 |
The Works of 'Greek' Thomson |
|
ReferencesOther ArchitectsAddressesAbbreviations usedCodesBuildingsClick on the capital above to return to the homepage |
This document identifies some
of the difficulties in knowing precisely what Thomson designed and
lists the premises at which he was based in the course of his professional career.
By Gavin Stamp, author of, among others, Alexander Thomson: The Unknown Genius, published in 1999 by Laurence King Publishing, from which this is drawn. ReferencesThis list of works is assembled from references in the several published works on the life and work of Alexander Thomson, notably Ronald McFadzean's 1979 biography, as well as from unpublished research and other documents. Attempting to compile a comprehensive and detailed list of all Thomson's works presents several problems, however. The conventional source of information for Victorian buildings are references in the professional weekly journals, notably the Builder and the Building News, and there was also the British Architect (in which Thomson was a shareholder) and the Architect. But, then as now, these London-based publications tended to ignore Scotland and very few of even the most important works by Thomson were noticed in their pages. Thomson's admirer and obituarist, Thomas Gildard, was the Glasgow correspondent of the British Architect and the obituary published in the Building News suggests that he was also the Glasgow correspondent of that paper. Gildard also noted (in 1888) that a D. Thomson — who was not the architect David Thomson — was the Glasgow correspondent of the Architect. In 1868, in writing of Grecian Buildings, the author of 'Gossip from Glasgow' in the Building News maintained that,
and four years later a writer in the same paper commented that the style of the Cairney Building "is that peculiar variety of Greek which the Messrs Thomson may be said to have created, and by which they have achieved a not only high but widely-spread reputation;" while in 1872 a correspondent in the Architect, in praising Egyptian Halls, noted that it was "in Mr Thomson's well-known 'Egyptian-Greek' style — a style which he has made his own, and in which he has no rival." Even so, it is likely that such complimentary notices of Thomson's building as appeared in the London journals were contributed by very few — and possibly only one — Glasgow writer. Only between 1854 and 1858 did Scotland have its own architectural journal in the shape of the Building Chronicle, but, although it mentioned his buildings, that short-lived and Edinburgh-based publication did not once illustrate a design by Thomson. As regards posthumous publications, Dr McFadzean rightly warned that many articles "derive their information from sources of doubtful authenticity or from the writings of inaccurate predecessors." Among architects, only Thomas Gildard and David Barclay seem to have written about Thomson from a position of personal acquaintance and knowledge, as did his friend, the Revd John Stark, who seems to have prepared his memoir for the Alexander Thomson Memorial with the assistance of the architect's family. The account of the Thomson family prepared by his granddaughter, Jane Nicholson Thomson (Mrs W.L. Stewart) in the 1950s is not particularly informative, or wholly accurate, about his architecture. Furthermore, owing to Glasgow's prodigal attitude towards its past, few primary sources survive properly to document Thomson's work and many attributions have had to be made on the basis of style alone. As regards the interest of posterity, Thomson has been singularly unfortunate. All of his professional papers and correspondence have been lost, presumed destroyed, as have most of his office drawings, while all the applications to the Glasgow Dean of Guild Court for buildings by Thomson in the city centre perished in the holocaust of pre-1885 drawings instigated by the City Corporation in 1945. Further Thomson material disappeared in the 1960s when the premises of the Glasgow Institute of Architects in Renfrew Street was rapidly evacuated at the behest of the Glasgow School of Art — which also managed to lose Thomson drawings in its own possession — while the descendants of the photographer Thomas Annan discarded many glass negatives of plates of Thomson's buildings in moving premises and the firm of monumental masons founded by J. & G. Mossman threw out their records. Most of Thomson's surviving architectural drawings were presented to the Mitchell Library in 1934 by his granddaughter, Mrs W.L. Stewart, following the death of her father, John Thomson, but pathetically few contemporary manuscripts concerned with Thomson exist; indeed, only six letters written by the architect — five of them sent to his brother George in Africa — have come to light. The loss of so much documentary material is particularly unfortunate as so much of the physical evidence of Thomson's genius has also perished, thanks to the indomitable enthusiasm displayed by Glasgow's planners and politicians in the 1960s and 1970s for destroying as much of the Second City of the British Empire as possible. Further difficulties result from the fact that several other architects copied Thomson's style. In the absence of documentary evidence, it is very difficult to distinguish authentic Thomson villas from the many sincere imitations in Cove and Kilcreggan, while villas in his manner were built in places like Dalmuir and Uddingston, for instance. Many posthumous Thomsonian buildings in Lenzie and at Dullatur were in fact the work of Thomson's last partner, Robert Turnbull, who would seem to have made productive if unimaginative use of the office drawings he inherited; buildings by Turnbull in Glasgow are only included below when there is a possibility he was carrying out a design by Thomson. Back to topOther ArchitectsYet more confusion is created by the existence of several eponymous but unrelated architects such as David Thomson, who entered into partnership with 'Greek' Thomson's former partner in 1877 to form a second Thomson & Turnbull partnership, and James Thomson, who had been a partner of 'Greek' Thomson's former master, John Baird I, and continued that firm under the name of Baird & Thomson — which had also been the name of the early partnership between 'Greek' Thomson and the other, second John Baird. There was also 'Kyle' Thomson, a builder of villas who seems to have been Robert Thomson. Lastly, to make the confusion even worse, there was the eponymous Alexander George Thomson who practised in Glasgow as a civil engineer and architect and who was responsible for several jobs sometimes attributed to Alexander and George Thomson's firm; these included the Grove Street Institute of 1865, tenements in Kersland Street of 1873 and the feuing plan for Langside of 1853. And there was yet another Alexander Thomson, “designer” and “draughtsman”, who was responsible for decoration and textile designs in a Greek Thomsonian manner [elucidated by Juliet Kinchin in the Alexander Thomson Society Newsletter no.15 for January 1996]. No wonder the great Thomson was distinguished by his contemporaries by being called 'Greek'. Alexander Thomson's achievement was the product of just over two decades of work as an independent architect. He had been articled to Robert Foote, and then worked for ten years as assistant to John Baird [I] (beginning in 1837 according to the Revd John Stark in the memoir prepared for the Alexander Thomson Memorial, but in 1838 according to the memoir apparently written by his daughter Amelia Thomson). However, after he left Baird in about 1848 and until his death in 1875, Thomson always practised with a partner who presumably handled the business side of things, except during the two years after his brother George departed for the Cameroons in 1871 (although, in 1874, giving evidence in a claim on behalf of the developer Henry Leck, Thomson stated that he “had some experience in valuing property in business parts of Glasgow”). These partners were successively his brother-in-law, John Baird [II] (1816-93), his brother George Thomson (1819-78), and Robert Turnbull (1839-1905). [In a letter to John Honeyman of 2nd November 1876 supporting his nomination as a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Baird felt able to list St Peter's Kirkcaldy and Parsonage House, 1844; Caledonia Road Church, Glasgow; Pollok Academy, Pollokshaws; Academy, Barrhead; Rosslea, Dunbartonshire and Balsusney, Fifeshire, as his own architectural achievement.] In 1876, Turnbull wrote to the Thomson Trustees that “from his lack of indoor experience and the attention required by the outdoor department it had become necessary in the interest of the business that he should find a partner of sufficient knowledge and experience to take up the department to which the late Mr Thomson had attended." William [?] Clunas, "for many years in Thomson's office," who wrote "my impressions and recollections of Greek Thomson" for Thomas Ross in 1897 [National Library of Scotland], later recalled that,
For the 1861 Census, Thomson stated that he was an "Architect in Glasgow employing 2 draughtsmen & 4 apprentices." Because of ill-health in his last years, it is likely that Thomson increasingly delegated to his partner Turnbull or their assistants, often providing only sketches to be worked up into a design by others. Known assistants included Alexander Skirving, James Donald, Robert Goodwin, Robert G. Wilson (later of Ellis & Wilson, Aberdeen) and Mr Carmichael, as well as William Clunas, while subscribers to the Alexander Thomson Memorial who were listed in 1877 as at 122 Wellington Street, the address of A. & G. Thomson & Turnbull, were James Donald, Alexander T. Falconer, William Leck, Jasper Martin and Alexander Shearer. Back to topAddressesThe works listed here were carried out under the name of one of the following firms at several addresses:
Back to top |