledonian
Railway in 1874 over property he owned on the site of Central Station
[see Gordon Street / Alston Street].
3-11 DUNLOP STREET
[†]New warehouse with shops below, for Henry Leck, 1864-c.1868
Demolished 1974 except for northernmost three bays
Glasghu Facies... The History of Glasgow vol.iv, John Tweed, Glasgow
1872; Worsdall; McFadzean*; G&W*; David Walker &c. in S&McK*
This building is not the extension to the Buck's Head Hotel with “ornamental
Chimney-Stalks” and flues in the pilasters which was the subject of
controversy for the Dean of Guild in 1849. Raymond Nicol has
demonstrated that this had nothing to do with Thomson and that the site
was cleared, along with that of the Buck's Head Hotel, in 1863-64. New
buildings to the north and south of the new Wilson's Court Lane off
Dunlop Street were under construction in 1864 (but not occupied until
1871), the northern block being designed by Thomson in a manner
harmonious with the new Buck's Head Buildings with tall pilasters but
without the external ironwork. The junction between the two buildings
was marked externally by a slight projection - presumably to accommodate
the width of iron columns on the Argyle Street block - and internally
only by a thin brick partition. The McConnel beams used in the Dunlop
Street block appear to have been of a later pattern, possibly resulting
from the alterations made in 1878-79 (see above). The demolished bays of
the Dunlop Street frontage were replaced by a feeble and inadequate
replica at the time of the redevelopment of the site of St Enoch
Station.
135-137 ARGYLE STREET
†additions, for Alexander McAllister, 1862
Drawings in Glasgow City Archives
Small extension of existing warehouse off St Enoch Wynd.
CROSSMYLOOF BUILDINGS, 11?-21 BAKER STREET, Langside
†Two terraces of model working men's houses, for Mr Thomson of
Camphill1855-56
Demolished c.1964
Building Chronicle 1st July 1856 p.79; Worsdall; Walker; Brian
Edwards in S&McK
Two rows of "model working-men's houses", one of 20 and one
of 24 dwellings on two floors with separate entrances for each pair of
flats. The rent for each flat was £6 a year. “The buildings are in
the cottage style, the windows, of zinc lattice work, are hinged instead
of being hung in the usual way, the roof is steeply pitched, and the
eaves project eighteen inches beyond the walls, being supported on
cantilevers... Each range of houses is terminated by gable ends,
projecting eighteen inches beyond the general line of the building, and
giving the inmates the privilege not only of a more commodious house,
but an entrance by a very handsome porch.” The description corresponds
with two terraces which lay parallel to and between Pollokshaws Road and
Stevenson Drive to the south-east of Langside Avenue as shown on the
1:500 Ordnance Survey map published 1895; Baker Street was subsequently
laid out along their north-east front. The northernmost terrace had
disappeared by 1964.
CHALMERS MEMORIAL FREE CHURCH, 42-50 BALLATER (GOVAN) STREET
†New church, for Free Church congregation1859, enlarged 1873; hall
added 1871
Partly demolished c.1896; gutted by fire 1971 and demolished
Amelia; Memorial; William Ewing, Annals of the Free Church of
Scotland, Edinburgh 1914, vol.ii, p.92; Law*; Worsdall; McFadzean;
G&W; Andrew Herron, Historical Directory to Glasgow Presbytery,
Glasgow 1984 (typescript in Mitchell); ATSN no.7 June 1993*; S&McK*;
Eric Eunson, The Gorbals: An Illustrated History, Ochiltree 1996*;
Thomson’s fourth, little-known Glasgow church, with a rectangular
centralised interior and a facade treatment sometimes compared to that
of the later Unity Temple, Oak Park, by Frank Lloyd Wright. Built for
Union Free Church congregation; sold 1869 to Mission Station under
Trinity Free Church and renamed after Mr Cuninghame of Merry &
Cuninghame who provided £1,000 purchase price; also sometimes known as
the Govan Street Free Church. The original building had a symmetrical
facade and a rectangular interior with seats for 850, but the eastern
entrance and side gallery was removed when the adjacent City of Glasgow
Union Railway viaduct was widened from two tracks to four in 1896-97.
The church hall to the west, on a slightly different building line, was
added in 1871, probably by Thomson, when Govan Street (now Ballater
Street) was extended westwards. Building sold to Glasgow & South
Western Railway in 1898 and by the beginning of the 20th century it was
used by ‘bottle closure manufacturers’, i.e., as a cork works.
CAIRNEY BUILDING, 40-42 BATH STREET
†New commercial premises with shops below, for John Cairney, glass-stainer,
1860-61
Demolished c.1935
Original elevation drawing in Mitchell; elevation published in
Building News 1872 and measured drawing by Frank R. Burnet in The
Architects' & Builders' Journal 1914.
Building News 31st May 1872 p.436 (elevation)* & 24th January
1873 p.109 (details)*; Amelia; Memorial; Gildard; APSD; Builder 31st
December 1910*; The Architects' & Builders' Journal 13th May 1914*;
Henry-Russell Hitchcock, 'Early Cast-Iron Facades', Architectural Review
cix, February 1951*; Law; Worsdall; McFadzean*; Michael Donnelly,
Glasgow Stained Glass, a preliminary study, Glasgow 1981; G&W*; AA*;
McKean*; S&McK*;
One of Thomson's most innovative and extraordinary commercial
buildings; the Building News noted that it was “planned for
(generally) shops and counting-houses, and a workshop and warehouse for
the proprietor's own use... The style is that peculiar variety of Greek
which the Messrs Thomson may be said to have created.” Cairney's kilns
and furnaces were in the lower of the two storeys below street level.
John Cairney was a partner in his father’s firm, William Cairney &
Sons, by 1850 and resigned from the Glasgow Architectural Society owing
to ill-health in 1860; the building was owned by Rowley & Dick,
oil-merchants, by 1872. In 1949, Henry-Russell Hitchcock wrote to
Nikolaus Pevsner about this “warehouse in Bath Street which seems to
me one of the finest of all Victorian warehouses.”
SCOTTISH EXHIBITION, 87-97 BATH STREET
†New exhibition hall, for the Architectural Institute of Scotland,
1854, altered 1872
Demolished 1875
Builder 13th January 1855, p.22, & 14th April 1855, p.172;
Building Chronicle, passim., 1854-55; Building News 7th June 1872,
p.456; George; Worsdall; McFadzean; Charles McKean in S&McK*
Premises for Glasgow Architectural Exhibition, intended to be
permanent, which including rooms in different styles designed by several
architects - Greek court by Baird & Thomson. Exhibition closed 1857
and premises used as showrooms & offices, then converted into coach
house & stables by Thomson in 1872 for John E. Walker at cost of
£450 [see Otago Street] before being replaced by a new office building
by Thomson.
NOS.87-97 BATH STREET
†New office building, 1874-76
Demolished 1970
Building News 31st December 1875 p.764; Amelia; Walker; Worsdall;
McFadzean*; G&W; S&McK*
A commercial building with a flat stone facade not articulated by
columns or pilasters, but enlivened by three elaborate porches. It
replaced the former Exhibition premises (see above) and was “in course
of erection” in December 1875.
COCKBURN HOTEL (BUILDING), 135-143 BATH STREET / 138 WEST CAMPBELL
STREET
†?Alterations & additions, 1875? or c.1879-81
Demolished 1970-71
McFadzean; Frank Worsdall, The City That Disappeared, Glasgow 1981*;
Additional upper floors &c., to building incorporating earlier
houses probably executed by David Thomson & Robert Turnbull:
McFadzean comments that the quality of the work makes an attribution to
Thomson plausible. Originally an hotel?
ALEXANDRA HOTEL, 144 WEST CAMPBELL STREET / 148 BATH STREET
†Additions and alterations to existing building to make new hotel,
for John Macrae, 1875-77
BELL STREET, see WATSON STREET
7-&7A BRUCE ROAD, LEVEN VIEW, Pollokshields
?New villa
Worsdall; List
Attribution on stylistic grounds
13 - or 18? BRUCE ROAD
?New villa
GARNKIRK WAREHOUSE, 243 BUCHANAN STREET / SAUCHIEHALL STREET
†New shop front (and interior?), for the Garnkirk Fireclay Co.
(originally Garnkirk Coal Co.), 1857
Destroyed
Gildard; Glasgow and its Environs: A Literary, Commercial and Social
Review, Past & Present..., London 1891; Worsdall; G. Quail, Garnkirk
Fireclay, Strathkelvin District Libraries & Museum, 1985; The Word
and the Stones, Glasgow 1990
The 1891 guide mentions “the extremely commodious offices and
showrooms of the company at the corner of Buchanan Street and
Sauchiehall Street...” while Gildard wrote of “the depending scroll
on each side of the pilasters... in wood in a shop front in Buchanan
Street...” and of “the magnificent [vase] in fireclay... of which
you may see copies in the windows of the Garnkirk Warehouse in Buchanan
Street.” The special chimney pots designed by Thomson for many of his
buildings were made at the Garnkirk Works near Glasgow. John Cannan,
salesman for the Garnkirk Fireclay Co., contributed to the Thomson
Memorial Fund in 1876.
Also see OBJECTS for the Garnkirk Urn.
LILYBANK HOUSE, 40 BUTE GARDENS
Additions & alteration to existing house, for John Blackie,
junior, publisher and Lord Provost, 1864
Walker; Worsdall; Henry Brougham Morton, A Hillhead Album, Glasgow
1973*; McFadzean*; BofS; List
The symmetrical Classical villa of c.1850 was extended to the south
by Thomson with an asymmetrical wing with a new Ionic entrance portico; a
further wing to the north was added by Honeyman & Keppie in 1895, by
when the house was known as Queen Margaret Hall. John Blackie junior
(d.1873) was Lord Provost of Glasgow in 1863-66 and was much involved
with the City Improvement Scheme.
CALEDONIA ROAD U.P. CHURCH, 1 CALEDONIA ROAD, Hutchesontown
[†] New church & hall, for United Presbyterian congregation
meeting in Wellington Place Academy, Commercial Road, 1856-57
37-39 CATHCART ROAD
†New block of tenements with shops below, for Robert McDougall,
1856-57
Demolished 1973
Drawing (also showing Caledonia Road Church) in Mitchell
Worsdall; McFadzean*; AA*; Robert Jeffrey & Ian Watson, eds,
Images of Glasgow, Derby 1995, p.50*
The facade of this tenement was contiguous with the outside wall of
the hall of the Caledonia Road Church.
190-192 HOSPITAL STREET, Hutchesontown
†New block of tenements with shops below, for James Roberton,
metal-founder, 1856-57
Demolished 1972
Drawing (also showing Caledonia Road Church) in Mitchell
Worsdall; McFadzean*; S&McK*; ATSN no.15 January 1996
The facade of this tenement was contiguous with the external wall of
the Caledonia Road Church.
WAVERLEY TERRACE, 105-157 CALEDONIA ROAD / 76 NABURN STREET
†New tenement, 1868-76
Demolished
Walker
Similar to Queen’s Park Terrace, Eglinton Street, q.v.
LANGSIDE ACADEMY, LANGSIDE AVENUE / CAMPHILL AVENUE
†New school building, for Mrs Adam, proprietor & principal,
1864-
Builder: John McIntyre
Demolished c.1902
Building News 10th June 1864, p.453; Amelia; Glasgow and its
Environs: A Literary, Commercial and Social Review, Past &
Present..., London 1891*; Walker; Worsdall; McFadzean; John McLeish in
ATSN no.11 October 1994*
Jane Constable, the widow of George Adam, founder of the Langside
Academy, commissioned Thomson to design a new school building in his
characteristic manner with low-pitched roofs. She would seem to be the
Mrs Adam who asked Thomson to design a “double villa” next door in
1872, q.v. The site is now occupied by a block of tenements, dated 1903.
DOUBLE VILLA, CAMPHILL AVENUE, Langside
‡Unexecuted design for new houses, for Mrs Adam & J.H.
Robertson, 1872
George; McFadzean; John McLeish in ATSN no.11 October 1994 &
no.12 January 1995
In a his letter to his brother George, 20th September 1872, Thomson
recorded that “a set of plans which I made of a double villa for Mrs
Adam and her son in law Mr. J.H. Robertson are in the same position...”
of remaining on paper because of the high estimated cost. As Mrs Adam
was the proprietor of Langside Academy - see above - who built Edgehill
House next door - see below - for herself and James H. Robertson,
lawyer, in 1873, Thomson's unexecuted and lost design was presumably for
the same site.
EDGHILL HOUSE, 19-21 CAMPHILL AVENUE
?New pair of semi-detached houses, for Mrs Adam & J.H. Robertson,
1873
John McLeish in ATSN no.11 October 1994*
Following the rejection of Thomson’s design for a double villa on
this site, the clients built a large and plain pair of semi-detached
houses in the Gothic style with steeply pitched roofs and gables, but as
certain details are reminiscent of Thomson’s earlier Gothic houses,
e.g., at Cove, q.v., the design may well have been by him, or by
Turnbull; internal Thomsonesque details confirm this.
COUPER MONUMENT, CATHCART OLD PARISH CEMETERY, Carmunnock Road
†?New grave monument, for James Couper, paper manufacturer, 1870
Made by J. & G. Mossman
Removed c.1933
Mossman
Monument erected 1870 and altered in 1871, with further letters cut
in 1877; James Couper (1818-77) was Thomson's client at Holmwood House,
q.v. and his first wife, Marion Harvey, died in 1869. It is not clear
whether Thomson designed this, and whatever was raised was replaced
following the death in 1933 of Couper's niece and heir, Marion Towle,
who adopted the name Couper, so that she, along with James Couper and
his two wives, now lie in front of a large and austere headstone made by
J. & G. Mossman.
McINTYRE MONUMENT, CATHCART OLD PARISH CEMETERY
New tomb monument, for John McIntyre, 1867
Worsdall; McFadzean*; BofS; ATSN no.11 October 1994
Large monument with a base of cyclopaean masonry placed against wall
in cemetery. Commissioned by Thomson's friend John McIntyre “Builder
in Glasgow” for his son, Donald McLaren (1858-66); John McIntyre
himself buried there in 1872.
37-39 CATHCART ROAD, Hutchesontown, see CALEDONIA ROAD CHURCH
JAMES LUMSDEN STATUE, CATHEDRAL SQUARE
?Plinth, 1862
Made by J. & G. Mossman
Worsdall
Granite plinth for bronze statue by John Mossman.
MOSSMAN STUDIO, CATHEDRAL STREET, see 83 NORTH FREDERICK STREET
31-57 CECIL STREET, Hillhead
?New tenement, 1873
Walker
No documentary evidence
1-5 CESSNOCK STREET
?New block of tenements
Worsdall
MONTGOMERIE QUADRANT, 17-25 CLEVEDEN ROAD, Kelvinside
?New terrace of houses, 1882-86
BofS
Unlikely attribution: a posthumous work, or by A.G. Thomson, or by
James Sellars, who lived here? A copy photograph of ‘Montgomerie
Crescent’ survives among the photographs and other material belonging
to Thomson presented to Glasgow Museums & Art Galleries by his
grand-daughter Mrs Stewart in 1934.
CUSTOMS HOUSE, CLYDE STREET
Alterations, 1873 or earlier
McFadzean
The Custom House of 1840 by John Taylor was one of the seven Greek
Revival buildings in Glasgow cited by Thomson in his Haldane Lectures
for employing the models found on the Acropolis of Athens and praised as
“very good.” At the time of his death, Thomson was owed £3:3:0d in
outstanding fees for this job, indicating that it dated from before the
partnership with Turnbull.
COWCADDENS CROSS BUILDING, 110-120 COWCADDENS STREET
†New block of tenements with warehouse space and shops below, for
J.& J. Jardine, masons & builders, 1872-
Demolished 1971
George; Building News 7th June 1872, p.455; Worsdall; McFadzean*;
G&W; ATSN no.12 January 1995;
Block of “warehouses and dwellings in Cowcaddens” with curved
masonry facade and cast iron frame behind; shops divided by thin timber
partitions to permit flexibility.
CLEGHORN-THOMSON MONUMENT, CRAIGTON CEMETERY
New tomb monument, for descendants of Robert Cleghorn and Margaret
Thomson, c.1873-75
Made & carved by J. & G. Mossman
ATSN no.(21) May 1998*
Attribution by McFadzean. Monument similar in shape to the Beattie
Monument in the Necropolis, q.v., but with the name ‘Thomson’ under
the urn and a wreath carved on the plinth containing a hand holding
flowers and the legend ‘Industrie Munis.’ The inscription records
the names of Robert Cleghorn, MD, of Shawfield, died 1821; his wife
Margaret Thomson, died 1795; their daughter Helen, died 1853; George
Thomson, merchant, died 1852; his wife Margaret Graham, died 1854; John
Thomson of London, died 1858, and others bearing the name of Thomson all
formerly buried in the College (or Blackfriars) Churchyard. The first
burials in the new Govan Burgh (Craigton) Cemetery were in June 1873 and
the College Churchyard next to the University in the High Street was
removed in 1875. The Mossman Order Book for 1877 recorded an urn on a
short pillar for George G. Thomson of Cleghorn Villa, Pollokshields.
SPROTT MONUMENT, CRAIGTON CEMETERY
?New tomb obelisk, for the congregation of the Queen's Park United
Presbyterian Church, 1876
Made & carved by J. & G. Mossman
£251
Mossman; ATSN no.(21) May 1998*
Sprott, Minister of the Queen's Park Church, q.v., died on 13th
March, 1875, after being fatally injured in a railway accident at
Bedford. As Thomson himself died shortly afterwards, this obelisk
monument of granite designed by A. & G. Thomson & Turnbull must
have been the work of Turnbull, based on the Middleton Monument in the
Necropolis and Thomson's obelisk design, qq.v. Bronze portrait medallion
of Sprott stolen.
CROSSMYLOOF BUILDINGS, see BAKER STREET
357-369 CROWN STREET / 53-57 CALEDONIA ROAD
†?new block of tenements, with shops below
Demolished
Walker; Worsdall
No documentary evidence; similar to the 590-612 EGLINTON STREET
tenement, q.v.
278-282 CUMBERLAND STREET / 87-89 CAMDEN STREET
?New tenement, c.1870
Walker
No documentary evidence, but likely
DARNLEY TERRACE, see 98-130 KILMARNOCK ROAD
7 DIRLETON AVENUE (MAITLAND PLACE), Shawlands
?New villa
Demolished c.1970
Attribution on stylistic grounds by McFadzean; for other villas
nearby see TANTALLON ROAD
17-19 DIXON STREET, see HOWARD STREET, ST ENOCH SQUARE
DOUBLE VILLA, see MANSIONHOUSE ROAD
3-11 DUNLOP STREET, see BUCK'S HEAD BUILDING, ARGYLE STREET
WODROW MONUMENT, EASTWOOD OLD CEMETERY, Thornliebank Road
New grave monument, for subscribers, 1850s
Made by J. & G. Mossman
Worsdall
Urn now missing from top. The inscription reads: “Erected to the
memory of the Rev. Robert Wodrow Minister of Eastwood the faithful
historian of the sufferings of the Church of Scotland from the year 1660
to 1688. He died 21st March 1734 in the 55th year of his age and 31st of
his ministry ‘He being dead yet speaketh'.” The 1859 edition of
Robert Chambers' Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen states that
Wodrow's “memory has lately been commemorated by the erection of a
monument” which was raised by public subscription. Wodrow was buried
in the churchyard, but probably in an unmarked grave further to the
west.
307 EGLINTON STREET / 60 CAVENDISH STREET
†New block of tenements, with shops below, 1858
Demolished 1969
G&W; McFadzean*; Eric Eunson, The Gorbals: An Illustrated
History, Ochiltree 1996*
QUEEN'S PARK TERRACE, 39-41 DEVON STREET / 355-429 EGLINTON STREET / 1
TURRIFF STREET
†New terrace of tenements with shops below, for John McIntyre,
William Stevenson & De Hort Baird, c.1856-60
Builder: John McIntyre
Demolished 1980-81
Building Chronicle July 1857 p.224; Amelia; Memorial; Law*;
Hitchcock*; Worsdall; McFadzean*; S. Dool, D. McKellar & A. Meldrum,
Macdiss 197? (lost?); Gerard Creanor, 'The Terraces of Greek Thomson',
Macdiss 1975*; Frank Worsdall, The Tenement: A Way of Life, Edinburgh
1979* (2nd ed. 1989*); Iain B. Miller, 'Three Thomson Tenements' Macdiss.
1980*; Frank Worsdall, The City That Disappeared, Glasgow 1981*;
G&W*; The Word and the Stones, Glasgow 1990; S&McK*; ATSN no.10
May 1994 & no.11 October 1994; Eric Eunson, The Gorbals: An
Illustrated History, Ochiltree 1996*; Glendinning, MacInnes &
MacKechnie, A History of Scottish Architecture, Edinburgh 1996*
Thomson's largest, finest and most influential block of tenements,
built in two stages between Devon Street and Elgin, now Turriff Street,
and originally numbered 233-279. “Is it perhaps superfluous to state
that the Greeks did not build tenements?” Francis Worsdall wondered in
1966. “The derogatory remarks which are sometimes aimed at Thomson's
highly original and monumental block of tenements in Eglinton Street
makes one wonder. The rhythmic quality which he invariably gives to his
windows is particularly suitable to tenement design and this Eglinton
Street example is a marvel of its kind. At the north end is a
four-storey corner bay which begins as convex but changes to concave for
the upper three stories - a unique feature.” This treatment of the
northern corner, to Devon Street, as a separate element with vertical
concave facets like a fluted column, was particularly remarkable and
possibly inspired by the Temple of Venus at Baalbek. Attempts at
rehabilitation of this important building after years of neglect ended
with demolition by Glasgow District Council, despite its being
statutorily listed category 'A' - “even the elegant black marble
fireplaces were being smashed with a sledge hammer and the ceiling
decorations tossed onto the rubbish heap.” The site remains empty.
TURRIFF STREET / 433-491 EGLINTON STREET / GOUROCK STREET
†New terrace of tenements, for John Findlay, mason; James
Robertson, insurance agent; James Brodie, mill manager; James McIntyre,
William Stevenson & De Hort Baird, c.1857-59
Largely demolished c.1876 and c.1970?
Walker, Worsdall; G&W; Michael Moss & John Hume, Glasgow As
It Was vol.ii, Glasgow 1975*; Iain B. Miller, 'Three Thomson Tenements'
Macdiss. 1980*; ATSN no.10 May 1994* & no.11 October 1994
Long range of tenements in Eglinton Street, built in four stages (for
four different clients) and originally numbered 281-323, south of
Turriff Street very similar in design to the Queen's Park Terrace
immediately to the north; mostly demolished for the extension of the
Caledonian Railway into Central Station 1873-79. However, the southern
end of the terrace - 487-491 Eglinton Street - stood until the 1970s
while windows and other pieces of the original stonework seems to have
been re-used in the surviving two-storey section - 463-473 Eglinton
Street - built above the railway.
GLASGOW: 590-612 EGLINTON STREET / 20-26 GOUROCK STREET
?New tenement, c.1860
Walker; Worsdall, List
GARROWHILL HOUSE, see MAXWELL DRIVE, Baillieston
SIR ROBERT PEEL STATUE, GEORGE SQUARE
Plinth, 1859
Made by J. & G. Mossman
Alexander Stoddart in S&McK*
Granite plinth for bronze statue by John Mossman. Another
unidentified design for a plinth for a similar statue is in the
Mitchell.
2-10? GIBSON (KING) STREET
†New tenement with shops below, for Andrew Clow, 1873
Demolished c.198?
Drawings in Glasgow City Archives in Mitchell
Walker; McFadzean
The drawings bear the names of both Thomson and his assistant, Robert
Goodwin, at 122 Wellington Street; Goodwin later set up in independent
practice and subscribed to the Thomson Memorial. The site in King, now
Gibson Street was next to the River Kelvin and was bought off John E.
Walker, for whom Thomson designed the stables nearby in Otago (Smith)
Street, q.v.; demolished owing to structural instability. McFadzean
erroneously gives the address as 174-206 Gibson Street.
32-68 GORBALS STREET, GORBALS CROSS, see 12-24 NORFOLK STREET
106-132 GORBALS STREET / 25-42 DUNMORE STREET
?New tenement, c.1875
Walker
No documentary evidence
(GROSVENOR BUILDING), 68-80 GORDON STREET
New block of commercial premises with shops below, for Alexander
& George Thomson, 1858-59; gutted by fire 1864 and rebuilt 1864-66;
altered 1907 &c.
£14,900 for the building
Glasgow Herald 23rd May 1864; North British Daily Mail 23rd May 1864;
George; Amelia; Memorial; Gildard; APSD; Law*; Worsdall; McFadzean*;
G&W*; BofS; S&McK*; ATSN no.4 June 1992 & no.5 October 1992,
no.11 October 1994, no.13 May 1995*, no18 February 1997*; Glendinning,
MacInnes & MacKechnie, A History of Scottish Architecture, Edinburgh
1996*; List
Commercial building with a most elaborately articulated facade built
on the site of the Gordon Street U.P. Church after purchase by A. &
G. Thomson, who were asked by the congregation to design the new church
on the site bought with the proceeds in St Vincent Street, q.v.; the
cost was £15,000 which was commuted to a Ground Annual payment of £700
(Glasgow Sasines at the Scottish Record Office). The building work was
undertaken for the Thomsons by McCraw & Kay and Robert McConnel,
ironfounder. The office of A. & G. Thomson was here by 1861 before
moving to 183 West George Street, q.v. The building was gutted by fire
on 21st May 1864: “So powerful was the heat of the flames that it was
impossible to stand on the opposite side of the street, while the
corners of the stone-work of the building have been rounded as if by a
week’s labour of a regiment of masons... The long slender stone
frontage, with its delicate architectural ornamentation, alone remains”
- as is confirmed by photographs then taken by Thomas Annan.
After the
fire, the Glasgow Herald reported that,
"With a street frontage of
nearly 100 feet, it extended backwards to Renfield Lane, forming an
immense square block, four storeys in height, besides attics and sunk
flat... towards the lane was a frontage, consisting of tall stone
pilasters running up the entire height of the building, and alternating
with wide spaces filled in with wood and glass. In the interior of the
building, iron was freely used in the shape of pillars and girders, and
in the upper storeys a large quantity of timber was employed.”
Shops
were on the ground floor; on the upper floors staircases and counting
houses were at either end with warehouses and showrooms in between:
“The
lighting of these was provided for by a large 'well' with sloping sides
of wood and glass which descended through the centre of the block, down
to the level of the first floor. The roof was constructed of wood and
glass, the former then covered with asphalte... Taking into
consideration the peculiar construction of the building and the
inflammable character of a large proportion of its contents, one might
have anticipated beforehand that a fire obtaining anything like a hold
in it would be attended with disastrous consequences... Thomsons’
building continued to belch forth flame like the centre of a miniature
volcano.”
The building had been insured for £15-16,000. Dean of Guild
Court Proceedings for 21st July 1864 noted that A. & G. Thomson were
“to re-erect or alter a tenement recently destroyed by fire in Gordon
Street” requiring the closure of a quarter of a street for seven
months, and the block was rebuilt by 1866. Although the rents provided a
source of income, this building was a constant source of anxiety for the
Thomson brothers as their surviving correspondence of 1871-74 reveals.
The building burned again in 1901 and in 1907 a large superstructure
containing the Grosvenor Restaurant designed by J.H. Craigie of Clarke,
Bell & Craigie was added, giving the present name to the building.
Interior altered 1958 and again damaged by fire 1967; facade only
retained (and mutilated) in new development 1992.
For photographs, go here.
GORDON STREET / ALSTON STREET
‡Unexecuted design for warehouse and shops, for Henry Leck,
c.1873-74
ATSN no.14 December 1995
A. & G. Thomson & Turnbull made drawings for “proposed
warehouses & shops, east corner of Alston and Gordon Streets” for
Henry Leck, who had acquired property on the south side of Gordon Street
in 1872-73. This was shrewd, as the land was needed for the proposed new
terminus of the Caledonian Railway which obtained its Act in 1873. The
following year, Thomson gave evidence on property values on behalf of
Leck in his claim for compensation against the railway company. Alston
Street and Leck’s properties disappeared when Glasgow Central Station
was built in 1875-78. Thomson’s drawings do not survive; Leck’s
papers are at Glasgow City Archives.
GOVAN STREET FREE CHURCH, see BALLATER STREET
485-503 GOVAN ROAD / 2-6 CARMICHAEL STREET
†?New block of tenements, c.1872
Demolished
Walker; G&W
GRANTLY TERRACE, see 196-200 KILMARNOCK ROAD
1-11 GREAT WESTERN TERRACE, GREAT WESTERN ROAD
New terrace of eleven houses, for William Henderson, builder, and/or
James Whitelaw Anderson, landowner, 1867-77
George; Amelia; Memorial; Gildard; Barclay*; Builder 31st December
1910*; The Architects' & Builders' Journal 13th May 1914*; A.E.
Richardson, 'Architecture: The Classic Tradition,' in G.M. Young, ed.,
Early Victorian England 1830-1865, London 1934, vol.ii, p.206; Stewart;
J.M. Reid, Glasgow, London 1956*; Architects' Journal 6th May 1964*;
Worsdall; McFadzean*; Michael Donnelly, Glasgow Stained Glass, a
preliminary study, Glasgow 1981; G&W*; McKean*; BofS; J.H.D. Horne,
Macdiss 1984; Karen Lambert, Macdiss 1995; S&McK*; ATSN no.8 October
1993, no.12 January 1995, Brian Park in no.13 May 1995*, Colin McKellar
in no.15 January 1996 & no.(21) May 1998; List
The grandest terrace in Glasgow: an unprecedented composition of
large two-storey houses on a terrace but with two pairs of three-storey
houses placed neither at the ends nor in the centre. For Albert
Richardson, Thomson “here... showed the greatest restraint and it is
no exaggeration to say that a finer example of Victorian architecture of
similar character does not exist.” Gildard, in discussing the
abstraction of the design and the remorseless regularity of the
fenestration, noted that “the windows have no dressings, but Greek
goddesses could afford to appear undressed...” Henderson was the
developer of Great Western Terrace but he died insolvent in 1870 before
any houses were finished, so Thomson's client, legally, was Anderson, a
power loom cloth manufacturer, who owed £263 at Thomson's death (paid
in 1877).
Eight houses were completed during Thomson's lifetime; nos
9-11 were built later and finished internally under the direction of J.J.
Burnet. No.7 was decorated by Thomson, possibly with Daniel Cottier, for
the publisher, Robert Blackie; Thomson wrote to his brother in 1872 that
“We have had a very tedious and bothersome business with Robert
Blackie's House in Great Western Terrace. Rodger and he are working at
cross purposes and I dont know how matters will be settled - We are now
getting on with the painting of it with the Brothers Orr in the usual
pernickitty way.” (Rodger was presumably of the firm of Murdoch &
Rodger, solicitors.) No.8 was later occupied by Sir William Burrell, who
employed Robert Lorimer to spoil the interior; No.4, occupied by 1871 by
James W. Macgregor, retired tobacco merchant, retains a double-height
hall by Thomson (as well as Gothic work, possibly by Middleton, of
Cheltenham, by whom there is a similar room in the Bowes Museum, County
Durham) and was restored by Page & Park 1994 after compulsory
purchase by Glasgow District Council. New retaining wall to forecourt
terrace combined with modification and reorientation of staircases at
ends designed by James Stevens Curl for William Whitfield in 1973 to
allow for the widening of Great Western Road.
680-701 GREAT WESTERN ROAD / KERSLAND STREET
?New terrace of houses, c.1870-75
Walker
No documentary evidence
1-9 NORTHPARK TERRACE, 35-51 HAMILTON DRIVE, Hillhead
New terrace of nine houses, for William Henderson, 1863-65
Memorial; Worsdall; McFadzean*; G&W*; BofS; Peter Reed, 'The
Victorian Suburb' in Peter Reed, ed., Glasgow: The Forming of the
City,
Edinburgh 1993; List; Colin McKellar in ATSN no.(21) May 1998*
Built on the site of Northpark House between two pre-existing lengths
of Hamiltonpark Terrace.
NORTH PARK
‡Unexecuted feuing plan for development, 1862
Plan in Mitchell
McFadzean
The plan was “prepared to shew a proposed improvement in the
boundary between North Park Lands and the Botanic Garden.”
SESSIONAL SCHOOL, COLLEGE OPEN, HIGH STREET
†New schoolhouse, for Blackfriars Parish, 1854
Demolished 1870s?
Building Chronicle 5th June 1854 p.24; Builder 12th August 1854,
p.425; Walker; Worsdall; McFadzean
According to the Builder, this was “a schoolhouse in the vicinity
of the College Church, High-street, in the old Scottish style;
architects, Messrs. Baird and Thomson.” The Building Chronicle noted
that it was in a “style of architecture similar to that of the
University, to which it is contiguous.” The 1st edition 1:500 Ordnance
Survey map, surveyed in 1857, gives the plan of the class rooms of the
‘College School’ on a confined site to the south-west of the College
Church, accessible from the College Open off the High Street. It lay
just south of the buildings of the old College and was presumably
removed along with them after the University debunked to Gilmorehill.
(off) HIGH STREET
‡Schematic proposal for tenements with glass-roofed streets for
Glasgow City Improvement Trustees - see under IDEAL SCHEMES AND
UNIDENTIFIED DESIGNS
HOLMWOOD HOUSE, see NETHERLEE ROAD, Cathcart
190-192 HOSPITAL STREET, Hutchesontown, see CALEDONIA ROAD CHURCH
DIXON STREET / HOWARD STREET, ST ENOCH SQUARE
Unexecuted design for warehouse partly in cast-iron, for John Blair,
hatmaker, c.1851-52
Two elevation drawings in Mitchell
Henry-Russell Hitchcock, 'Early Cast-Iron Facades', Architectural
Review cix, February 1951*; Law*; McFadzean*; G&W; AA*; McKean*;
S&McK*; ATSN no.20 January 1998*
This remarkable and celebrated project for a warehouse with large
areas of iron-framed glazing survives only in two drawings in the
Mitchell Library collection. The dating is uncertain; but both are
watermarked 1851 and one, labelled 'Elevation to Dixon Street' is signed
'Baird & Thomson' with the 112 Hope Street address, which the
architects left in c.1853. The two elevations depict slightly different
schemes, one with an additional floor, but both are in the same
abstracted Grecian manner. The client also commissioned Baird &
Thomson to build The Knowe in Albert Drive, Pollokshields, q.v.
For images, go here.
BLAIRS, 17-19 DIXON STREET / 32-38 HOWARD STREET, ST ENOCH SQUARE
†New warehouse with shops below, for John Blair, hatmaker, 1853
Demolished 1966
Survey drawings of 1901 by John Nisbet, architect, and of 1951 by
James Bunyan, architect, in Glasgow City Archives in Mitchell
Worsdall; G&W; McFadzean; Dominic d'Angelo in ATSN no.20 January
1998*
As built, the warehouse for John Blair had solid stone facades, with
a symmetrical range along Howard Street with a central porch; only a
short range in Dixon Street was executed which may have been intended to
continue further south. The low attic towers show the influence of von
Klenze’s Propylaeum in Munich but the treatment of the corner panels
below as an abstracted grid, responding to vertical and horizontal
continuities, was quite novel while the handling of the curved corner
was subtle and unusual. This would seem to have been Thomson’s first
executed Grecian design as well as his first important urban building.
It was later occupied by Cooper & Co., general merchants.
For images, go here.
WESTBOURNE TERRACE, 29-31 HYNDLAND ROAD
New terrace of 10 houses, for J.W. Anderson?, and David Clow, 1870-71
Memorial; Gildard; Worsdall; McFadzean*; G&W*; BofS; S&McK*;
List
Built on land belonging to J.W. Anderson (see Great Western Terrace);
four houses complete at 1871 census; nos.1 & 2 built by David Clow,
no.3 was purchased by James Murdoch of Murdoch & Rodger, writers. A
masterly, monumental essay in asymmetry within overall symmetry and the
first terrace in which Thomson incorporated the bay window, at first
floor level. Cast-iron railings and lamps restored 1994.
FOUNTAIN, KELVINGROVE PARK
‡Unexecuted competition design for Loch Katrine Monument, 1870
Building News 16th September 1870 pp.209; McFadzean; ATSN no.(21) May
1998*
An entry was submitted by ‘Athenian’ which was the pseudonym used
by Thomson in the South Kensington Museum competition, q.v. The Glasgow
correspondent of the Building News [Gildard?] was
“immediately
attracted by a large drawing (about 10ft. by 7ft.) which, along with a
number of smaller ones, illustrates a design in the greek style. It is
under the motto 'Athenian,' but its author is at once identified as a
gentleman who has long been celebrated for his successful treatment of
that style. It consists of a basin 200ft. in diameter, round which lions
are placed at intervals. On the stage above this are placed serpents,
and above this again rises a Doric temple, measuring 42ft. across. This
is surmounted by a second temple, surrounded by eagles, from the top of
which rises, amid a cluster of palm leaves, a huge pole like the mast of
a vessel, which, at the height of 100ft. from the ground, breaks out
again into palm leaves, and, rising 20ft. or 30ft. higher, throws into
the air a jet of water. From the base of this pole water is thrown into
the outer basin in a circle about 100ft. in diameter. This design is the
most imposing and, I may add, the most expensive.”
A elevation on
tracing paper pasted into the sketchbook of Thomson's son John, begun in
1876, corresponds with the description of this lost design. In the
event, no prize was awarded and, after a second competition, a rather
more modest Stewart Memorial Fountain commemorating the introduction of
water from Loch Katrine was designed by James Sellars and erected
1871-72.
'THE SIXTY STEPS', KELVINSIDE TERRACE WEST / QUEEN MARGARET PLACE
New public stairway and retaining wall, 1872
Daily Record 1936; Worsdall; Henry Brougham Morton, A Hillhead
Album,
Glasgow 1973*; McFadzean*; List
The new stairway - known as ‘The Sixty Steps’ - connected with
the Queen Margaret Bridge or Walker's Bridge across the River Kelvin,
erected in 1870 and demolished in 1970. Originally there were cast-iron
lamps to the same exotic design as on the front of the Queen’s Park
Church, q.v. removed during the Second World War as scrap-metal.
DARNLEY TERRACE, 98-130 KILMARNOCK ROAD, Shawlands
†?New terrace of five houses, 1854
Demolished c.1965
Attribution by Worsdall; in Tudor style. According to Mrs Stewart,
who erroneously named the buildings Bute Terrace, Thomson and his family
moved into No.4 from South Apsley Place in Hutchesontown in 1857 and
lived here until the house in Moray Place, q.v., was ready - at the 1861
Census Thomson was at No.3 Darnley Terrace. In the recollections of
Joanna Logie [National Trust for Scotland], 1994, she recalled her
grandparents’ generation and how
“I would be shown houses which ‘father’
had built. They also taught me not to look at shops at street level but
to look up at the architecture. And of course going into town on
tramcars, the wonderful old tenements on Eglinton Street & down
Cumberland St. which were slums by then. Also, Darnley Terrace in
Shawlands where the shopping centre now stands and where they lived
before Moray Place was built.”
GRANTLY TERRACE, 196-200 KILMARNOCK ROAD / 1 CARMENT DRIVE, Pollokshaws
?New block of tenements, or ‡unexecuted design for new tenements,
1878 or c.1861
Amelia
Single storey shops now built in front; subsequently balanced by a
similar block on the opposite, south corner of Carment Drive; Nos 1
& 2 Grantly Terrace were occupied by the time of the 1881 Census and
the plot had been feued to the firm of J. & T. Barrie in 1878, so
making any attribution to Thomson rather than to Turnbull highly
unlikely; yet “Grantly Terrace” was listed in the memoir apparently
written by his daughter; the fact that it was not cited in the similar
memoir prepared by the Revd John Stark for the Thomson Memorial implies
that this was a mistake. The Charter of Novodamus of October 1877 by Sir
William Stirling Maxwell and a Disposition in July 1861 by Sir John
Maxwell to John Stewart suggests that Thomson might have been involved
in earlier proposals to develop this site.
KING STREET, see GIBSON STREET
MARIA VILLA or DOUBLE VILLA, LANGSIDE, see MANSIONHOUSE ROAD
LANGSIDE ACADEMY, LANGSIDE AVENUE, see CAMPHILL AVENUE
QUEEN’S PARK U.P. CHURCH, LANGSIDE ROAD
†New church and hall, for Queen's Park United Presbyterian Church
congregation, 1868-69
Builder: John McIntyre
£6,922:6:2d (including architects' fee of £314:5:0d)
Destroyed by enemy action, 24th March 1943.
Perspective (damaged) at GSA; measured drawings by A. Rollo 1899
& John Jeffrys 1930 at RCAHMS; drawing of the entrance by William J.
Anderson in private collection: this was published as the frontispiece
of his Architectural Studies in Italy, Glasgow 1890, as Anderson's
measured drawings of the church, made in 1887, subsequently lithographed
and now lost, won him the first Alexander Thomson Travelling
Studentship.
Building News 7th February 1868 p.91 & 11th September 1868;
British Architect 1st May 1874, p.282*; J. Logan Aikman, Historical
Notices of the United Presbyterian Congregations in Glasgow, Glasgow
1875; Memorial; Building News 13th April 1888* & 27th April 1888*;
Gildard; APSD; Evening Times 9th October 1893; Architecture, i, 1896,
pp.58-60 (Anderson's drawing of entrance)*; Barclay*; Builder 31st
December 1910*; Queen's Park East United Free Church Glasgow Jubilee
Book 1867-1917, Glasgow 1918*; Glasgow Herald 22nd December 1924*;
Andrew L. Drummond, The Church Architecture of Protestantism, Edinburgh
1934*; Glasgow Herald 25th March 1943*; British Weekly 27th May 1943;
Law*; Stewart; Francis Worsdall, '"Greek" Thomson', Scottish
Field, cxxiii, February 1962*; Worsdall; Crook*; G&W*; McFadzean*;
Frank Worsdall, The City That Disappeared, Glasgow 1981*; Michael
Donnelly, Glasgow Stained Glass, a preliminary study, Glasgow 1981; AA*;
McKean*; Sally Joyce Rush in S&McK*; Dominic d'Angelo in ATSN no.9
February 1994*, no.19 August 1997*; Glendinning, MacInnes &
MacKechnie, A History of Scottish Architecture, Edinburgh 1996*
Thomson’s most extraordinary, inventive and richly decorated
church. Congregation founded in 1866; the church was built for 1,200
sittings in 1868-69 following the appointment of the Revd William Sprott
as minister in 1867 [see Craigton Cemetery]. Early in 1868, the author
of ‘Gossip from Glasgow’ in the Building News [Gildard?], in
discussing the “Battle of the Styles,” recorded that “we are to
have a competition strictly limited - limited not as to ‘natural
selection,’ but as to style, ‘Grecian or Gothic’ having been
discovered by some United Presbyterians to be the only style worthy of
such a building as a church.” This presumably referred to the Queen’s
Park Church as he later noted that, “in the battle of the styles Greek
has just accomplished another rather considerable triumph...” as, in
the competition, “Messrs. Thomson entered Greek, and, notwithstanding
all the eloquence that has been expended in enforcing again and again
that Gothic is the only style for churches, the Classic conquered”
(although the design was as much Egyptian as Greek).
The church was
opened in November 1869; Aikman noted that, “besides the ordinary
galleries at each side and at one end, there is a gallery behind the
platform, and a second tier opposite. The artificial lighting is
peculiar. The platform is lighted by candelabra, but the body of the
Church by jets, projecting, at intervals of seven inches, from piping
laid on two sides, and one end along the entablature. The interior
finishing is wholly of wood, no plaster whatever being in any part of
the building, and, with the exception of an ornament over each door to
the platform, there is no carving. The decoration is obtained by designs
in colour, from drawings by the architects. The effect of the interior
is rich and harmonious, and is among the best expressions in this
country of the spirit of Greek art.” The font was the work of J.&
G. Mossman and the polychromatic interior decoration together with the
stained glass windows carried out in collaboration with Daniel Cottier.
In 1893 the Glasgow Evening Times recorded that Ford Madox Brown had
seen inside the church in 1883 and said that “I want nothing better
than the religion that produced art like that. Here line and colouring
are suggestive of Paradise itself... Well done Glasgow! I put... this
Thomson-Cottier church above everything I have seen in modern Europe.”
The glazing above the entrance consisted of two continuous strips of
glass, the inner one patterned, with virtually no mullions, placed
between and independent of the free-standing stone columns on the
outside and the two internal rows of thin iron internal columns which
supported the dome: “Who else would have dared to carry that heavy
stone dome, or whatever you call the object that crowns the church, on
clusters of iron columns coming down through a gallery,” Henry-Russell
Hitchcock wrote to Graham Law in 1950. In 1880 the interior was altered
by Alexander Skirving to accommodate an organ and an additional hall
built to the rear of the church; interior restored 1884? W.J. Anderson’s
measured drawings of the church were exhibited at South Kensington and
at the Glasgow Exhibition in 1888. In 1900 it became the Queen's Park
East United Free Church and in 1929 Queen's Park St George's Church. In
1924 the organ was reconstructed and enlarged with a new organ screen
and the interior decoration restored under the direction of Thomson's
son John together with his older sister Elizabeth Forrest:
“In the
decoration of the building the original scheme of outline and colouring
has been faithfully copied, lavish use being made of the Greek key, the
honeysuckle flower, and lotus leaf. On the front of the gallery there is
a beautiful example of eastern ornamentation in the combination of
honeysuckle and lotus in varied forms, the length of it being relieved
at intervals by panels of gold, centred with rosettes of honeysuckle. In
the roof the colouring of the flat beam at the edge is a very early form
of Egyptian ornament, while the centre of the roof represents the azure
sky with a multitude of stars. This symbol of the open heavens is also
found under the vestibule. The roofs over and under the gallery are
embellished with bright ornamentation, and the whole scheme gives a
strikingly beautiful effect.”
The destruction of this church by
incendiary bombs was Scotland's worst architectural loss of the Second
World War; William Power wrote to Graham Law in 1949 that “it might
have escaped destruction but for the fact that when it was built there
was a plasterers’ strike on so the building was completely lined with
wood, which went up in a wild blaze.”
For images and further information, go here.
For a talk given on the fiftieth anniversary of the church's
destruction, go here.
LILYBANK HOUSE, see 40 BUTE GARDENS
MARIA VILLA or 'DOUBLE VILLA', 25 & 25A MANSIONHOUSE ROAD, Langside
New pair of semi-detached houses, with †coachhouse, ?for Henry
Watson, clothier, 1856-57
£2,249:11:4½d
Drawings (of modified design) in Blackie*
Architect 19th June 1869 p.318*; Memorial; Gildard; Barclay; Law;
Worsdall; McFadzean*; S. Clarke & G.A. Grams, Macdiss. 1983*; AA*;
McKean*; John McKean, '"Greek" Thomson's Double Villa' in The
Architects' Journal 19th February 1986*; G&W*; BofS; Ian Gow, The
Scottish Interior, Edinburgh 1992, pp.94-95; S&McK*; List
One of Thomson's most innovative and celebrated designs: two houses
of identical plan, with one rotated through 180°, to create two pairs
of identical asymmetrical elevations on what is seemingly a single
Picturesque Grecian villa. The whole house was originally known as ‘Maria
Villa, Langside Hill’. At the 1861 Census, Henry Watson, ‘clothier’
(of Lockharts & Watson), and his wife Maria were in one house and
James Gibb, ‘landed proprietor’, in the other half. The Architect in
1869 noted “some of the peculiarities of Scottish planning, notably
the down-stairs bed-room and the upstairs drawing-room.” The
coachhouse next to entrance in Millbrae Road demolished 1973; lower part
of garden next Millbrae Road built over with flats late 1980s. An
unexecuted feuing plan for Langside of 1853, for Neale Thomson of
Camphill, with inner and outer crescents of villas, had been prepared by
Alexander George Thomson.
303-321 MARYHILL ROAD / 2 HENDERSON STREET
?New block of tenements
Demolished??
Walker
No documentary evidence
QUEEN'S CROSS, 504-554 MARYHILL ROAD / 897-925 GARSCUBE ROAD
†New block of tenements with shops below, 1875
Demolished in phases c.1980
McFadzean; Iain B. Miller 'Three Thomson Tenements' Macdiss 1980*;
AA*; S&McK*
Large block of four-storey tenements running along two streets, with
a two-storey shop placed at the acute corner, completed in 1875. The
Queen's Cross Church designed by C.R. Mackintosh for Honeyman &
Keppie later rose on the opposite side of Garscube Road.
MARYWOOD (PRINCES) SQUARE, Strathbungo, see under OBJECTS: LAMPPOST
MATHIESON STREET, Hutchesontown
?New hall, for Missionary Association of the Caledonia Road Church,
1871
J. Logan Aikman, Historical Notices of the United Presbyterian
Congregations in Glasgow, Glasgow 1875
Demolished
In his account of the Caledonia Road Church, q.v., Aikman recorded
that "the Missionary Association of the Church, after having
carried on evangelistic work in the destitute localities in and near to
Commercial Road, where they were cradled as a congregation, erected, at
considerable expense, commodious Mission premises in Matheson Street in
1871." As Thomson had been one of the original elders of and
worshipped at the Caledonia Road Church, it is surely likely that he was
involved with the design of this mission hall, which was on the east
side of the street, just north of Rutherglen Road.
GARROWHILL HOUSE, MAXWELL DRIVE, Baillieston
?Alterations
Worsdall
An 18th century house, now the Garrowhill Institute in the centre of
the Garrowhill housing estate.
26 MAXWELL DRIVE, Pollokshields
?†New villa, 1850s
Demolished before 1970
List
Attribution on stylistic grounds; David Walker remembers an “extraordinary
development of Seymour Lodge design with timber bays cantilevered out
close to ground. Thomson style gatepiers.”
99-101 MAXWELL STREET / 19 FOX STREET
†?Alterations to ground floor
?Demolished
Worsdall
Alterations to an 18th century house, later the Iona Community House;
McFadzean writes (1998) of "Huge door pieces with glazed areas
either side. This was really a shop front."
2-38 MILLBRAE CRESCENT
?New terrace of houses, c.1876-77
McFadzean; G&W; BofS; List
A long curved terrace by the White Water of Cart, terminated by twin
gabled bays at either end; paired porches with a central Egyptian column.
Possibly designed by Thomson and carried out by Robert Turnbull after his
death. Iron railings &c. restored 1995-96.
40-46 MILLBRAE CRESCENT
?New terrace of four houses, c.1877
Walker; G&W; List
Reference in Sederunt Book: Alexander Thomson, 24th November 1876
[Glasgow City Archives] to three self-contained houses in Millbrae
Crescent: loans of £650 were granted on each by the Trustees and George
Thomson's Commissioners were involved.
OAKLEA, MILLBRAE ROAD
?New villa
Worsdall
An early Italianate house.
84-92 MILLER STREET
?New warehouse, c.1877
G&W
Probably by Turnbull in style of Thomson.
MONTGOMERIE QUADRANT, see CLEVEDEN ROAD
1-10 MORAY PLACE, Strathbungo
New terrace of ten houses, for Alexander Thomson(?), John McIntyre,
builder, & William Stevenson, quarrier, c.1859-61
Builder: John McIntyre
about £5,600?
Drawings of No.1 Moray Place with extension by John Binnie Wilson
1900 in Glasgow City Archives
Amelia; Memorial; Gildard, Law*; Hitchcock*; Stewart; J.M. Reid,
Glasgow, London 1956*; Architects' Journal 6th May 1964* & 20th
November 1974*; Worsdall; G&W*; Crook*; McFadzean*; Thomas Thomson,
Macdiss. 1980*; AA*; McKean*; BofS; Gavin Stamp, 'Sash windows, Moray
Place' in Architects' Journal 27th November 1991*; Stamp in S&McK*;
Glendinning, MacInnes & MacKechnie, A History of Scottish
Architecture, Edinburgh 1996*; List
Described by Henry-Russell Hitchcock as "with little question
the finest of all 19th century terraces, both in design and execution,
and one of the world's most superb pieces of design based on Greek
precedent" and possibly the first speculative terrace in which
Thomson had an interest, although this is not certain. Two storey
symmetrical composition, with the end houses having projecting
temple-fronted bays; intervening houses unified by first-floor
colonnade, with every sixth interval blank at position of party wall.
Special tall chimney-pots with lotus-shaped tops. Built on site parallel
to pre-existing railway cutting (line opened 1848). Thomson himself and
his family moved into No.1 Moray Place in 1861; John Shields, his
measurer, took No.3 and No.2 was bought by John McIntyre. After the
death of Thomson's widow, Jane Nicholson, in 1899, No.1 was extended
with a wing designed by John Binnie Wilson in 1900. The two end houses -
nos.1 & 10 - cost £710; the intervening houses £510-525. All
interiors detailed by Thomson and most survive intact; cast-iron lamps
between pairs of front doors subsequently removed - a modern restored
cast is now in the garden of no.10, Treemain Road, Whitecraigs, Glasgow.
11-17 MORAY PLACE
?New terrace of houses, 1864-65
G&W; List
Possibly by A. & G. Thomson but the crudeness of the design
compared with 1-10 Moray Place makes an attribution to Alexander Thomson
himself unlikely; local tradition insists that the first terrace in
Moray Place was too expensive and that Thomson was not permitted to
design the subsequent terraces built in the Regent Park development.
REGENT PARK, Strathbungo
?Feuing plan, for John McIntyre & William Stevenson, c.1860
Plans in Mitchell
Maurice Lindsay, 'Strathbungo, Glasgow', Scottish Field January 1977;
BofS; Peter Reed, 'The Victorian Suburb' in Peter Reed, ed., Glasgow:
The Forming of the City, Edinburgh 1993
1-10 Moray Place was the first part of the Regent's Park development
on land feued from Sir John Maxwell between the Glasgow, Neilston &
Barrhead Direct Railway (1848) and the new Queen's Park. Local tradition
insists that Thomson laid out the streets: Moray Place and the parallel
streets off Pollokshaws Road: Regent Park Square, Queen Square &
Princes (Marywood) Square. The first unexecuted feuing plan of 1858 was
for detached villas and was made by Thomas Kyle, who may have made
subsequent plans. Thomson' seems not to have been responsible for any
buildings other than the first terrace in Moray Place. A street
lamp-post probably designed by Thomson and cast by the Oak Foundry
survives in Marywood Square (another is in Queen's Drive), q.v. under OBJECTS.
MOSSMAN'S STUDIO, see NORTH FREDERICK STREET
GLASGOW NECROPOLIS: BEATTIE MONUMENT
New tomb monument, for the congregation of the St Vincent Street
Church, c.1867-70
Made by J. & G. Mossman
Memorial; Worsdall; Mossman; McFadzean; Alexander Stoddart in S&McK*
Thomson’s most impressive and innovative cemetery monument. The
Revd Alexander Ogilvie Beattie, who died in 1858, was the minister of
the Gordon Street U.P. Church and, had he lived, would have been the
first minister of the St Vincent Street Church, whose congregation, in
1867, subscribed £75 to both the Beattie and Middleton monuments in the
Necropolis. The monument is placed on a slope and rises from a
projecting plinth of cyclopaean masonry.
GLASGOW NECROPOLIS: BLACKIE MONUMENT
?New monument for Robert Blackie, publisher
Made by J. & G. Mossman
Mossman
In 1877, 65 letters were cut and gilded on a granite monument in the
Necropolis for Mr Blackie of Stanhope Street.
GLASGOW NECROPOLIS: INGLIS MONUMENT
?New tomb monument, for John Inglis, c.1868
Made by J. & G. Mossman
Worsdall
Thomsonian obelisk raised by John Inglis for his wife, A?? Macnab,
who died in 1868.
GLASGOW NECROPOLIS, ?MALLOCH MONUMENT
?New grave monument, for Charles Malloch, 1871
£56
Made by J. & G. Mossman
Mossman
Charles Malloch was a generous subscriber to the Alexander Thomson
Memorial. Mossman's records note that in 1871 he had decided on a
monument, and in 1875 had 45 letters cut on the Blyths Monument in the
Necropolis.
GLASGOW NECROPOLIS: MIDDLETON MONUMENT
New tomb obelisk, for the congregation of the St Vincent Street
Church, c.1867
Memorial; Alexander Stoddart in S&McK*
Damaged by theft of bronze plaques
The Revd George Marshall Middleton, first minister of the St Vincent
Street Church died in 1866 and the following year the congregation
subscribed £75 for both this and the monument to the Revd A.O. Beattie
in the Necropolis.
GLASGOW NECROPOLIS: MITCHELL MONUMENT
?New grave monument, for J.D. Mitchell, 1876
Made by J. & G. Mossman
Mossman
Thomson & Turnbull designed the "large granite ledger"
placed over a vault for Mr Mitchell of Howard Street; at the same time
the "upper part of monument" was taken down, refaced and the inscription
recut.
GLASGOW NECROPOLIS: STEEL MONUMENT
?New tomb monument, for executors of James Steel
Made by J. & G. Mossman, c.1858
Attribution by Worsdall
GLASGOW NECROPOLIS: STRANG MONUMENT
?New tomb monument, for executors of John Strang
Made by J. & G. Mossman, c.1863
Attribution by Worsdall
HOLMWOOD HOUSE, 61-63 NETHERLEE ROAD, Cathcart
New villa, for James Couper, paper manufacturer, 1857-58
House: £2,608:4:11d; stable, green house & outbuildings:
£1,009:19:6d; gates: £75:2:0d
Drawings (of modified design) in Blackie*; cartoons for dining room
frieze in Mitchell
Builder 4th July 1868 p.482 (review of Blackie); Amelia; Memorial;
Gildard; APSD; Barclay; Builder 31st December 1910*; Law; Stewart;
McFadzean*; Francis Worsdall, '"Greek" Thomson', Scottish
Field, cxxiii, February 1962*; Worsdall; Francis Worsdall, 'The
Achievement of "Greek" Thomson', Scotland's Magazine, July
1966; Crook*; G&W*; McKean*; Ian Gow, The Scottish Interior,
Edinburgh 1992, p.95*; Ian Gow in S&McK*; Gavin Stamp in Country
Life 20th July 1995*; Anne Ellis in ATSN no.16 May 1996*; Glendinning,
MacInnes & MacKechnie, A History of Scottish Architecture, Edinburgh
1996*; Gavin Stamp in ATSN no.18 February 1997*; List; (Caroline
MacGregor) National Trust for Scotland, 'Holmwood: Management Plan
1996-2001', 1997 (typescript); Gavin Stamp, in 1999 Magazine 2, 1998*;
Gavin Stamp, ‘“At Once Classic and Picturesque...” Alexander
Thomson’s Holmwood’, in Journal of the Society of Architectural
Historians 57:1 March 1998*
Thomson's finest and most elaborate villa was
built for James Couper who, with his brother Robert, owned the Millholm
paper mill in the valley of the White Water of Cart below and who had
earlier lived in Braehead Villa in Netherlee Road, q.v. 'Sunnyside', the
adjacent villa designed by James Smith for Robert Couper, was demolished
in c.1966. Holmwood was orientated towards the view of Cathcart Castle,
demolished by Glasgow District Council in 1980.
Gildard wrote that
"The Holmwood Villa, made familiar to us by Messrs. Blackie’s
book, has deprived us of either asking or answering the question, Is an
architect an artist? If architecture be poetry in stone-and-lime - a
great temple an epic - this exquisite little gem, at once classic and
picturesque, is as complete, self-contained, and polished as a sonnet.
The connecting of the offices with the villa by the unbroken long line
of possibly a garden wall, is an impressive instance of the value of a
continuous horizontality."
The elaborate interior scheme of
polychromatic decoration was designed by Thomson and executed by
Campbell Tait Bowie (there is no firm evidence that Daniel Cottier
worked here); the dining room has a frieze of panels enlarged from John
Flaxman's illustrations of Homer's Iliad while the drawing room was
originally decorated with canvas panels illustrating Tennyson's Idylls
of the King (published 1859) painted by Hugh Cameron (and since lost).
The sculpture on the hall chimneypiece was by George Mossman. According
to Gildard, "besides the decoration, much of the furniture, solid
and textile, was designed by Mr Thomson." Holmwood was altered in
the 1920s by the owner, James Gray; gardener's cottage demolished 1970s.
Acquired by the National Trust for Scotland from the Sisters of Our Lady
of the Missions 1994 and restored by Page & Park architects 1997-98
undoing 1920s alterations and rebuilding the connecting wall.
Publication of the (refined) design for Holmwood in Blackie produced at
least one clone, in Adelaide, South Australia, q.v. Couper was buried in
Old Cathcart Cemetery, q.v.
BRAEHEAD VILLA, 74-76 NETHERLEE ROAD, Cathcart
New pair of semi-detached houses, for Robert Couper, paper
manufacturer, c.1853
Worsdall; Jean Marshall, Why Cathcart?, Glasgow 1969
Attribution confirmed by David Walker; a pair of stone houses in
Thomson's austere Gothic manner, for Robert Couper and his brother
James, owners of the Millholm paper mill, who would later build
Sunnyside and Holmwood House nearby, see above. Worsdall maintained that
it was originally one house and divided in 1855. The Couper brothers
also asked Thomson to build a very similar, semi-detached pair of houses
in Cove (now Ashlea & Ellerslie, q.v.) as summer residences. In the
1858-59 Post Office Directory, Mrs Forbes was at Braehead villa. Front
wall rebuilt in late 1960s for road widening, when the original single
central entrance leading to twin flights of steps to the front gardens
was replaced by entrances at either end.
18-76 NITHSDALE ROAD (TITWOOD PLACE) / 65 NITHSDALE STREET, Strathbungo
New block of tenements with shops below, 1876
McFadzean*; G&W; BofS; S&McK*; List
A very severe design probably designed by Thomson and executed by
Robert Turnbull after his death; three storey tenements running along
Nithsdale Road with a single storey shop with circular pavilion at acute
street corner. Titwood Place was renamed Nithsdale Road when the former
east end of that road became Nithsdale Street.
LORNE TERRACE, 256-280 DARNLEY STREET / 84-124 NITHSDALE ROAD / 281-289
KENMUIR STREET
New block of tenements, c.1871-73-
Builder: John McIntyre?
Building News 13th April 1888, p.528; Walker; Worsdall; McFadzean;
G&W; S&McK*; List; Gillian Dickson, Macdiss. 1998*; Ronald
Smith, Pollokshields: Historical Guide and Heritage Walk, Glasgow 1998*
Very large continuous block of tenements completed by Turnbull after
Thomson's death. Four closes completed at the 1871 Census, and before
his death in 1872, Thomson's friend, the builder John McIntyre, had
moved to Lorne Terrace. In 1888, the Building News mentioned "...
Moray-place... and Lorne-terrace, Nithsdale-road, Pollokshields: both of
these are immediately adjacent to Strathbungo Railway Station, and show
very effective elevations executed at a minimum of cost."
ELLISLAND, 200 NITHSDALE ROAD, Pollokshields
New villa, for William Johnston, gas fitting manufacturer, c.1871
Memorial; Worsdall; McFadzean*; G&W*; McKean*; BofS; S&McK*;
List
Ellisland is a single storey building and unusual not least as
Thomson's only symmetrical villa; Egyptian columns flanking the entrance
with partial polychromy. Interior restored 1990s. The villa was not yet
occupied at the time of the 1871 Census; Johnston's firm, Johnston,
Fraser & Co., were the Thomson brothers' tenants in their Gordon
Street building, q.v.
CASTLEHILL, 202 NITHSDALE ROAD, Pollokshields
New villa, for Robert Young, wholesale provision merchant, c.1871
Memorial; Worsdall; McFadzean*; G&W*; BofS; ATSN no.16 May 1996;
List
This villa was not occupied at the time of the 1871 Census and the
ground was purchased from John McIntyre in November 1871. Possibly
enlarged to the west after initial build, and billiard room added to the
east by Thomson. Decorative timber infill to gable ends removed, c.197?
12-24 NORFOLK STREET / 32-68 GORBALS STREET / OXFORD STREET, Gorbals
Cross
†New block of tenements, with shops below, 1874
Demolished 1975
McFadzean*; G&W; ATSN no.8 October 1993; Brian Edwards in S&McK;
Eric Eunson, The Gorbals: An Illustrated History, Ochiltree 1996*
Part of the Glasgow City Improvement scheme in the Gorbals planned by
the City Architect, John Carrick, with new splayed corners at Glasgow
Cross. Under the 1865 proposals, Norfolk Street was continued eastwards
to Main Street, renamed Gorbals Street, replacing Malta Street; Oxford
Street was extended eastwards to replace Kirk Street. Thomson's tenement
continued the facade design of his earlier tenement at 26-44 Norfolk
Street, q.v.
26-44 NORFOLK STREET, Gorbals Cross
†New tenement with shops below, 1860-61
Demolished 1974
McFadzean*; Eric Eunson, The Gorbals: An Illustrated History,
Ochiltree 1996*
STUDIO, CATHEDRAL STREET / 83 NORTH FREDERICK STREET
†New sculptor's studio, for J.& G. Mossman, sculptors, 1854
Demolished c.1893
Measured drawing of North Frederick Street elevation & details by
James B. Fulton 1893 in GSA
Building Chronicle 26th July 1854 p.52; Memorial; Gildard; Thomas
Gildard, 'The late John Mossman' in Proceedings of the Royal
Philosophical Society of Glasgow, 1891-92; Barclay; Walker; Worsdall;
McFadzean; Gavin Stamp in ATSN no.8 October 1993* & Alexander
Stoddart in no.9 February 1994*; Alexander Stoddart in S&McK*
No record of the Cathedral Street elevation of this building survive.
Gildard, who described it, noted that,
"The studio which Mr.
Thomson designed for his old and intimate friend, Mr. Mossman, was one
of his first works that attracted the particular attention of other
architects as art-critics. In quality of composition, if not also of
detail, I do not know if, in any of his subsequent works, he has
surpassed it. The site, the corner of two streets, one of which is
level, the other having a considerable inclination, is taken advantage
of with consummate skill as regards both artistic design and utility.
Along the level street the walling is of cyclopean masonry, pierced by a
doorway which, from its still being on a level with the surface within,
serves the purpose of 'bank' loading, and on each side of it, by three
openings, having broad dwarf pilasters between them, also on each side
of the doorway, the extreme piers being of cyclopean work, part of the
general walling..."
and again,
"The building, not only
characteristic of Thomson's genius at its best, but also costing a
considerable sum, indicates the sympathy which the brothers Mossman had
with the art of Architecture."
After George Mossman's death in
1863, the monument work was removed to another site further east in
Cathedral Street. Worsdall dated the building to 1849-50 and thought it
was demolished in 1875, although Gildard did not say that it had gone
in 1888. Thomson worked closely with both John and George Mossman, and
may have designed the tomb monument to their father, William Mossman, in
Sighthill Cemetery, q.v. John Mossman executed a bust of Thomson at the
age of 30 (in plaster, now owned by the National Trust for Scotland) and
was responsible for the marble bust presented to the Glasgow Corporation
Art Galleries as a memorial in 1877 (now in Kelvingrove Museum).
NORTH PARK & NORTHPARK TERRACE, see HAMILTON DRIVE
ETON TERRACE, 41-53 OAKFIELD AVENUE (WILSON STREET) / 18 GREAT GEORGE
STREET, Hillhead
New terrace of 8 houses, for William Neilson, builder, c.1862-64
Amelia; Memorial; Law*; Worsdall; McFadzean*; G&W; BofS; S&McK*;
ATSN no.13 May 1995; List; Lindsay C. Quinn, Macdiss. 1998*
Thomson's first terrace after Moray Place, q.v., with the end houses
both breaking forward and rising one storey higher; paired porches
inspired by the Choragic Monument of Thrasyllus. Nos.1-7 Eton Terrace
were purchased by the two Mitchells of Mitchell Allardice &
Mitchell, lawyers, in 1862 and six houses were occupied by 1863-64.
Wilson Street was subsequently renamed Oakfield Avenue. Most interiors
modified, and exterior symmetry spoiled by attic dormer windows; some
original features surviving in end house on corner of Great George
Street; most cast-iron lamps and railings removed.
ROYAL HORSE BAZAAR, OTAGO (SMITH) STREET, Hillhead
†New stables, for John E. Walker, funeral undertaker, carriage
hirer, livery stable keeper, coachbuilder &c., 1872-73
Estimate £7,000-8,000
Demolished c.1934
Drawings in Glasgow City Archives in Mitchell
George; Memorial; Gildard; Young's Glasgow Scraps?, vol.ii, p.28;
Walker; Worsdall; McFadzean*; ATSN no.12 January 1995;
In the letter to his brother George, 20th September 1872, Thomson
wrote that "John E. Walker sold his stables in Cambridge Street to
the Tramways Company and bought the Exhibition Buildings in Bath Street
[q.v.] which I converted into Coach House below and stables for about 70
horses above which is now in full operation and he has since bought the
unbuilt portion of Ashfield Ground on which we are now building another
establishment of about equal dimensions - It fronts Smith Street and I
have succeeded in making a very fine Elevation - It is expected to cost
from 7 to 8000 pounds." Smith Street was later renamed Otago
Street, and the stables were on the north corner of what is now Otago
Lane. At the same time Thomson erected a block of tenements further
south in Otago Street for Walker, q.v., and another for Andrew Clow in
Gibson (formerly King) Street, q.v., at the other end of the site owned
by Walker.
79-87 OTAGO (SMITH) STREET, Hillhead
New block of tenements, for John E. Walker, 1874
Drawings in Glasgow City Archives in Mitchell
Walker, McFadzean*
This block lay south of the stables Thomson designed for John E.
Walker, q.v. Details of the facade were either simplified in execution
or since mutilated.
WEST BANK TERRACE, 94-106 OTAGO STREET / 39-47 GIBSON STREET, Hillhead
?†New block of tenements, 1859-60?
Otago Street range demolished 1992; the Gibson Street block 1996
ATSN no.4, June 1992 & no.16 May 1996
The authorship of these tenements is uncertain, with confusion caused
by McFadzean giving this numbering to the Otago Street block designed
for John E. Walker nearby, q.v. Quite possibly, these buildings were not
by Thomson, but the detailing of the windows was, however, unusual and
peculiar. Worsdall dated the block and noted that the demolished West
Bank was the residence of John E. Walker.
1-18 WALMER CRESCENT / 1-5 CESSNOCK STREET, PAISLEY ROAD WEST, Cessnock
New street of tenements, for John Hood, junior, house factor &
insurance agent, c.1857-62
Gildard; Law*; Hitchcock*; Worsdall; Francis Worsdall, 'The
Achievement of "Greek" Thomson', Scotland's Magazine, July
1966*; McFadzean*; Frank Worsdall, The Tenement: A Way of Life,
Edinburgh 1979* (2nd ed. Glasgow 1989*); Iain B. Miller, 'Three Thomson
Tenements' Macdiss. 1980*; G&W*; Chartered Quantity Surveyor vi,
no.12, July 1984*; The Word and the Stones, Glasgow 1990; BofS; S&McK*;
Glendinning, MacInnes & MacKechnie, A History of Scottish
Architecture, Edinburgh 1996*; List
One of Thomson's most abstract designs, entirely without ornament,
forming a crescent but composed entirely of straight elements, both
vertical and horizontal; “occupied exclusively by rich merchants.”
Composition spoiled by later addition of single storey shops across
chord of crescent along Paisley Road West in c.1903-08. Repaired
1983-84.
520-532 PAISLEY ROAD WEST / 53 IBROXHOLME AVENUE
?New block of tenements, 1882-83
Walker
Unlikely attribution; dated by Worsdall.
78-104 PARK ROAD, Kelvinside
New block of tenements, c.1880
Walker; McKean*
Posthumous work, by Turnbull? Attribution denied by McFadzean and now
by David Walker, and BofS says possibly by Horatio K. Bromhead, c.1890.
74 PARTICK HILL ROAD
?New house
G&W
In Rundbogenstil, probably not by Thomson although internal
details may suggest otherwise.
PLEASANCE STREET, Shawlands
†?New block of tenements
Demolished c.1959
Attribution by McFadzean on stylistic grounds.
36-40 POLLOK STREET, 46-72 HOUSTON STREET, 99-103 WATT STREET, Kingston
†New block of tenements begun 1858
Demolished 1980
Walker; G&W
Dated by Worsdall; attribution confirmed by McFadzean on stylistic
grounds.
734-750 POLLOKSHAWS ROAD / 2-8 NITHSDALE ROAD
?New block of tenements
In Thomson’s later manner, but without regularity in fenestration;
dated by Worsdall to before 1870 but no documentary evidence for
attribution.
POLLOK BURGH SCHOOL, 2097 POLLOKSHAWS ROAD
†New school building, later extended, 1855-56
Demolished 1968
Walker; McFadzean; Worsdall; Francis Worsdall, 'The Achievement of
"Greek" Thomson', Scotland's Magazine, July 1966; G&W*;
Frank Worsdall, The City That Disappeared, Glasgow 1981*;
Thomson's last essay in his Italianate or Rundbogenstil
manner: original building by Baird & Thomson and enlarged by John
Baird II in 1874-75; in his letter to John Honeyman of 2nd November 1876
supporting his nomination as a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British
Architects, Baird cited "Pollok Academy, Pollokshaws" in a
list of seven buildings he claimed responsibility for. Later known as
the Pollok School Annexe.
1339, 1349 & 1353 POLLOKSHAWS ROAD, Shawlands
†?New cottages, c.1854
Nos 1339 & 1353 demolished c.1965
Attribution by McFadzean and by Walker. No.1349 Pollokshaws Road is a
smaller version of Craig Ailey, Cove. Similar villas stand or stood in
Hector Road.
QUEEN'S CROSS, see 504-554 MARYHILL ROAD
QUEEN'S DRIVE, see under OBJECTS: LAMPPOST
QUEEN'S PARK CHURCH, see LANGSIDE ROAD
REGENT'S PARK, see MORAY PLACE
5 ROSSLYN TERRACE, Hillhead, or Pollokshields?
Design for internal decoration
Drawing at Mitchell
Ian Gow in S&McK*
This terrace was not designed by Thomson. The design is similar to
that executed in Holmwood House, q.v., and the single surviving drawing
bears instructions about the colours to be used.
ROYAL BANK PLACE, see ROYAL EXCHANGE SQUARE
ROYAL INSURANCE BUILDINGS, 40 ROYAL EXCHANGE SQUARE
†New street front, for T.& G. Frame, accountants, 1872
Destroyed
George; Gildard; Worsdall
T.& G. Frame first appear at 40 Royal Exchange Square,
immediately next to Royal Bank Place, in the Post Office Directory for
1872-73. Thomson was here working in the formal, Classical urban set
piece planned in the 1820s by Archibald Elliott; in the letter to his
brother George of 19th January 1872, possibly referring to this job, he
wrote that "We have begun operations at the Insurance company
property. The Caryatids were objected to by the people at the head
office." Gildard considered that "... the front of Messrs.
Frame's counting house in Royal Bank Place, which, although apt to be
overlooked in the hurried business walk, deserves, for at least some
specialities, a careful regard." An undated photograph by Annan of
the Royal Exchange in the Mitchell shows in the background a two-storey
elevation to the return next the arch through to Royal Bank Place, with
a tall window between the pilasters above the stylobate, but when the
Royal Insurance Building in Royal Bank Place was rebuilt in 1895-97 by
Thomson & Sandilands, the Royal Exchange Square elevation had already
been returned to three stories with an entrance. Thomas Frame was the
local manager of the Royal Insurance Co. and a trustee of Thomson's
trust.
LINCOLN VILLA, 15 ST ANDREW'S DRIVE
†New villa, 1851
Demolished 1963
Memorial; Worsdall; McFadzean
One of four cottages ornés.
MANHATTAN COTTAGE, 16 ST ANDREW'S DRIVE
†New villa, 1851
Demolished 1963
Worsdall; McFadzean
One of four cottages ornés.
GREEN GABLES, 18 ST ANDREW'S DRIVE
†New villa, 1851
Demolished 1963
McFadzean; G&W*
One of four cottages ornés.
BEECH VILLA, 20 ST ANDREW'S DRIVE
†New villa, 1851
Demolished 1963
Memorial; Worsdall; McFadzean
One of four cottages ornés.
EASTWOOD & RHODOVA, 28-30 ST ANDREW'S DRIVE
?New double villa
Demolished?
Walker
Symmetrical Classical pair with low-pitched gables. Also nos. 33-33A.
Nos 35-37 by Boucher & Cousland. David Walker recalls that nos. 50
& 55 St Andrew’s Drive played “unusual tricks with the wall
planes” and that 39-41 was a double villa more in the manner of John
Baird II.
164-178 ST GEORGE'S ROAD / 179-181 SHAMROCK STREET
†?New block of tenements, 1858
Demolished 1970
McFadzean
31-39 ST VINCENT PLACE
†New doorcase and railings
Removed c.1870
Gildard; Worsdall
Gildard referred to "the great door-piece in Saint Vincent
Place, for which, because of necessary changes, has lately been
substituted the finely proportioned and detailed column-porch by
Campbell Douglas & Sellars..." and also to "the area
railing in Saint Vincent Place, although now it wants its finials"
The lower part of the present building dates from 1870-73.
THE ST VINCENT STREET U.P. CHURCH, 265 ST VINCENT STREET / PITT STREET
New church, for the Gordon Street United Presbyterian Church
congregation, 1857-59; hall completed 1867-68
Builder: William Wylie
£15,916:0:3¼d (excluding the cost of the land), plus professional
fees of £1,207:7:2d (architects' fee £420)
Measured drawings by Larmont Douglas Penman published in the Glasgow
Architectural Association Sketch Book vol.iii, Glasgow 1888, &
vol.iv, Glasgow 1894, and in Barclay
Building Chronicle 1st April 1856 p.44, March 1857 p.175 & April
1857 pp.189-190; J. Logan Aikman, Historical Notices of the United
Presbyterian Congregations in Glasgow, Glasgow 1875; St Vincent Street
U.P. Church Annual Reports, passim.; J. Moyr Smith, 'The Style of the
Future', Building News 16th April 1875; British Architect 16th April
1875; [Revd J.E.H. Thomson] Memoir of George Thomson, Cameroon Mountain,
West Africa, by one of his nephews, Edinburgh 1881; Amelia; Memorial;
Gildard; APSD; Barclay*; Robert Small, History of the Congregations of
the United Presbyterian Church from 1733 to 1900, Edinburgh 1904, vol.ii,
p.64; The Architects' & Builders' Journal 13th May 1914*; James
Fleming, Historical Sketch of the St Vincent Street United Free Church
Congregation, Glasgow, Glasgow 1916*; Glasgow Herald 15th October 1923;
Builder 11th April 1924*; Joseph Addison, 'Some Aspects of Greek
Architecture, Including a Study of the Neo-Grec Style in Europe',
Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, xxxix, 9th January
1932, pp.178-9*; Weekly Herald 24th March 1934; J.M. Reid, Glasgow,
London 1956*; Glasgow Herald 1st & 5th November 1957; The Bulletin
26th October 1957 & 30th January 1960; Glasgow Herald 11th February
& 5th November 1965; Worsdall; James Macaulay, 'Greek Thomson in
Danger,' Architectural Review cxxxvi, 1964*; Francis Worsdall, 'The
Achievement of "Greek" Thomson', Scotland's Magazine, July
1966*; Scottish Daily Express 6th October 1967; Glasgow Herald 11th
November 1967; Crook*; McFadzean*; G&W*; McKean*; Andrew Herron,
Historical Directory to Glasgow Presbytery, Glasgow 1984 (typescript in
Mitchell); Maurice Lindsay, Victorian and Edwardian Glasgow, 1987*; BofS*;
S&McK*; Sam McKinstry in ATSN no.8 & passim.* versus James
Stevens Curl in ATSN no.12 January 1995 & passim.* (until no.18
February 1997); ATSN no.19 August 1997*; Glendinning, MacInnes &
MacKechnie, A History of Scottish Architecture, Edinburgh 1996*; List;
Colin McKellar in ATSN no.(21) May 1998
Thomson's only surviving intact church. George Thomson was a member
of the Gordon Street U.P. congregation, which he persuaded both to sell
its church in Gordon Street (formerly Melville Street) built in 1823 to
his firm, A.& G. Thomson in 1856 [see Gordon Street], and to appoint
his brother and himself as architects of the new church further west to
be built with the proceeds. the land was bought from William Henderson,
who had bought it from Lord Blythswood.
The 1881 Memoir of George
Thomson records that
"when Dr Beattie's congregation removed from
Gordon Street to St Vincent Street, they entrusted to George Thomson the
duty of making the plans for the new church. It was really, however, a
joint work: while he supplied the general plan and main features, the
detail was his brother's; as he admitted himself throughout his
brother's disciple, it was easier to secure a harmonious union of each
part to the whole. He had the most complete confidence in the ultimate
success of his brother's theory of architecture, and belief in its
correctness..."
The draft memoir of Thomson by his widow refers to
the
“freedom of treatment as compared with former works, the bold
manner in which the work is adapted to the site and the peculiarity of
the Clerestory of the tower, which latter is to a considerable extent an
alteration by his brother of the original design which had become too
expensive for the building committee to carry out."
The design for
1,192 sittings (1,380 according to Aikman) was approved on 2nd February
1857 and the foundation stone laid the following May; the church was
opened on 16th February 1859. The stone carving was by J.& G.
Mossman; cast-iron work by Weir & McElroy and Robert McConnel &
Co., and painting by C.T. Bowie: Gildard recorded that "... for
some reason, perhaps, more strictly speaking, no reason, the greater
opportunity of decorating the Saint Vincent Street Church was denied to
[Thomson]." Macaulay in 1964 described "rose-pink walls...
vividly embellished with gold and blue and yellow paint." Daniel
Cottier, glazier, worked on finishing the hall below the church in
1867-68, when ornamental lamps were placed outside the Pitt Street
entrance (since removed). Clock placed in the tower in 1884.
First organ
introduced 1892; present organ installed 1904 above existing screen,
which was moved forwards by 5 ft 6 inches under direction of Watson
& Salmond, architects, for £,1561. Thomson designed monuments for
the minister who began the church, the Revd A.O. Beattie, and his
successor, the Revd G.M. Middleton , in the Glasgow Necropolis, q.v. “For
many years the church was one of the wealthiest in the city. Collections
of over £200 on a Sunday were frequently taken at one period, and
contributions of bank notes became so numerous that special glass covers
were put over the collection plates.”
Condition of stonework causing
concern 1934; congregation dissolved 1939 and building sold to the
Glasgow Association of Spiritualists; threatened with demolition and
appeal for restoration launched 1957; tower struck by lightning 2nd
September 1961; building acquired by Glasgow Corporation by
compulsory purchase with government assistance c.1963, repaired,
redecorated and altered by Sir Frank Mears & Partners in 1967-69 and
let to Free Church congregation formerly in Hope Street Free Church.
Transferred to Alexander 'Greek' Thomson Church Trust 1997; put on the
World Monuments Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites 1997.
249-259 ST VINCENT STREET
†New block of tenements with shops below, for William Henderson,
1865-67
Demolished 1967
Memorial; Worsdall; Architectural Review February 1968 p.30;
McFadzean; S&McK*; Colin McKellar in ATSN no.(21) May 1998
Facade contiguous with and harmonious with the north elevation of
the St Vincent Street Church. Owing to Henderson's financial
difficulties, these tenements were not built until after the church. The
block was replaced by part of a commercial development with a tower
designed by Derek Stephenson & Partners, currently being converted
into residential accommodation as 'The Pinnacle'.
187 SANDBANK STREET / 67-77 VIEWMOUNT DRIVE
190-192 SANDBANK STREET / 13-21 CAMPBELL STREET / 3 COTTAR STREET
?New blocks of tenements, 1881-82
Demolished?
Walker
Probably by Turnbull reworking Thomson’s designs for other sites.
SARACEN STREET
?New tenement
Charles McKean in ATSN no.12 January 1995*
Attribution on stylistic grounds. Saracen Street lead to Walter
Macfarlane's Saracen Foundry, which cast much of Thomson's ironwork.
WASHINGTON or WAVERLEY TEMPERANCE HOTEL, 126-132 SAUCHIEHALL STREET
†New block of tenements, with shops below, for William Henderson,
1864-66
Converted to an hotel, for Murdoch & Rodger, solicitors, c.1871
Demolished 1935
Photograph at Mitchell
Amelia; Memorial; APSD; J.M.M. Billing, 'Alexander "Greek"
Thomson: A study of the re-creation of a style' in RIAS Quarterly,
no.62, October 1939*; Worsdall; McFadzean*; G&W*; ATSN no.15 January
1996; Dominic d'Angelo & Colin McKellar in ATSN no.(21) May 1998*
The Washington Temperance Hotel was established here by 1875 and
renamed the Waverley Temperance Hotel in the 1880s. The Sederunt Book
records that Murdoch & Rodger still owed money in 1876 and that A.
& G. Thomson's original estimate for the conversion work was
£2,748:9:10d.
GRECIAN
BUILDINGS, 336-356 SAUCHIEHALL STREET / 1 SCOTT STREET
New block of commercial premises with shops below, for William
Henderson, 1865-68
37?-387 SAUCHIEHALL STREET
?New blocks of tenements, 1850s
Attribution undocumented, but decorative relief panels on these two
subtly articulated flat trabeated facades are the same as those on the
demolished warehouse in Howard Street, q.v.
471-485 SCOTLAND STREET / 14 SLEADS STREET / 1-7 STANLEY STREET
?New block of tenements, 1865-77
Demolished c.1977
Walker; G&W
No documentary evidence.
ATTWOOD MONUMENT, SIGHTHILL CEMETERY
Tomb monument, for James Attwood, confectioner, c.1852
Worsdall
James Attwood purchased two lairs in 1852
MOSSMAN MONUMENT, SIGHTHILL CEMETERY
?New tomb monument, for the Mossman family, c.1851
Made by J. & G. Mossman
This semi-obelisk monument was raised for the sculptor William
Mossman, who died in 1851. As Thomson knew and worked with Mossman's
sculptor sons, designed the studio for J. & G. Mossman, q.v. and
collaborated with George Mossman (died 1863 and also buried here) on the
Garnkirk Urn, q.v., for the Great Exhibition of 1851, it seems probable
that he provided the design for this monument. John Mossman purchased
one lair in 1847 and two more in 1854.
MUIR MONUMENT, SIGHTHILL CEMETERY
?New monument, for Mrs Isabella Muir, 1871
Made and carved by J. & G. Mossman
Mossman
Mrs Muir, of 20 Albert Drive, may have been a friend of Thomson.
PROVAN MONUMENT, SIGHTHILL CEMETERY
Tomb monument, for executors of William Provan, c.1859
Partly destroyed
Memorial; Gildard; Worsdall; Alexander Stoddart in S&McK*
William Provan, wood merchant, died in 1859 and his executors
purchased three lairs in the Sighthill Cemetery that same year; the
monument has been badly vandalised and the raised end portion removed.
STEWART MONUMENT, SIGHTHILL CEMETERY
?New monument, for Mrs Isabella Muir, 1874
Made and carved by J. & G. Mossman
Mossman
Mrs Stewart of Kilcreggan ordered a granite monument. Attribution by
McFadzean.
THOMSON MONUMENT, SOUTHERN NECROPOLIS, Caledonia Road
†?New tomb monument, for Alexander Thomson, c.1854
Disappeared?
Charlotte Hutt, ed., City of the Dead: The Story of Glasgow's
Southern Necropolis, Glasgow 1996
The grave of Alexander Thomson and his family lies unmarked, yet, as
he buried five of his children during his lifetime, it is likely that he
raised a stone over their grave in the Southern Necropolis which has
since been removed. On 17th March 1854, three days after the death of
his eldest child, Agnes, Thomson purchased two lairs - 16768 & 16769
- for six guineas.
In a letter to Mrs W.L. Stewart dated 26th March
1960, Worsdall wrote that
"The family grave is near the centre of
what is called the Western portion and was originally separate, with a
separate entrance, now closed. The company owning the western portion
went into liquidation at the end of the last war, in 1945. It remained
untouched and unguarded for years. It became the playground and gambling
den for the neighbourhood. According to the present curator, about half
the tombstones were broken beyond repair, and rumour finally stated that
a skull had been seen used as a football in Caledonia Rd. Here the
Health authorities stepped in and closed the cemetery. They decided to
remove all remaining stones and turn the site into a park, as had been
done with the old Gorbals burial ground. However, opposition was so
strong that they had to abandon this idea, and instead, they re-erected
wherever possible, the remaining tombstones as far as possible on the
original site, and spent a lot of money on railing it in, levelling it,
etc. It is now quite pleasant. There is, however, definitely no stone on
the grave. This seems very surprising, for money was raised in 1875 to
erect a public memorial and this took the form of a bust, now in the Art
Galleries. Surely the money would have been utilised to erect a stone on
his grave were there not already one. There is certainly a space where a
stone could have been..."
Thomson was buried here on 26th March
1875.
SPRINGBURN ROAD / ELMVALE STREET
†?New block of tenements and shops
Demolished 1980s
Two storey corner shop very similar to that at the acute corner of
the Queen's Cross tenements in Maryhill Road, q.v.
BLACKIE & SON, 17 STANHOPE STREET
†New printing works, for Blackie & Son, publishers, 1870-71
STOCKWELL STREET
?New warehouse with shop below
Demolished
Worsdall
Attribution by Ronald McFadzean; five-bay pilastrade uniting the
second and third floors, but supporting an arcade below the entablature.
55 TANTALLON ROAD (ALBERT ROAD) / 2 DIRLETON AVENUE (MAITLAND PLACE)
?New double villa
Demolished
65 TANTALLON ROAD (ALBERT ROAD) / 1 LETHINGTON AVENUE
?New double villa, 1872-73
Demolished
Attribution by Worsdall and McFadzean, but no documentary evidence
110-116 TAYLOR STREET / 125-135 PARSON STREET
?New block of tenements
Begun 1852
Demolished
Walker
No documentary evidence; dating by Worsdall.
NATIONAL BANK OF SCOTLAND, 8 UNION STREET
†New shop front & ?interior, for the National Bank of Scotland,
c.1870
Demolished c.1929
Building News 21st October 1870, p.293; Rudolph Kenna, Old Glasgow
Streets, Glasgow 1990, p.32*
The Building News noted the "branch office of the National
[Bank]: Union Street, by Messrs A. & G. Thomson." The bank was
on the ground floor of the early 19th century block on the corner of
Argyle Street occupied by the Argyle Hotel.
EGYPTIAN
HALLS, 84-100 UNION STREET
New commercial premises with 4 shops below, for James Henderson
Robertson, iron manufacturer, c.1871-72
84-100 UNION STREET
†Six new cast-iron lamp standards, 1872?
UNIVERSITY, see LONDON: SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM
WALMER CRESCENT, see PAISLEY ROAD WEST
2-16 WATSON STREET / 37-41 GALLOWGATE
?New block of commercial premises with shops below, c.1876
Demolished after fire
Walker
A warehouse built under the Glasgow City Improvement scheme with an
upper arcaded pilastrade similar to that on the (undocumented) building
in Stockwell Street, q.v. and other Thomsonian details, but unlikely to
be by Thomson himself at this date so possibly by Turnbull.
17-23 WATSON STREET
New blocks of commercial premises with shops below, for Gavin Bell
Miller, 1876
39 WATSON STREET / 118-126 BELL STREET
†New block of commercial premises with shops below, for Gavin Bell
Miller, 1876
Demolished 1996
Drawing at Scottish Record Office showing elevations of both blocks
ATSN no.7 June 1993, no.8 October 1993; Brian Edwards in S&McK*;
ATSN no.18 February 1997; List
Two adjacent blocks to a consistent monumental trabeated design (one
now demolished), built as part of redevelopment under the Glasgow City
Improvement scheme. Although the one surviving drawing is dated 1876,
the paper is watermarked 1873 so raising the possibility that this was a
design by Thomson posthumously erected by Turnbull - a possibility
confirmed by the rational economy and sheer elegance of the facades.
Iron-framed interiors behind stone facades; stone doorway from the Bell
Street block salvaged after demolition.
105-107 WEST REGENT STREET / 120-122 WELLINGTON STREET
[†]Large addition to existing house for commercial use, for Murdoch
& Rodger, solicitors, 1872
Interior stripped out 1993; building proposed for replacement by
replica 1998
George; Worsdall; McFadzean; Mark Baines in ATSN no.6 January 1993*;
List
Murdoch & Rodger bought this early 19th century five bay house in
West Regent Street in 1872. Thomson temporarily had his office in this
building while he extended it south along Wellington Street, where a
large new entrance (inspired by Schinkel's at the Charlottenhof in
Potsdam) led to a new staircase. In his letter to his brother George,
20th September 1872, Thomson noted that his new address would be
"112 Wellington Street. I expect that it will make a very nice
office. It is of two apartments up 7 or 8 steps from the street. I am to
have the walls lined with wood for the convenience of sticking up
drawings..." Doorcase & railings in West Regent Street by
Thomson; chimneypieces in extension salvaged 1993, one now installed in
the Parlour at Holmwood House, q.v. The United States’ Consulate was
in 107 West Regent Street, 1882-98.
WESTBOURNE TERRACE, see HYNDLAND ROAD
20-27 WESTBOURNE GARDENS SOUTH
New terrace of houses, c.1879
BofS
Posthumous work? David Walker suggests this was the site of the
proposed “new Terrace at the back of Clow's range,” i.e., Westbourne
Terrace in Hyndland Road, q.v., in 1872, but not fully realised because
the Free Church took part of the site; see IDEAL SCHEMES AND
UNIDENTIFIED DESIGNS.
156 WEST GEORGE STREET
[?‡]Alterations, for Mitchell Allardice & Mitchell, lawyers,
1859
Plans in Glasgow City Archives
ATSN no.13 May 1995
Adaption of lodging house as offices, probably unexecuted.
160 WEST GEORGE STREET / HOPE STREET
Additions, for Mitchell Allardice & Mitchell, lawyers, 1863
Drawings in Glasgow City Archives
ATSN no.13 May 1995
Addition of attic floor and rear extension to existing house for
offices moving from 36 Miller Street to "Moore Place". The
additional floor, built to a slightly different design from the
drawings, still exists as does the new side porch, but the other work
has been subsumed in a further extension along Hope Street.
183 WEST GEORGE STREET
†Reconstruction of older building, for McCraw & Kay, wrights
& builders, c.1861?
Demolished
Worsdall
The office of John Baird I was at 183 West George Street until his
death in 1859 and in 1861 the building was sold to Thomas Kay who then
sold it to his firm, McCraw & Kay, who carried out alterations
probably to Thomson's designs. Ronald McFadzean writes 1998, "only
its front facade was retained and the interior was then gutted to be
replaced by cast-iron columns supporting the floors and allowing
uninterrupted floor spans. A top storey was added and a completely new
rear wall was formed to the back lane. A double doorway was formed
facing West George Street. I have no date or documentary evidence for
this and based my opinion entirely on stylistic evidence." The
office of A.& G. Thomson moved here from 68 Gordon Street, q.v., by
1862 and moved to 122 Wellington Street, q.v. in 1871; Shields &
Duff, measurers, the firm of Thomson's friend John Shields, also had
their office here from 1865-66.
99-107 WEST NILE STREET
New office building with shops below, 1858, or 1874?
Amelia; Memorial; Law; Ronald McFadzean, ‘The Last of the Greek...’
in Glasgow Institute of Architects Yearbook 1975*; McFadzean*; G&W;
BofS; S&McK*; T. Gunasena, Macdiss 1992; List
An austere and abstract
facade, with an upper colonnade of Schinkelesque square piers. Ground
floor shops altered; under restoration 1998.
105-107 WEST REGENT STREET, see 120-122 WELLINGTON STREET
9 WINTON DRIVE
?New house
Walker
Posthumous work, which David Walker refers to as a “Glasgow variant
of the Lenzie house.”
HELENSBURGH, Dunbartonshire
ESKVILLE, 20 Glenfinlas Street
?New villa
Memorial; APSD
An unlikely attribution: in Macneur & Bryden's Directory to
Helensburgh and Neighbourhood for 1875, Eskville was 20 Glenfinlas
Street and occupied by Robert Walker, J.P., a retired cotton spinner;
there is no reference to the house in the 1861 and 1871 Censuses, but
the name appeared in 1881. Later the house was enlarged and divided into
two, but neither half exhibits any evidence of Thomson’s involvement
in the design. According to Law, there were two villas by Thomson in
Helensburgh, but the compilers of the list of works for the Thomson
Memorial may have confused Eskville with ROCKLAND, q.v., as each had a
different but eponymous owner.
ROCKLAND (WEST ROCKBANK or ROCKBANK HOUSE), 150 Clyde Street East
New villa, for ?Robert Walker, 1854
McFadzean*
Thomson's first picturesque villa in his Grecian manner, originally
called Rockbank House (West Rockbank on maps, to distinguish it from
Rockbank, 82 East Clyde Street, immediately to the east) and numbered 80
East Clyde Street; inhabited by Robert Walker, landed proprietor, at the
1861 Census. Walker was a patron of the Helensburgh Horticultural
Society and a director of the local Gas Light Company. Roof eaves
truncated in 1930s and a conservatory added facing the Clyde estuary;
house divided in two in 1980s, with service wing now known as ‘Shoreland’;
interior and porch restored 1997.+
ROCKLAND (WEST ROCKBANK) LODGE, Clyde Street East
New gate lodge and gardener's residence, 1854
Addition of attic storey by T.L. Watson, 1881.
GALLOWAY COTTAGE, 41 Colquhoun Street / Milligs Street
?New cottage, c.1865
Unlikely attribution by Historic Scotland; larger house added to the
east in 1877 by William Spence.
HOLM OF BALFRON, Stirlingshire
see BALFRON
HYDERABAD, Deccan, India
FALAKNUMA PALACE, see under OBJECTS: RAILINGS
JOHNSTONE, Renfrewshire
EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST, Floors Street
?New church, 1874
Gothic in style, and a most unlikely work by Thomson although
drawings, now lost, apparently bore the office address 122 Wellington
Street and an undated letter from R.S.N. Speir to the Bishop, now at the
Glasgow City Archives, refers to “Mr Thomson the architect” The
design was possibly by A.G. Thomson or by Turnbull but David Walker
suggests David Thomson; enlarged with transepts and chancel 1878.
KILCREGGAN, Dunbartonshire
also see COVE
ARDSLOY, Rosneath Road
New villa, 1851
Worsdall; McFadzean; Frank Arneil Walker with Fiona Sinclair, The
North Clyde Estuary, RIAS Edinburgh 1992
Attribution undocumented but very likely.
CRAIG AILEY, see COVE
DUNVORLEIGH (CARRADALE), Rosneath Road
?New villa, 1850s
Originally called Carradale and similar to Thomson’s Seymour Lodge
in Cove, q.v., but with entrance in centre; a mirror image of its
neighbour Dunvronaig, q.v.
DUNVRONAIG (ELLERLY), Rosneath Road
?New villa, 1850s
Originally called Ellerly and similar to Seymour Lodge in Cove, q.v.,
but with entrance in centre; a mirror image of its neighbour Dunvorleigh,
q.v.
GLENTRAE (SEATON LODGE), Rosneath Road
New villa, 1850s
Worsdall
Attribution undocumented but very likely, described by David Walker
as a “very exceptional house;” originally called Seaton Lodge and
similar to Ardsloy, q.v.
KIRKINTILLOCH,
Dunbartonshire
TURNBULL MONUMENT, AULD AISLE CEMETERY
?New grave monument, 1877
Adaptation of a Thomson design by Turnbull for his first wife, who
died 22nd February 1877.
LANGBANK, Renfrewshire
ELMHURST, off Station Road
†?New art gallery or music room, and a new lodge, for Thomas B.
Seath, c.1864-73
Demolished along with house 1974
Extension with Ionic portico - columns & capitals of teak - used
as an art gallery,. a music room and later as a badminton court. House
called 'The Oaks' 1860-64, 'Sunny Oaks' 1864-1903 when owned by Thomas
B. Seath, and 'Stron Vay' 1903-1950s. David Walker recalls that the
details were similar to those at Busby House, q.v., and that there was a
lodge with a steep central gable and a “T-divide window.”
WOODSIDE COTTAGES
New terrace of four houses, c.1855
McFadzean*
Houses in Gothic style similar to that of Seymour Lodge, Cove, q.v.;
attribution on stylistic grounds. The APSD mentions villas at ‘Langband’
[sic] and David Walker recalls ‘Hazelwood’ of 1858 and ‘Ravenswood’
at Langbank.
LENZIE,
Dunbartonshire/Lanarkshire
UNION CHURCH, Kirkintilloch Road
‡Unexecuted design, for Lenzie United Presbyterian and Free Church
congregations, 1874?
British Architect 19th February 1875*; Andrew Herron, Historical
Directory to Glasgow Presbytery, Glasgow 1984 (typescript in Mitchell);
Sam McKinstry in ATSN no.10 May 1994*
This design is mysterious as although it was published shortly before
Thomson's death, it would seem to be an early work in its round-arched
style and is similar to the design for unidentified Romanesque church in
the Mitchell q.v. It has been suggested that it is an old design of
Thomson's re-used by Turnbull, who was connected with Lenzie (and lived
in Ruberslaw, 11 Heriot Road, a double-villa, 1875-86). The Lenzie
congregations united in 1873 and the Union Church was built in 1874-75.
A ‘Design for a Church at Lenzie’ by A. & G. Thomson &
Turnbull was exhibited at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts
in 1876.
BURNBANK TERRACE, GLENHEAD ROAD / 33-57 AUCHINLOCH ROAD
?New terrace of houses, 1870s
Unfinished long canted terrace with some Thomsonian details;
attribution by Worsdall but unlikely.
GLENBANK TERRACE, 1-19 GLENBANK ROAD
?New terrace of 10 houses, for Murdoch & Rodger, solicitors of
Glasgow, 1871-72
Don Martin, The Story of Lenzie, Strathkelvin District Libraries
& Museum, 1989
Murdoch & Rodger initiated the development of Lenzie south of the
station on the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway after 1870, making the
village into a Glasgow commuter suburb. The title deeds of one house
refer to "Alexander Thomson architect Glasgow" but this weak
design exhibits none of the control and interest in dynamic repetition
which characterise Thomson’s earlier terraces.
OLD SCHOOLHOUSE, 14-16 GLENBANK ROAD
?New double villa and school, for William Young, 1887
Maurice Lindsay, Scottish Field June 1977 p.39*; Sam McKinstry in
ATSN no.10 May 1994.
Possibly by Turnbull re-using a design by Thomson as it is a fine,
compact essay in the Rundbogenstil. The land originally feued for
building houses in 1873 and the titles record that this plot was feued by
the Church of Scotland to William Young in 1887 for erection of a double
villa for occupation primarily, or for use as an educational
establishment of superior character together with necessary offices
attached." Known as Mr Young's Collegiate School until 1904 when
sold and used as two private dwellings.
3-5 & 7-9 HERIOT ROAD
?New double villas, 1870s
Versions of Thomson’s much earlier published design for Seymour
Lodge at Cove, q.v., and probably by his partner, Turnbull, who designed
the double villa at 11-13 Heriot Road in 1875, lived in no.11 from 1875
until 1886, also designed 15 Heriot Road and seems to have been
responsible for most of the houses in Lenzie which have Thomsonian
details.
CRAIGARD & WARWICK CROFT, 43 ALEXANDRA ROAD / 10 HERIOT ROAD
New double-villa, c.1875?
Worsdall
The only villa in Lenzie which, despite alterations, looks as if it
might be authentic Thomson. Another double-villa - Arden, 25 Victoria
Road / Dalveen, 16 Glenhead Road - is similar but dated 1881 and may be
an earlier Thomson design reworked by Turnbull.
OAKFIELD, 15 LINDSAYBEG ROAD
?New house, 1875
Worsdall
Drawings formerly at house bearing office address, 122 Wellington
Street, and dated February 1875 so very likely by Turnbull; distinctive
plasterwork internally.
REGENT SQUARE, 9 BEECHMOUNT ROAD, 1-11 REGENT SQUARE, 2-8 GLENBANK
ROAD, 5 BEECHMOUNT ROAD
?New terraces of houses, for Murdoch & Rodger, solicitors of
Glasgow, 1872-73
Don Martin, The Story of Lenzie, Strathkelvin District Libraries
& Museum, 1989
An outward-facing ‘square,’ coarsely detailed; despite the
connection with Murdoch & Rodger, most unlikely to be by Thomson.
INVERSHIEL, 27 VICTORIA ROAD
?New house, 1880-81
Maurice Lindsay, Scottish Field June 1977, p.39*
Symmetrical two-storey Thomsonian villa, with prominent attic, almost
certainly by Turnbull rather than Thomson although its two-storey
symmetrical elevation can be related to Ellisland in Nithsdale Road,
Pollokshields, Glasgow, q.v.; drawings seen by Worsdall. Other
Thomsonian houses in Lenzie include St Ronans, 6 Beech Road, and
Hughenden, Margherite Avenue, but are probably by Turnbull, who made a
successful career in Lenzie and elsewhere re-using the designs of his
former partner but carefully eliminating any tautness or subtlety.
SHERBROOK, 34-36 VICTORIA ROAD
?New double-villa, 1871
A coarse and overscaled villa in Thomson’s early Romanesque manner,
dated on the stonework. Possibly by Turnbull, except that he did not
become Thomson’s partner until 1873.
LONDON
ALBERT, PRINCE CONSORT MEMORIAL, HYDE PARK, Kensington
‡Unexecuted competition design, 1862
Large original perspective drawing (badly damaged) in GSA
Builder 4th April 1863; Gildard; Barclay*; Builder 31st December
1910*; Architects' & Builders' Journal 20th May 1914*; Survey of
London vol.xxxv, The Museums Area of South Kensington and
Westminster,
London 1975 p.151; McFadzean*; Alexander Stoddart in S&McK*
Design for an obelisk-tower with a domed summit on a massive
cruciform plinth, raised above monumental flights of steps. Gildard
wrote that “the design for the London Prince Albert Memorial showed
the colossal bulk with the sublimity of the Egyptic tempered by the
subtle proportioning and the refining graces of the Greek.” This
project is puzzling as Thomson was not among the nine architects invited
to submit proposals for a Memorial to the Prince Consort in 1862
following the advice of Sir Charles Eastlake, PRA. However, Joseph
Durham, James Fergusson and J.L. Hittorf are also known to have prepared
designs.
Thomson's drawing was possibly a response to the initial
proposal for a giant obelisk as a memorial approved by Queen Victoria
but subsequently abandoned, the executed Gothic design by George Gilbert
Scott eventually being chosen after competition. As he recorded in his
Personal and Professional Recollections [1879, p.262], Scott had also,
“for my own personal satisfaction and pleasure, at the time when a
monolithic obelisk, 150 feet high, was thought of, endeavoured to render
that idea consistent with that of a christian monument. This I effected
by adding to its apex, as is believed to have been done by the
Egyptians, a capping of metal, that capping assuming the form of a large
and magnificent cross... The faces of the obelisk I proposed to cover
with incised subjects illustrative of the life, pursuits &c. of the
Prince Consort. The obelisk was to have had a bold and massive base, at
the angles of which were to be placed four granite lions, couchant,
after the noble Egyptian model. The whole was to be raised on an
elevated platform, approached by steps from all sides. I showed the
drawing to the Queen, though not till after the idea of the obelisk had
been finally abandoned.”
So had Scott seen Thomson’s drawing?
Thomson's unidentified design for a Monumental Building, q.v., may
relate to this project. Thomson exhibited a watercolour of a ‘Design
for Memorial Building’ at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts
in 1865 and (according to Henry-Russell Hitchcock) a design for the
Albert Memorial at the Paris International Exhibition in 1867.
NATURAL HISTORY (SOUTH KENSINGTON) MUSEUM, CROMWELL ROAD, South
Kensington
‡Unexecuted competition design, 1864
Perspective drawing in three parts in Mitchell; similar smaller
perspective drawing owned by RIAS at RCAHMS.
Builder 14th May 1864, p. 347; Building News 22nd April 1864 p.298;
Builder 11th May 1867; Gildard; Law*; Graham Law, ‘Colonnades and
Temples: “Greek” Thomson’s Style,’ Glasgow Herald 8th June 1954;
The Age of Neo-Classicism, Arts Council of Great Britain, London 1972;
John Physick & Michael Darby, eds, Marble Halls, Victoria &
Albert Museum, London 1973 p.198*; Survey of London vol.xxxv, The
Museums Area of South Kensington and Westminster, London 1975
pp.203-205; McFadzean*; McKean*; S&McK*.
An entry under the motto
'Athenian' for what was called the South Kensington Museum competition,
that is, for the Natural History Museum (A.G. Thomson, of Woodlands
Road, Glasgow, also entered). This mismanaged competition was won by
Francis Fowke but, in the event, Alfred Waterhouse was appointed
architect for the Natural History Museum in 1866. Gildard thought that
"... had it been built from Mr Thomson's designs, would have been
the grandest Greek building in Europe." The Builder published a
detailed description of the design, and thought it "has great merit
of grouping in the masses... There is a fine effect in the design;
though it had no chance of selection." The influence of Thomas
Hamilton’s High School in Edinburgh, which Thomson considered one of
the “two finest buildings in the kingdom,” is perhaps evident in the
grouping of the raised temple masses.
This design is sometimes
mistakenly assumed to be a scheme for the new buildings for Glasgow
University on Gilmorehill, for which, notoriously, Thomson was not
invited to compete and did not in fact make a design, contenting himself
with attacking the Gothic Revival in general and George Gilbert Scott’s
commissioned design in particular in the lecture he delivered in 1866.
Thomson exhibited a drawing of a ‘Design for Natural History Museum,
Kensington’ at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts in 1866
and again at the Architectural Exhibition at the premises of the
Architectural Association in London in 1867 along with “several large
frames of old office drawings” which were praised by William Burges as
“certainly the best modern Greek architecture it has ever been my lot
to see” (Builder 1st June 1867, p.387). The smaller of the perspective
drawings of the South Kensington design was presented to the RIAS by
Thomson's son John in 1932.
NEW CROSS ROAD, see GLASGOW: 84-100 UNION STREET
MONTROSE, Forfarshire
HOTEL
?Alterations
Worsdall
NEWTON MEARNS, Renfrewshire
CROYLAND (RYSLAND), 202 AYR ROAD
New villa, for John Shields, measurer, 1874
Amelia; Memorial; Worsdall; McFadzean*
Villa in Thomson’s mature style with a projecting bow window within
a gable with curved panes of glass; originally called Rysland. The story
that Thomson built this house for himself and that his family declined
to move to so remote a spot from Glasgow is quite untrue; it was
designed for his friend, the measurer John Shields, who had earlier been
his neighbour at No.3 Moray Place, q.v., and became honorary treasurer
and then secretary of the Alexander Thomson Memorial committee. This
villa must be one of Thomson’s last personal executed works and a job
which, clearly, he did not delegate to Turnbull or to assistants to
develop and detail (as he did with the villas in Lenzie). The
asymmetrical composition is austere but precisely balanced and detailed,
and Ronald McFadzean considered that it contains “perhaps the best
proportioned interior which Thomson designed for any of his villas.”
Owing to road widening in the 1970s, the front wall and two pairs of
gate piers were re-erected nearer the house.
PAISLEY, Renfrewshire
ABBEY CLOSE U.P. CHURCH
†?New doors and furnishings, for United Presbyterian congregation
Building demolished
Attribution by McFadzean on stylistic grounds; C.R. Mackintosh later
designed a font for this church, built in 1827.
ROTHESAY, ISLE OF BUTE
TOR HOUSE (UPPER CLIFTON VILLA)
see CRAIGMORE,
ROTHESAY, ISLE OF BUTE
RUTHERGLEN, Lanarkshire
9 HIGH STREET / 30-42 GLASGOW ROAD
?New block of tenements, 1877-81
Demolished c.1960
Walker
STRATHAVEN, Lanarkshire
WINGFIELD, 78 KIRK STREET & 23 COMMERCIAL ROAD
?New double villa, 1878
Walker
Dating by Worsdall, who also referred to ‘Leaside’ 48 Townhead
Street, Strathaven.
UDDINGSTON, Lanarkshire
3 EDINBURGH ROAD & 15 EDINBURGH ROAD
?New villas, c.1879-82
Walker
Probably by Robert Thomson, who worked in this area; Worsdall dated
Auldearn, 3 Edinburgh Road, to 1881-82.
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