Three men, one name, a date II XII MDCCCI (part one)
With its growing mercantile ambitions, the city of Glasgow c1736 built its first Town Hall adjoining the old Tolbooth on the Trongate. But in just thirty short years these ambitions would outgrow the space when the council sought the assistance of Parliament to expand.
In 1768 by Act of Parliament the Magistrates of Glasgow obtained the following permissions:
‘They are hereby Empowered and Authorised to make and complete a convenient Passage or Street, from the said Street called the Saltmarket Street, to the said new Church called St. Andrew’s Church, not exceeding 70 feet in Breadth,.’
‘To open and complete the Area or Churchyard of the said Church ; and likewise to Make, Erect, Build and Complete a commodious Exchange or Square upon the North side of the said Town Hall and Tolbooth.’
On McArthur’s map of 1778, Baxter’s Wynd was identified for this new street as evidenced by the dotted lines projected on the map. Fleming’s Map of 1807 shows the completed plan pretty close to what we’d recognise today.
Figs.1 & 2: McArthur’s 1778 Map v Fleming’s map of 1807.
As for the second condition, the council had attempted to purchase buildings on the north side of the Town Hall and Tolbooth prior to the Act but it was recognised that these were not sufficient to realise the vision. What is striking is the Act permits a commodious Exchange or Square. It would appear Glasgow built both. The Act also, intended or not, links both endeavours. This might explain why one architect was ultimately engaged to realise both the expansion of the Town Hall and gentrify the area surrounding St Andrews Church.
At the time of this Act being passed, James Craig, the mastermind behind the 1767 layout of the Edinburgh New Town would have been hot property in Scotland.
Edinburgh New Town 1767
Fig.3: Edinburgh New Town by James Craig, architect. Drafted for the city planning committee in 1768. Courtesy of Geogrphicus. Public Domain Fig.4: James Craig (1739 -1795), architect. Painter David Allan c1781. Courtesy of the Royal Scottish Academy. Artwork photographed by Antonia Reeve
A dedication to King George III illustrates the lower part of the map. Lines from James Thomson’s poem entitled ‘Rule Britannia’, (the brother of Craig’s mother), appears in a cartouche centre top. The poem became immortalised when it was used as the inspiration for composer Thomas Arne’s song of the same name.
As with all best intentions it would appear having obtained the permission in 1768 things were not fully in place to proceed until c1781 when the last of the compulsory purchases went through. By which point we know James Craig was still in the frame, as per his plans dated 1781/82. However, Craig’s plans were not to be accepted by the committee. An “architect from London” had arrived in Glasgow; William Hamilton.
When you consider what James Craig had achieved in the planning and layout of Edinburgh New Town you realise it would need to be someone pretty special, with provenance, and not simply from ‘down London town’, to supplant him from the new scheme.
The appointment of William Hamilton for the Tontine & St Andrew’s scheme then on the face of it appears bold. Only one other building in the city, the weigh-house, has been attributed to his hand. Given the importance to mercantile & civic Glasgow of the Town Hall & Coffee Rooms and the prime residential complex of St Andrew’s Square, now both regarded as pinnacles in the city of Georgian architecture it is somewhat surprising that nothing of substance has been preserved about this ‘architect from London.’
The Dictionary of Scottish Architects (DSA) database captures the following:
“William Hamilton may have trained as a wright or joiner and have studied architecture and drawing in the late 1740s. In 1751 he was in Edinburgh and was described as having worked for several architects in London. What is certain is that he practised as an architect in Glasgow in the last quarter of the 18th century. In 1781 when employed to make convert the Assembly Rooms at the Town Hall to the Tontine Hotel he was described as ‘an architect from London’. This suggests that he is the same person as the William Hamilton who trained as a joiner.”
The Glasgow historian and author, George Fairfull-Smith, writing about the fine arts, of Glasgow ‘The Wealth of a City’ (2010) makes the breakthrough. He captures that a ‘William Hamilton’ was responsible for not only these works but at least two other well known local buildings of the period.
Some have suspected a link connecting William Hamilton as captured in the DSA with Robert Adam(1728-1792); like Dr Frances Sands of the Soane Museum, London. The article cited by Fairfull-Smith provides credibility to the theory which the architecture of Charlotte Street and Spreull’s Land would seem to cement following further research of corroborating sources.
Having written about Charlotte Street and Spreull’s Land previously this evidence suggests William Hamilton, who had been a senior draughtsman (fl.1765-1774) for Robert Adam, was also responsible for these prestigious addresses. There is also some suggestion that he may have taught architecture in Glasgow. The article is corroborated in the London press, about another William Hamilton. He was William Hamilton R.A. (1751-1801), his son; the numerous articles his obituary.
The Glasgow Courier touched on the death of his son, a history painter of repute. Crucially, the article introduces Spreull’s Land and David Dale’s house at 76 Charlotte Street as by Mr Hamilton’s hand, they were:
“Specimens of his style, and afford ample proofs of both his industry and ability”
“We may add, that a genius for the arts seems to rest on this family. Mrs Bell, sister of the deceased possesses no small portion of her brother’s talents. As a copyist, in the opinion of the late Sir Joshua Reynolds and Fuseli, the brightest ornaments of the English School, she has no equal; and her original compositions, whether historical or fanciful, portraits or drawings, rival the most finished performances of the Masters of the Academy.”
…As a city, Glasgow was,
”So much indebted for its elegance. If indeed it challenges the admiration of strangers, we may thank him, for it was he, during a residence of ten years, first inspired us with a taste for design, and taught us to relish the various beauties of Architecture.”
Possibly the provenance of working as a draughtsman in the Adam office for about ten years gave the Tontine committee the courage to pass over James Craig. William’s hand is noted against numerous drawings in the Soane collection alongside those of Italian Joseph Bonomi(1739-1808) and fellow Scots Robert Morison (c1748-1825) and Robert Nasmith( -1793). However, he must also have served as a clerk of works and/or built a reputation in his own right. That interim period between working in the Adam office and Glasgow remains elusive although the little we do know suggests it was in the south.
This new evidence explains in part the persistent speculation around Charlotte Street or indeed David Dale’s house at number 76 being the work of Robert Adam (1728-1792).
It also may help explain how knowledge of the Adams practice was disseminated in the city without the benefit of any sustained presence as in the case of London and Edinburgh. A residence of ten years or so suggests there was ample time for a transfer of knowledge prior to the Adams arriving to begin work on the Trades House.
It is curious that another Hamilton, a wright from Edinburgh arrives in the city briefly at the same time that William is resident. His name was Thomas Hamilton and he with his wife Jean Stevenson had a son whilst residing in Glasgow, also Thomas. The son would go on to make a name for himself as one of Edinburgh’s finest Georgian architects. Joe Rock a biographer of Thomas Hamilton(1784-1858), suggests his father worked on St Andrew’s Square.
Robert Scott (c1770-1839), a ‘classicist’, and proprietor of Glasgow’s first known dedicated Architectural Academy which opened c1803 may have benefited from William Hamilton’s sojourn north. William Stark (1770-1813), David Hamilton(1768-1842) and Thomas Hamilton snr(1754 -1824) were also well placed to do so. One can imagine William being sought out and queried by the next cohort. His work at St Andrew’s, the Tontine, Charlotte Street & Spreull’s Land an ample résumé if one were needed.
William Hamilton’s brief visit aside, there were already established links with the Adams family in the city. Their nephew John Robertson was responsible for building extensively in Glasgow; amongst other buildings, he is credited with the Black Bull Inn (b1759) of Robert Burns fame and the matching tenement built on the SW of Virginia Street (where William Cunningham of the Lainshaw Mansion [GoMA] had his office). Glasgow’s John Adam, mason( -1790), his work hews a similar seam to that of his namesake Robert Adam’s eldest brother John(1721-1792) including being consulted with respect to bridge building.
Newspaper articles of the time should be treated with a pinch of salt when it comes to attributions. After all some articles suggest that architect Thomas Hamilton (1784-1858), was the son of fellow Glasgow architect David Hamilton(1768-1843). He was not. However, this article was contemporaneous and one suspects written by someone with direct knowledge of William Hamilton. It captures the brevity of his stay in the city which has obviously contributed to the dearth of knowledge. And of course there is mention of a Royal Academy fellow, his son.
Laying out what is known the following tacit timeline can now be established:
c1730 Potential dob.
c1745 William Hamilton of Edinburgh in London.
c1750 Marries Sarah
c1751 William Hamilton jnr, born, London. (possibly 1747)
1751 William Hamilton, Edinburgh.
1754-1758 Robert Adam on Grand Tour.
1755 Maria his daughter is born. (Painter & sculptor. Future Lady Bell.)
1756 St Andrews Church Completed.
1760-1763 James Adam on Grand Tour.
1761 1761 King George appoints Adam, (& William Chambers, as joint) architects of His Majesty’s works
1765-1774 William Hamilton snr draughtsman in the Adams’ London practice.
1766 Antonio Zucchi, arrives in London.
1767-1768 William Hamilton jnr in Italy training under Zucchi.
1769 William Hamilton jnr enrolled in Royal Academy School, London.
1769-1773 William Hamilton jnr worked as decorative painter in London office.
1774 William Hamilton jnr first exhibited in R.A.
1774 William Hamilton snr leaves the London office.
1780 Charlotte Street projected.
1782 James Craig plans dated 1781-82 for the Tontine rejected.
1782 David Dale’s house, 76 Charlotte Street built.
1784 Tontine Hotel complex completed.
1784 Thomas Hamilton (1784-1858), architect born.
c1785 Spreull’s Land built.
1785 Weigh House at Montrose & Ingram built.
1786 St Andrews Square projected.
1787 Hamilton paid £21 for St Andrews plans. Completed c1789 as per PO Directory.
1787 David Dale buys first plot for Royal Bank of Scotland.
c1787 William Hamilton snr exits Glasgow.
1788 William Hamilton jnr elected an Academician of R.A.
1801 William Hamilton jnr dies.
If c1787 brings an end to William Hamilton’s time in Glasgow, the article’s assertion that he spent about a decade in the city would appear to stack up. Frustratingly he doesn’t appear in any street directory that survive.
Who induced him to come to Glasgow? The truth is we don’t know.
This new information, with respect to Charlotte Street and the inclusion of St Andrew’s Street, points to a concerted and diligent effort to create a much larger, cohesive residential areas around St Andrews Square with the Church itself at the centre. It presents a different narrative to the often quoted ‘merchants on the make’ argument to Glasgow’s approach to urban planning. The uniformity (& elegance) of the scheme didn’t happen simply by chance. Taking almost twenty years from approval to realisation suggests a long view was required that private enterprise wouldn’t necessarily entertain if it was simply only about profit. Employing one hand to project a single vision attests to a higher motive.
William Hamilton was not the first to try and stamp a uniformity to the street scape of Glasgow. John Miller of Westerton in feuing Miller Street in the 1750s was the first to stipulate in the deeds of his plots the height, aspect and form (Palladian), with additional codicils. It’s no wonder then that Miller street became known as the ‘aristocratic street’.
The ambitious building scheme of Dugald Bannatyne and partners of the company imaginatively named ‘the Glasgow Building Company’ along with others like John Robertson would also attempt to replicate on a less grand but no less impressive undertaking around George Square, Wilson, Ingram and John Streets. A prime example remains at 64 Wilson Street.
The development of tenements around Wilson Street talk to a mercantile vision of elegance where the privileged class could work, shop & relax. However, the success of these mercantile endeavours at the start of the Industrial Revolution would quickly put paid to any utopian vision of urban planning meaning that this experiment barely lasted fifteen years. Bannatyne would vacate his own house at the head of the newly projected Glassford Street literally for greener pastures at Carlton Place then later 26 Blythswood Square. His Ingram Street property would be cannibalised by the Star Inn.
Figs.5 & 6: ‘Consumption of Smoke: Present versus Future’, Northern Looking Glass 17 September 1825. Source: Glasgow University Library, Special Collections Sp Coll Bh14-x.8
It is interesting that around Wilson Street and George Square the two buildings that were recognised at the time as being of the best quality and most elegant were located on the north side. (at Charlotte Square Edinburgh, Adam built on the north side). People today forget, that before electricity, sunlight provided both Illumination and solar gain so crucial in a Scot’s winter. This would have been captured best in south facing apartments.
The scale and variety of the St Andrew’s complex around the church; the square, St Andrew’s & Charlotte streets… Given the experimentation in tenement design with Spreull’s Land, the success of the Tontine at the Cross… it is now time to re-appraise the impact one William Hamilton, ‘architect from London’, had on Georgian Glasgow.
Fig.7: SM Adam volume 11/234 – Record drawing for the ceiling for the round drawing room, 1766. possibly William Hamilton or Giuseppe Sacco
Figs.8-11: Possibly by hand of William Hamilton or Joseph Bonomi Courtesy of http://www.soane.org All images copyright.
It may have been William’s birth, c1751 that prompted his fathers trip home in 1751, before returning back down south. Later, whilst still a child, he traveled to Italy to study under his father’s friend Antonio Zucchi (1726-1795). Recorded in the Piazza Mignanelli in 1767 was:
“Monzu Hamilton – studente inglese – 15”
The Venetian artist’s skill was admired by Robert Adam who his brother James had met in 1761 whilst he was on his Grand Tour(1760-1763); Zucchi would accompany James to Rome. Indeed his skill as an artist was admired so much that c1765 Zucchi was enticed to the UK with the Adams’ promise of work & commissions. Given that both Zucchi and Hamilton snr worked in the Adams office it suggests more than a professional acquaintance, possibly a mutual bond of respect between the two and/or possibly it was William who assisted Zucchi on arrival in England. Whatever the bond, it was enough for one man to entrust his son to the other.
William jnr. on his return from Italy in 1768, was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools on 14.II.1769 and also that same year began working as a decorative painter for the Adams office. A post he would retain until 1773. He exhibited portraits and other paintings at the Royal Academy from 1774, becoming an associate in 1784 and a full Royal Academian in 1789. He was considered one of the country’s leading history painters of his time.
( The term ‘history painting’ was introduced by the French Royal Academy in the seventeenth century. It was seen as the most important genre of painting above portraiture, landscape and still life painting. Initially used to describe paintings with subjects drawn from ancient Greek and Roman classical history, classical mythology, and the Bible; towards the end of the eighteenth century it included modern historical subjects. The style was classical and idealised – known as the ‘grand style’ – and the result was known overall as High Art.)
He also worked on book illustration for Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery, and between 1780 and 1792 he specialised in theatrical portraits and scene painting (Drury Lane, Covent Garden). Hamilton only infrequently painted portraits, he did, however, paint a number of leading actors including Kemble and Sarah Siddons in costume.
On 25.10.1779, at St George’s Hanover Square, he married Mary (c1762–1837), the daughter of Captain Peter Aylward. The couple befriended Thomas Lawrence on his arrival in London from Bath; in 1788 Lawrence captured the couple in pastel, and the following year a chalk drawing of Mary now in the British Museum.
He lived in Dean Street, Soho, from 1776 and died there of a fever in December 1801. He is buried in St Anne’s Church, Soho, a Wren church, sadly mostly destroyed by a bomb in 1940.
His daughter, Maria Hamilton (1755-1825) [Lady Bell]
Fig.17:Maria Hamilton (1755-1825) [Lady Bell]. Artist unknown
Maria Bell (née Hamilton; 26 December 1755 – 9 March 1825) She was born in Chelsea, London, the daughter of William and Sarah.
Initially she was the pupil of her brother William Hamilton R.A. Later she received instruction from Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose pictures she is said to have copied with much skill. She copied likewise the works of Rubens at Carlton House, including the ‘Holy Family,’ which was highly commended. Accomplished, she did not limit herself to oils, and could also sculpt.
Around 1808 she married Thomas Bell (1751-1824), leather merchant and later sheriff of London, who was knighted in 1816, and whose portrait was engraved by William Dickinson after a painting by her. Between the years 1809 and 1824 she exhibited at the Royal Academy and elsewhere several figure-subjects and portraits, among the latter in 1816 those of Sir Matthew Wood, 1st Baronet, lord mayor of London, and of her husband by then Sir Thomas Bell. She also exhibited two busts at the Royal Academy in 1819.1
Her own portrait was engraved by Edward Scriven from a miniature by W. S. Lethbridge.
Lady Bell died in Dean Street, Soho, in 1825.
Drawing lessons from Joshua Reynolds don’t get much more impressive. Were her father & Reynolds acquainted? The artistic circles he was moving in London via the Adams & Zucchi do not put it beyond reason. Or did Reynolds feel a debt of gratitude to the Hamilton clan since it was his portrait of Capt. The Hon. John Hamilton in 1746 which brought the artist his initial fame.
Haldane Academy Trustee, The inclusion of Robert Scott, architect, in the management committee of the Haldane Academy Trust in 1833 would appear fitting. It signals an element of continuity with respect to the teaching of architecture in Glasgow as the head of city’s first dedicated architecture school.
The names of fellow architects on the committee like Hamilton & Herbertson slip off the tongue when discussing Glasgow architects of this period. The name Robert Scott does not, you’d be hard pushed to find anyone that could identify any of his remaining work. Neither flamboyant nor innovative, Gildard referred to him as “a ripe architect who thoroughly knew what he had to do,” but curiously couldn’t pinpoint his work apart from the now demolished St Mary’s Episcopal Church, Renfield Street. He would appear to have been grounded in the classical traditions but wasn’t afraid to venture (it is said successfully ) into early Gothic.
Not simply a teacher of architecture, he had a successful practice too. The clients we know about were of high social status:
Robert Findlay of Easterhill
The Dennistouns of Colgrain
The City of Glasgow
Dumbarton Council
The Trades’ House
The Merchants’ House
The Andersonian Institution
The Episcopalian Church
The Bairds of Gartsherrie
Admiral John Rouett Smollett of Bonhill
John Buchanan of Ardoch (and Shipbank)
North British Railway
Background
Robert Scott’s year of birth is uncertain. An Old Parish Record for the Gorbals dated 20 April 1839 capture his death due to ‘decline’ at the the age of 69. This would suggest a dob of c1770. Contemporary references that make mention of him suggest c1785. Dying intestate, his nieces and nephews with their respective spouses make a claim on his estate. Working backwards from their marriage dates suggests there may be validity to the d.o.b. suggested in the Gorbal’s Old Parish Record. If proven correct it might explain how Scott was able to receive such a thorough classical training as alluded to by Gildard.
It has recently been discovered that one of Robert Adam’s senior draughtsmen operated in the city for almost a decade c1780-90. Indeed some well known buildings had been attributed to the name without fully appreciating who that name was. We are told the city was beholden to this architect, as it was:
”so much indebted for its elegance. If indeed it challenges the admiration of strangers, we may thank him for he, during a residence of ten years, first inspired us with a taste for design, and taught us to relish the various beauties of Architecture.”
It might help explain how Scott was able to command such a distinguished clientele, and at the same time be entrusted to operate a private architecture school for almost thirty years without obvious public support or being a name that we would recognise today. Could Scott have received instruction from this individual who was held in such high esteem? If born c1770 the dates would appear to fit such a hypothesis.
John Scott, author of ‘Glasgow Delineated’, published 1821 (& 1826), may have been a relation given the keen architectural detail captured in his book and the interest shown in the city’s urban planning. He has this to say about the ‘capital of the west’ (pg.3):
“To a stranger who has seen the new town of Edinburgh, that of Glasgow may appear in some respects to disadvantage. There are few of those splendid and regular masses of building which everywhere abound in the metropolis. The streets, from too great economy of space are comparatively narrow, and many of them built with little or no regard to uniformity. It must be admitted, however, that a minute and studied regularity rather palls upon the sight, and that this circumstance has imparted to some of the finest streets in Edinburgh a degree of tameness and monotony, which is never felt in the capital of the west. It will be allowed also that Edinburgh owes much of its magnificence to its sublime and romantic situation, and to the singular effect of contrast which is produced by the abrupt and rugged separation between the old city and the new. Glasgow, on the other hand, is built in a form more compact and convenient. The arrangement of the streets is so simple, that a stranger becomes immediately familiar with it. The modem districts of the city are so naturally blended with the ancient that they seem to form one unique and original design. In this respect Glasgow has a manifest advantage over the metropolis; though for the same reason it falls short of it in bold and picturesque grandeur”… “The great boast of Glasgow, however, is the ingenuity of her artisans, her scientific institutions, and her operative and mechanical establishments.”
1803 is the earliest date captured of Glasgow’s first known commercial architecture academy at 2 Argyle Street. Robert Scott operated from various locations before settling in South Hanover Street until 1830. Almost 30 years of teaching; ‘Firmitas, Utilitas, Venustas’. He wasn’t quite finished with architecture though and would remain in practice until 1839.
(According to Colvin, the Academy was situated in George Street and he ran it in conjunction with James Watt. There may be credence to this partnership given the fact that when J&A Watt open up their Architecture Academy at no.9 Argyle Street in 1814, a year later Robert Scott appears back at no.2 Argyle Street where he’d begun his Academy c1803. Both Academies existing side by side for the next 3 years.)
Fig.1: Fleming 1807 map – Locations of Robert Scott’s Architectural Academy Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.
The Virginia Buildings, Glasgow
Recent research enables Robert Scott’s first known independent work in Glasgow to be re-calibrated to c1816, namely the Virginia Buildings 37-49 Virginia Street built for the merchant Robert Findlay of Easterhill, a partner in the extensive colonial operation of Findlay, Duff & Co.
An old text stated that a ‘Robert Scott’ was responsible for building extensively in Virginia Street. However, with no specific buildings named or in what capacity eg developer/builder/mason/architect there was little to go on. Indeed, the Thistle Bank that lay opposite had as one of its partners Robert Scot, merchant.
A documents of 1822 relating to the lease of the Virginia Buildings for Findlay, Connal & Co. the later name for Findlay, Duff & Co. confirms the architect as ‘Robt. Scott’. I believe it is Robert Scott (c1770-1839) of the Architecture Academy mentioned earlier. There is no other record of an architect of this name working in the city.
https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB32795 37-47 (ODD NOS) VIRGINIA STREET CatA Statement of Special Interest: “These buildings are important examples of a unified street and court complex and are the best remaining examples of their type and period. Early sign writing painted on to the ashlar from the 1820s survives in the doorway of No 37, including signage for the legal practice of C D Donald and Sons.”
Courtyard (REAR OF 37-47) LB32794 CatB Statement of Special Interest: “The best street surviving unified street and court complex of the period.”
Curious that the main façade is catA but the courtyard only catB. Given the significant historical importance of this extensive colonial merchant complex should it all not be catA?
Anthemia: Scott would appear to favour the honeysuckle over palmate.
Robert Findlay’s descendants had a share in shipbuilders Paddy Henderson & Co. which had Burmese interests. These are referred to by Kipling in his poem ‘Mandalay’…”where the old flotilla lay” referring to the the scuttling of the Iriwaddy Flotilla Company. Originally formed in 1865 as the Irrawaddy Flotilla and Burmese Steam Navigation Co Ltd, primarily to ferry troops up and down the Irrawaddy River and delta. At its peak in the late 1920s, the IFC fleet was the largest fleet of river boats in the world, consisting of over 600 vessels carrying some 8-9 million passengers and 1¼ million tons of cargo a year. The ships, most of which were paddle steamers, were generally built in Scotland before being dismantled and transported to Burma for reassembly.1
The Virginia Buildings complex stretched from Miller Street through to Virginia Street totaling an expanse of over 30 bays. The north courtyard and Virginia Street are all that survive somewhat intact but much altered. The Virginia Street elevation comprises 10 bays in total. The centre 8 bays take up the entire plot that was detailed as ‘875 square yards of ground’ in the original feu of 1754 from George Buchanan of Drumpellier (2nd son of Andrew Buchanan of Mount Vernon) to John Bowman of Ashgrove (1701-1797). Bowman like his father before him was made Lord Provost in 1764-65. He was a merchant don of the elite class. A partner in Speirs, Bowman & Co. among other concerns. Speirs was his neighbour to the north in the plot now known as the Jacobean Corsetry.
The centre 8 bays match stylistically the interior courtyard. The wings at no.37 and no.49, possibly a later addition, appear to reference the Jacobean Corsetry to the north with the incised detail on the first floor windows. The wings have enabled the internal courtyard to be widened in order to utilise the enclosed space more effectively.
It is plausible that Scott was responsible for raising the height of James Dennistoun of Colgrain’s house at no.23 Virginia Street (the Jacobean Corsetry) to match the elevation of his newly erected Virginia Buildings. He appears to have had a close working relationship with the Dennistouns of Colgrain and this would have given him access to Sir John Soane’s work in Buchanan, Virginia and possibly Miller Street.
Robert Dennistoun was on the committee for the Theatre Royal Queen Street and was well known to Soane. The brothers had the ways and means to employ the very best modern UK architect to design their houses. And they do with the appointment of Sir John Soane a pioneer of Greek Revival in the UK. With such resources then at their disposal one cannot imagine the Dennistoun’s or Robert Findlay appointing a complete unknown to design an office complex for their extensive colonial operations. This would suggest the Virginia Buildings were not Scott’s first endeavour, simply the earliest we know about. After all, he had been operating his architecture academy for over a decade by this point.
A feature of Scott’s practice in later years is that he employs an engineer with equal billing in the company name. There is some suggestion that he had some engineering training too. (1830 – 1833 He entered into a brief partnership with William Wilson, surveyor and engineer and c.1833-34 another with the civil engineer William Gale alongside architect John Stephen until 1839). This might explain why he is not more well known. Factories that had span, a need to be load bearing, fireproof, robust to cope with sheer stresses and strains alongside the general demands of industry would require a specialist knowledge. This may have been the niche that Robert Scott was filling.
An industrial practice would have been geared towards the anonymous foundries, factories, warehouses, engine works, shipyards and mills for his patrons. Doing the unglamorous work brings little chance of recognition. But it would appear his patrons did know his worth and when the need arose he was given license to design residential property.
Let’s not forget his patrons could employ Sir John Soane, Grand Master and architect to the Bank of England. So it is instructive that they appear to hold Robert Scott in such high regard. A sentiment backed up by both the Trades’ House & Merchants’ House.
Fig.6: Sir John Soane; ‘Grandmaster’ in Masonic Robes; Artist: courtesy of the Soane Museum
In 1827 the Tradeshouse required an audit of their lands. They engaged with four architects to carry out the survey:
Robert Scott (c1782 – 1839) In Glasgow directories he is listed as surveyor for the Trades House over numerous years.
John Reid Unknown. A William Reid (c1781-1849), architect, worked out of King Street Tradeston (1811-1829). Possible typo, more research required.
John Brash (c1775-1848) From New Kilpatrick 79 Stockwell St (1807-18), Madiera Buildings, Argyle Street (1819-1828)
James Watt (c1789-1832) Possibly died in the Cholera epidemic of 1832. (1811-1813) Practised as an architect based on south side of Argyle Street. (1814-1820) ran an architectural Academy Argyle Street at Stockwell Street. (1820-1831) ran an architectural Academy from Turner’s Court, Argyle Street. Watt was a member of the Philosophical and Dilettanti Societies.
The Merchants’ House of Glasgow,1831, in anticipation of a change in the law regarding the Cemeteries Act of 1832 sought to design a new cemetery at Fir Park modelled on Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. The Merchants approached two architects for a bridge design, ‘the Bridge of Sighs’. One was David Hamilton, the other Robert Scott. History only remembers the victor. Glasgow Necropolis officially opened in April 1833.
1824 The County Buildings, Dumbarton
County Buildings, court and prison by James Gillespie Graham (1766-1855). James Gillespie’s style was predominantly Gothic, however, here it is firmly neo-classical. Scott was employed to amend; no detail of extent.
Fig.7: Dumbarton County Buildings b1824. The wings are a later addition, 1862. Photo credit: Unknown
Scott had been working on the new Police Buildings in Albion Street, Glasgow early in 1824. Glasgow was at the forefront of Policing and advances in the civic approach to law & order in the UK. One suspects Gillespie wouldn’t have needed Scott’s help with classical orders, although the voluted capitals with anthemion necking look suspiciously like Scott’s work at Virginia Street & West Regent Street.
Was Scott sharing new ideas with Gillespie to facilitate coherence of the Dumbarton building with latest trends?
https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB24875 catB Statement of Special Interest: “The building has some fine classical detailing to its front elevation. Internally, the 1824 court has exceptionally delicate metal work to the gallery.”
The first floor centre bay with relieving arch appears as if it lacks proportion but is in fact the same size. The lack of a consoled cornice gives the illusion of being out of balance with both the wings and the imposing pedimented portico below.
Fig.8: OS 1859 map of Dumbarton with location of the County Buildings & prison. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland
1824 Central Police Buildings
Fig.9: The Police Buildings Albion Street, Glasgow b1825 dem1906. Architect Robert Scott Builder: James Govan ‘Craw Jamie,’ from his working the large quarry at head of Queen Street. (employed 82) Photo credit: unknown
We know from Thomas Rickman’s diaries of February 1824, who had been working on St David’s at the top of Candleriggs, that there had been interaction between Rickman & Scott concerning this building. (without having yet seen the entry I can only speculate what piqued Rickman’s interest.) Note what looks like ventilation plates under the windows of the top floor cells. (we see similar ventilation plates on The old Ophthalmic Institute at no.126 West Regent Street, unattributed, showing elements of Scott’s hand.) Also of note is the first bay on the south at Bell Street. Rusticated it looks like Scott is responding to Antigua Court opposite and tying in with neighbours on the main arterial route. It may also point to a more formal entrance on the south elevation for use by the general public as denoted on the OS map of 1857.
Fig.11: OS 1857 map – Locations of Central Police Office, South Albion Street Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland
Under the former Police Acts the Board of Police were not authorised to lay out money in buildings, and were accustomed to pay an annual rent for such premises as they were able to procure. This was found by experience to be attended with much inconvenience, for it was difficult to find premises that were suitable either in situation, in extent, or in proper arrangement. By the act, however, of 1821, they are authorised to borrow a certain sum of money for the purpose of erecting buildings on a scale that might be judged adequate for the various and important uses of that establishment.
These buildings have just been erected, and are situated in South Albion Street. They form a quadrangle, and are 116 feet in length, 74 in breadth, and three stories in height. The principal entrance consists of a massive archway with Tuscan columns and entablature. At each end of the inner court, which is 50 feet by 28, there is a handsome entry and stair case, the one leading to the prison departments, and the other, which is constructed of a very hard and beautiful granite, to the Commissioners’ Hall, Committee Rooms, and other Public Offices. The upper or third floor contains dwelling houses for the superintendent and principal clerk, the remainder being occupied by wards for prisoners, and apartments for the superintendent of fire engines. In the first or street floor there are suitable offices for the superintendent and collector, accommodation for fire engines and water butts ; and a part of it is allotted for prisoners’ wards and cells. The sunk story is occupied with rooms for lamp globes, for oil cisterns, and for trimming lamps, a large hall for the watchmen, smiths’ and turners’ shops, heating apparatus, and various descriptions of cellarage.
The buildings are to be surmounted by a belfry, with an alarm bell to be rung in cases of fire. The architect, Mr. Robert Scott, has displayed great professional skill in the arrangements connected with this establishment, which must of course have been multifarious and complicated.
POLICE OFFICE: For Wardlaw and Cunninghame ‘Glasgow Delineated’ (University Press: Glasgow 1826) p.91
When you compare what replaced the early 19th Century work (See the later Police Buildings in Turnbull street built in 1904 by Alexander Beith McDonald. at a cost of £36,500 you get some idea why the earlier architects were so easily neglected. Plain & uninspiring by comparison. But Scott could be adventurous for his time.
1824 St Mary’s Episcopal Church, Renfield Street. ‘seats for 920’
Did Scott take confidence from his interactions with Rickman? Allegedly St George’s Chapel Windsor was used as his inspiration for St Mary’s. Gildard refers to St Mary’s specifically with faint praise, ‘of great merit, seemingly all the greater because built when the Gothic was, with us, not much beyond its infancy’. Crenellation today seems incongruous on a place of worship unless it’s fighting the good fight… ‘onward christian soldiers’. However, the minarets, ‘call to prayer’ seem a missed opportunity. One can’t help wondering what could have been if given more prominence in the overall design.
Possibly inspired by Lugar’s pattern book of 1815. See plateXXXII. Lugar was inspired by Thomas Danniel R.A. ‘Oriental Scenery’ 1795-1808 over six series. The 144 aquatints which made the complete set cost £210. (equivalent of c£18k today) A critical success, thirty sets were sold to the East India Company, and a further order for eighteen copies was received. (total sales approx £10k/£864k)
Equally the ‘minarets’ could be responding to the lightly capped cupola of St George’s Tron flanked by the four substitute obelisks, architect William Stark, 1807.
Scott can have James Cleland to thank for the Tron’s location after he had it moved from its originally intended site on St Vincent Street. When you compare his St Mary’s to mkII by George Gilbert Scott, St Mary’s Cathedral of 1871-1893, you can see how Glasgow Gothic matured. The spire of 1893 dominates what would have been originally a more sober design, more coherent to the modern eye than Scott’s original of 1824.
Fig.15: St Mary’s Episcopal versus Barony Church. Source: ‘Glasgow Delineated’ Engraver: Robert Scott, Edinburgh.
St Mary’s Chapel “A new Episcopal place of worship under this name has just been erected in Renfield Street. The style is what has been termed the light or pointed Gothic, such as prevailed in the 14th or 15th century. The front extends about 96 feet, and the most prominent features are two octagonal towers, one on each side of the principal entrance, which rise about .30 feet above the roof. These are terminated by pinnacles in the form of mitres, with a cornice showing a band of roses, and decorated with crockets and finials. There are two lower towers at the angles, in which are placed the stairs leading to the galleries, in one of which there is a fine toned organ. The outline is taken from St. George’s Chapel at Windsor which is admired for the chasteness of its style and character. The architect is Mr. Robert Scott.”
Barony Church “Erected in 1798, from a design of Mr. John Robertson, nephew of the celebrated Messrs. Adam, stands near the Cathedral and Infirmary. Its architecture is of a mixed style, and the outline of the west front has an imposing effect; but the execution of the exterior, which is done chiefly in rubble work, renders it a mean counterpart to the adjoining edifice, and has destroyed the effect intended by the artist.”
It’s obvious the author was unaware that when James Adam supplied the initial drawings for the Barony he did not wish to detract from the Glasgow Royal Infirmary nor the Cathedral precinct. (He certainly fulfilled that goal.) Moreover, in an exercise in financial prudence the stonework was specified as undressed. The design was not well received. So it’s curious that Robert Scott should attempt to resurrect the crenellated towers in his St Mary’s design. Viewed in isolation St Mary’s is still problematic. However, put up against the earlier Barony it is a marked improvement. Had he set himself the academic challenge of improving on the earlier Barony design? However, if one was being harsh you could say it wouldn’t have been difficult to achieve.
Fig.16: OS 1857 Map – St Marys Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.
Episcopalian Benefactors
It’s interesting that Scott should design an Episcopalian Church given who his significant patrons were. Examining the early feuers of Virginia Street was like looking at a congregation of Episcopalians. Indeed, Alexander Oswald and David Dayell were on the management committee for Scotland’s first Episcopalian Church St Andrew’s on the Green. A committee that Alexander Speirs would later join. These ‘Virginia Dons’ were not just joined by business and family they were joined by belief too…at least in Virginia Street. Mungo Naismith’s story passed down, whilst working on his magnificent St Andrew’s in the Square, of seeing the ‘devil himself’ working on St Andrews on the Green is of legend. Shockingly, Andrew Hunter, one of the masons on St Andrews on The Green otherwise known as the English Chapel was ex-communicated when it was discovered he had worked on the build.
Would this have informed future decisions by Episcopalians to keep certain work within the faith so to speak? Could that have influenced architecture away from the solid baronial style of Mungo Naismith toward a ‘lighter’ more refined European style that we see develop later around the New Town. When you compare Colin Dunlop & John Murdoch’s houses to John Craig’s of Miller Street the architecture is more refined in the latter.
1825 Unknown, St Vincent Street.
In 1825 Robert Scott features in the Sasines for a building on the south side of St Vincent Street. The timing is curious in terms of what is known to be going on in Virginia Street; the last of the Virginia merchants of old are moving out and Findlay Duff & Co.’s business is facing significant headwinds. In 1825 the Dennistouns are still resident in Virginia Street but William Connal their partner has moved out to, 2 Milton Place, West St Vincent Street on Blythswood Hill.
By 1826 Matthew Brown, industrialist, has acquired 23(53) Virginia Street along with the Virginia Buildings.
JR Dennistoun and R Dennistoun & Co. The 1826 directory captures that they have moved to a house situated at 13 West St Vincent Street. Was Robert Scott the architect?
1827 Cameron House
The earlier house of c1750 was redeveloped for Admiral John R Smollet of Bonhill in 1812-1814 by James Gillespie Graham. In 1827, Scott was tasked with making amendments to Gillespie’s earlier work; scope & extent unknown. In 1866 after a fire William Spence rebuilt incorporating the library wing which remained. (painted ashlar denotes pre1866).
Over the centuries the Smollets hosted James Boswell and Samuel Johnson, the Empress Eugenie of France, Princess Margaret and Lord Louis Mountbatten, and Winston Churchill.
Scott was tasked with converting the old Grammar School on George Street with James Watt. Originally built in 1788, architect John Craig, by 1821 the school had outgrown the site and moved to adjacent premises. It lay empty until the purchase of 1827. There are no details as to specific undertaking but Huxton tells us the porch was introduced as the old building was Roman in style with only a rear entry. We can see that a third story has been added. What is not entirely clear is if the round auditorium was introduced at this point; most probably. The museum captured below suggests no expense was spared when it was enhanced in 1831 by James Smith of Jordanhill ‘amateur’ architect.
Fig.18: The Andersonian Institute. c1895 Photo credit: unknown (possibly Duncan Brown)
Fig.19: Image of Watercolour by John A Gilfillan, Professor of Drawing and Painting at Anderson’s University.
Gilfillan, in 1824, had his Drawing Academy at no.7 next door to Robert Scott at no.6 South Hanover Street. Gilfillan’s painting of 1831, shows the interior of the Andersonian Museum shortly after opening.
Fig.20: Fleming’s Map 1807 – Grammar School prior to conversion. Fig.21: OS Map 1857 – Grammar School after 1828 conversion & 1831 addition of museum Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland’
Fig.22: Coloured cartoon from the “Northern Looking Glass” 14 November 1825 entitled “Rival Lectures: Anderson’s Institution” Sp Coll Bh14-x.8 Glasgow University Library, Special Collections
Fig.23: Old Lecture Hall, George Street. Reference: P2/1/17 Reproduced with the permission of Strathclyde University Archives
The photo captures the interior of the Andersonian Library at the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College in George Street, c 1890. Librarian George Martin is at the issue desk. This circular hall was once the Lecture Hall, and later the lower part of the Andersonian Museum.
The round wall seen in the cartoon would seem to confirm the round lecture hall shown above right. However, at this date the Andersonian Institute was still located on John Street (fl1799-1827). The round shape would have facilitated acoustics and viewing comfort. The roof lights would have provided advantages over a normal vertical window for natural light ingress. It would also appear that it was fitted with ’sparkling gas’ for additional illumination. (As was the Royal Theatre on Queen Street, the first UK theatre to be lit by gas.)
Fig.24: The Star Inn & Hotel, Ingram Street Fig.25: No.3 (later no.5 after 1826) John Street. Photos courtesy of Canmore.
Note the large pend on the south wing to provide coach access to the rear of the Star Inn & Hotel/(later Bank) on Ingram Street. The Star Inn sits directly east of Dugald Bannatyne’s house at the head of Glassford Street. His house was later consumed by it. His business partner (of the Glasgow Building Company), Robert Smith, architect for the Star Inn. The Institute architect unknown. (In 1804 Smith’s residence was John Street at George Street.)
The west façade of David Hamilton’s Hutcheson’s Hospital b1805 with the vertical wall of tri-partite windows intrigued me. This style of window was used extensively by the Glasgow Building Company around the new town in the early 1790s. Possibly being used here as a unifying element. However, I’d somewhat neglected to turn around and ask a question of the east façade of the Italian centre. Looking at Canmore raises the question, was Hamilton responding to the old façade of the Anderson’s Philosophical Institution Hall built c1799? (A key building of Glasgow’s enlightenment bought/built by Alexander Oswald of Shieldhall (1738-1813) c1799 from Hamilton, Fullarton & Co. for housing the Institute.) The Glasgow directory captures it at no.3 (later no.5 after 1826) John Street prior to the move of 1827 to the old Grammar School in George Street. The front we see today a possible later facelift. The south pend a later addition as it does not appear on the OS map of 1857, whereas the north pend is captured.
The arcaded ground floor is reminiscent of Robert Adams original scheme for John Street & Ingram Street that was replicated around Wilson Street and Spreull’s Land c1790. Here is the location where Birbeck would form his ideas that took him south to form the London’s Mechanics’ Institute. The record books record Glasgow built the third Mechanics Institute, however, up until that time it had no need for a ‘dedicated’ Mechanics Institute, it had Anderson’s Philosophical Institution Hall. For such a plain façade it is curious that Scott House its counterpoint on South Frederick Street facing west follows the same format though more elaborate. Seven central bays flanked north & South with (pilastered) tri-partite windows.
Fleming’s map of 1807 reflects a square footprint, (which could possibly accommodate a circular auditorium) but by 1857 the building has been repurposed, cut & shut, to create a courtyard to the rear for the Star Inn possibly to accommodate continued access to the stables that had been reoriented east west instead of the original north south. The Institute’s mutilation c1827 meaning that the plot lost any association with its provenance.
Fig.28: Fleming 1807 v OS 1857 view of John Street. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland
Extract from ‘The First Technical College’ 204 George street
“Considerable alterations were necessary to fit the old building for its new uses. A doorway was cut through the front and a porch erected so as to give entrance from George Street thus bringing the façade into the condition in which it is at present. Many internal alterations were made and a new building erected at the back, on what seems to have been the playground of the school. This building was circular in plan , 52 feet in diameter and was divided into two stories, the lower one being cited as a lecture room, with sitting accommodation for 400 auditors. In this room were delivered most of the popular lectures for which the Andersonian was famous. The upper room was fitted up as a museum; it was 30 feet high, covered with a fine dome , and was provided with cases to contain specimens. To allow of access to the upper cases a light gallery was carried round , which was reached by a flight of steps. In the centre of the floor was a lantern light for the lecture room below. Museum and lecture room were fitted from designs by James Smith of Jordanhill FRS who was afterwards president of the institution.
The above would seem to imply Scott was responsible for the front porch and internal refit. Though, the word ‘fitted’ above is curious as one would expect ‘built’ to be used. Was the work of James Smith a refit too of Scott’s earlier work? The cartoon above seems to suggest a round auditorium was preferred for lectures which suggest Scott may have introduced this from the outset at George Street. ( More research required )
Alexander Oswald of Shieldhall (1738-1813)
The property of Shield Hall (which contains over 300 acres), like many larger estates, is a collection of small properties, being made up of various of those “Bonnet Lairdships” into which most of the parish of Govan was once divided. In 1781 Shield Hall was sold by Alexander Wilson’s creditors to Alexander Oswald, merchant in Glasgow, brother to George Oswald of Scotstoun. Alexander Oswald of Shield Hall was a shrewd and enterprising man of business, and was engaged in various undertakings besides his own foreign trade. He was a partner in the South Sugar-house Company with Casper Claussen, a Dutchman, as managing partner. He became sole proprietor of M’Ure’s “Great Work” for the making of ropes, and built the tall tenement with a rope carved round it, which stood till the other day at the corner of Ropework Lane. And he was an early and successful investor in building ground. (2) But from the leading business of the day he held aloof. He had tempting West Indian offers, but he refused them all : he would not, directly nor indirectly, mix himself up with slavery. Rigid in his own expenditure, he was a generous though discriminating giver and lender. Though a grave silent man, he was full of humour and information. He took a keen interest in the Andersonian University, and in every appliance for spreading knowledge. He was one of the founders of the Royal Infirmary. In days when it was not pleasant to be a Whig, he was a Whig, or perhaps a little more. For he said about the French Revolution much what most people now say, and he openly denounced the wretched Dundas system of government, and favoured a Reform Bill something like the old measure of 1832. He could almost walk on his own ground from his office in Ropework Lane off the Stockwell, to his house, in Madeira Court, at the head of Oswald Street. It was the westmost of the two detached mansions that formed the Court. Oswald Street is built on what was Mr. Oswald’s garden and field.
Back to Robert Scott…
1830/31 West Regent Street (nos.172-186 & no.188)
The anthemonia necking of the ionic pilasters at 116 Blythswood confirm Scott’s link with Virginia Buildings (see Figs3&4 with Fig.14 below for comparison). It suggests Scott wasn’t afraid to re-use designs to keep cost down. Was this pragmatism part of his appeal for the Tradeshouse?
Although he does switch it up on the main south façade with the pulvinated doorcase that has echoes of the Thomsonesque entry at no.95 further down. Does his dispensing with a porch here at no.188 suggest a desire to maximise light into the hallway…. and/or does the stone discolouration of the door case suggest a clever remodel at some point by another hand? I suspect the later.
At 176, 180 & 184 the (Victorian) porches of ‘neo-medieval proportions’ are problematic. Originally there would only have been two double main street entrances, at 176 & 184. They would have been grand double wide stairs possibly similar to what existed at Blenheim Place of 154 West Regent Street. Entry 180 was merely a means to access the turnpike stairs to the rear. At some point both houses have been divided up and 3 new single entries created. The oversized porches and paint simply hide the scars. The Greek key is I believe original at 176 & 184 (crisper & more defined than 180) a nod to Soane’s use of the motif. Scott would have been very familiar with his work in Glasgow given his association with the Dennistouns’ of Colgrain. Do we have Scott to thank for keeping Greek key vital in the city?
The approach to Blythswood square would benefit from reinstating 172-186 back to how it was envisioned with paint removed.
c1835 West Regent Street (no.126-128) un-attributed
The old Ophthalmic Institute at no.126; has managed to retain the original portico. Entablature and ionic columns & pilasters feature ionic detailing very characteristic of Robert Scott’s hand. Canmore captures on its website older pictures still reflecting ventilation plates similar to those on the South Albion Street Police Buildings.
c1835 West Regent Street (no.152-154) dem un-attributed Also known as Blenheim Chambers but was originally Blenheim Place has Scott’s characteristic detailing on cornices. Canmore captures interior view of ceiling, south east room, ground floor with intricate plaster work.
( No.113: Whilst the porch appears to be a later replacement (James Thomson?) the consoled architraves on the façade look very similar to those at Dumbarton County Buildings. However, they are not a perfect match, as in the case of the anthemia elsewhere in the street, which are duplicates of other known work. )
It throws up the possibility that Scott was responsible for far more of West Regent Street than previously thought.
Fig.36: OS Maps 1857 & 1892 Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.
1831 Bothwell Parish Church
Working possibly as a clerk of works for David Hamilton at Bothwell Parish Church making amendments to the Nave in the new Church west of the medieval Choir complete with Hamilton Monument.
1834 Boturich Castle
Boturich Castle Loch Lomond, by Robert Lugar 1830-32 for John Buchanan of Ardoch. The Castle was built on the site of the previous 15th Century castle. Boturich Castle belonged to the Lennox and Buchanan families originally. 1834 additions by Scott, Stephen & Gale. In 1850 the Octagon Tower, to the left of the photo was added and became the principal entrance. Again we see Scott being brought in after the main build. Is he fixing settlement issues or ‘problems’ not envisaged in original plans or introducing ‘modern’ comforts. The truth is we don’t know. …But, possibly, he was recommended by Smollet after his earlier work at nearby Cameron House.
By Scott, Stephen & Gale. Gothic Revival with clock tower & steeple.
Completed in 1839 for the benefit of the workers employed by Wm Baird & Co, ironmasters, and their families. It borrows on James Smith of Jordanhill’s Govan Church of 1826 which itself was referencing Shakespeare’s the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-Upon-Avon.
Commissioned by William Connal, I believe this to be the William Connal of Findlay, Duff & Co. or relation. Thus maintaining the strong mercantile links from Virginia Street. Of note is the inverted ‘crenellation’(corbals) & chancery-esque windows with elements of ‘Rundbogenstil’ inserted into a fireproof castillo.
Figs.39-42: 23 York St, Source: Canmore
Fig.43: York St, location Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.
pre 1839 Buchanan Street
Thomas Gildard (1822-1895), who was articled to David Hamilton 1838-1843, at the end of his career in 1895 wrote an article on some old Glasgow architects for the Philosophical Society. In the piece he has the following to say about Robert Scott:
‘A firm in practice of the time I speak Scott, Steven & Gale. …Mr Scott seems to have been a ripe architect, whether of much originality or not, certainly of much culture. A building by him in Buchanan Street nearly opposite the Arcade, and since destroyed by fire, was quiet, yet dignified in composition, and elegant in detail, and, although by no means obtrusive was seen to be the work of a man who thoroughly knew what he had to do.’
I have written about the possible location previously with reference to Soane. Though I now suspect it was possibly in a range of buildings not simply one as evidenced by who resided at plots 4-6 Buchanan Street and his work in Virginia Street and West Regent Street.
The Greek key motif extant at no.79 Buchanan Street for me links Scott from this location to the porches in West Regent Street. The porches are not original (Victorian) but contain original elements at nos.176 & 184. (I contend this location in Buchanan Street is the actual site of Sir John Soane’s house for Robert Dennistoun; Mitchell Lane a remnant denoting the old access to rear stables.)
71-79 Buchanan Street today. (Note the window misalignment from the 2nd floor up as a result of the 1887 fire.(Not to be confused with the earlier fire that Gildard refers.)
In October of 1847 Alexander Watt LL D., (c1796-1847) city statist & cathedral warden, Professor of Astronomy at Anderson’s University (1828-34) died. In his obituary it states,
“ Dr Watt was a native of Glasgow, and was educated as an architect and engineer under the late Mr. Robert Scott, and for a brief period practised his profession, as successor to the late Mr Denholm.”
The Glasgow directories support this, where James Watt initially appears in 1811 as an architect at 164 Trongate. By 1814 a J&A Watt are running an architecture academy from 9 Argyle Street. This suggests Alexander and James are in partnership but only very briefly as by 1818 James Watt, architect (c1789-1832) is running the academy solo whilst Alexander has taken the (more prestigious) position replacing James Denholm at Glasgow Academy.
The obituary might infer that James Watt was taught by Alexander or by Robert Scott directly. If indeed James Watt and Scott ran separate branches of the same academy that would point to Scott as being head of the lineage. (However, it cannot be ruled out that the two schools were distinct.)
The obituary, almost eight years after Robert Scott’s death gives some indication as to the esteem Scott was held in his day. It also informs that Robert Scott had some engineering ability which is borne out by the public and private builds that we can attribute to him.
His Influence: in Partnership
If some Greek key and anthemion could be said to influence its impact is negligible when compared with the contribution of John Stephen (c1807 – 20 Nov 1850) who joined Scott in partnership from 1834. Scott one would assume provided a nurturing hand, but possibly didn’t give the free reign that say a Honeyman & Keppie would later grace Macintosh with for the GSoA. Maybe not as much a reflection on Scott as a reflection of the time. Gildard described Stephen as:
‘An architect of great promise [who] early taught us the elasticity of Greek architecture’ and ‘exercised his gifts as if he felt he was responsible for them’.
We can also infer from this statement that Scott new talent when he saw it. For that we must be thankful. (Enough raw material would have passed under his watchful eye over the course of thirty years.) After Scott’s death Stephen would continue working from 23 South Hanover street from 1839-1844. When looking at some of his work that was begun in partnership with Scott (& Gale) but finished solo one sees a flourishing of ideas that simply had not been present earlier. (At least not from the evidence that remains.)
The Napoleonic campaigns in Egypt between 1798 and 1801 had ignited a fascination with all things Egyptian in Europe and the US. By 1825 we get a sense of how strong its hold was in ‘North Britain’ and especially Glasgow (see the Looking Glass, issue one, 11 June 1825). In that period in terms of decoration we only see Scott having a preference for honeysuckle versus palmate anthemion, if anything he was more Greek, following Soane’s lead with Greek key. When Scott did stray from his restrained neo-classical work it was to Gothic.
As others have noted a key influence was what was happening in the art world: “Artists like John Martin (1789-1854) produced grand works which portrayed Biblical history in an apocalyptic light. In paintings like Seventh Plague of Egypt (1823), Martin drew on illustrations of Egyptian monuments to depict a Biblical scene, showing Moses calling down a plague upon Egyptians and the pharaoh. This work was an attempt to use Egypt to display the emotion and drama of the Biblical narratives.”
If the number of different congregations and proliferation of Churches in staunchly calvinist Glasgow was anything to go by then the city was ripe and ready to consume any biblical message. Any. Combine this with a burgeoning art scene with both old and new money and one can see how the zeitgeist can then be said to inform the architecture. It’s instructive to note the time lapse though. Martin was producing this themed work in 1823. Stephen doesn’t introduce into his work until c1838. The ideas would have taken time to percolate, distil and wait; for the freedom to execute something ‘new’.
The overtly Egyptian St Judes of 1838, 278-282 West George Street (catB), where we see an idea extrapolated to fixtures and fittings. And again, Egyptian was to the fore on the competition winning Blythswood Testimonial School. His vision for Sighthill Cemetery of 1839 not content with waiting until you approach the Chapel (complete with an Egyptian winged sun disc over the doorway), the entrance gateway clearly signalling a different realm.
Other examples of his work: the neo-classicism of Customs House catA where he may have been involved with John Taylor. The pragmatism of Dundas Street Station (Queen Street Station) built for the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, opened 1842. And his utilitarian warehouse in James Watt Street c1847. The anchor & barrel, very matter of fact. Juxtaposed with the over sized anthemion, whose scale Peter Nicholson, architect of the Hamilton Building at the old College, b1811 would be proud. If one looks at the Sighthill Chapel, St Jude’s and the James Watt warehouse as a collective; Stephen didn’t hold back when it came to roof ornamentation.
Inferred by location/proximity: 1809-1812 626 Argyle Street shared address with James Haldane, engraver.
1815-1819 2 Argyle Street next door to James & Alexander Watt Architecture Academy
1815-1819 2 Argyle Street, opposite John Shepherd & John Baird I at foot of Virginia St
1822-1825 4 South Hanover Street, John Herbertson occupies address Scott vacated previous year 1821
1824 6 South Hanover Street next door to J.A. Gilfillan Drawing Academy
1826-1827 19 South Hanover Street, John Herbertson next door to Scott at no.23
John Herbertson (1789-1854) working next door to Scott for 6 years might suggest a working relationship. We do know he was articled to David Hamilton (1804-1805). (As a matter of interest David Hamilton had previously resided in South Hanover Street a few years earlier.)
By 1822 Herbertson was architect to the Lanarkshire Prison Board when he designed the Glasgow Bridewell in Duke Street. Does this explain Robert Scott getting involved with both Dumbarton Prison and the Central Police Buildings? Scott moves out of 4 South Hanover for Herbertson to move in. The appointments possibly necessitating both working side by side. John Baird II was an apprentice of Herbertson from 1832 and John Carrick an assistant from 1826 to 1839.
Inferred by ‘articles’
pre1814 Taught Alexander Watt architecture and engineering (& possibly James Watt)
1830-1832 John Baird II apprenticed to James Watt (1789-1832) later to John Herbertson (1789-1854) worked with John Fisher until Spring 1837 when he joined David and James Hamilton where he was very unusually allowed to put his name in the Directory.
1850-1854 Alexander Gordon Watt (born 3 Sept 1824, Glasgow son of James Watt of the Academy.) Articled to William Spence. In practice with Hugh & David Barclay later James Sellars: (David & James members of Alexander Thomson circle.)
c1884-1888 Alex Watt working from 131 West Regent Street. A street with its fair share of both artists & architects in residence. (I’ve noted numerous architects working from this street. GFS captured the artists as part of his research.)
The Final Years
In the 1836 Glasgow Directory we see Scott residing at 72 Norfolk Street, Lauriestone. A couple of blocks from where Alexander Thomson would later erect his majestic tenement on Gorbals Cross. He was buried on 20 April 1839, intestate. Claims were made on his estate by nieces and nephews and from this we are able to extract a precious few final clues as to who he was.
Debt owing to defunct Western Bank of Scotland
Proceeds house furniture by auctioneer John Donald
Proceeds from sale of books Barclay & Skirving auction
Claim against managers of St Marys Chapel
Debt due by late John Gordon of St Croix
Scott, Stephen & Gale share of outstanding debt
Robert Darling, Lesmahagow
Rents due for half year as follows:
Mr Angus Spirit Dealer Stockwell St. Mr Adam tenant in Craigannet Stirlingshire John McConchie tenant Craigneuk half year salary at Whit_less school masters salary and deductions Due by John McClymont house factor Glasgow Allan Fullarton Esq ground annual Butterbiggins
£367.8.9
£45.17.10
£33.3
£50
£299.11.9(£150)
£172.10.1(£100)
£47.10
£13.5 £56
£18 £31.10(£-) £19.13
If looking at the sale of books, in today’s terms that would amount to £4,380. A bibliophile.3
No tangible property appears, does this suggest it was sold to pay off the Western Bank of Scotland? In annual rent he was collecting the equivalent of £23k in today’s terms.
The debt due by John Gordon of St Croix; It would appear Scott had been boarding, clothing and schooling Gordon’s son. In real terms today that is the equivalent to an outlay of £28k! (Written down to £14k.)
His business partners owed him the equivalent of £16k. (written down to £9k)
Robert Darling was the husband of his niece Marion Scott. All of his nieces and nephews with their respective spouses resided mainly in Lesmahagow & Carmichael. One of his nieces Janet married John Miller possibly of Hillhouse, Lesmahagow. The fact only nieces and nephews are noted suggests he had no immediate family, or at least none still alive. In the absence of any other supporting documentation nothing else can be inferred accept that he may have had close ties to the area. (‘Scott’ as a name has a stronghold around Linlithgow and the borders.)
In the 1868 Stirlingshire directory there is a George Adam residing Craigannet Farm in St Ninians. He died 16 April 1898. The Kirk O’Muir cemetery lies on the northern slopes of the upper Carron Valley just over one mile west of Easter Craigannet, one of the many farms worked by members of the Adam family. Possible Mr Adam is the father of George; his parents were David and Elizabeth.4
As for Allan Fullarton, there is an interesting overlap with Scott’s known work. One John A Fullarton of A Fullarton & Co. resided at 180 West Regent Street in 1839. Possibly the son of Archibald Fullarton who ran the publishers and engravers of Glasgow 1833-40, of London, Edinburgh and Glasgow 1840-43, and of London, Edinburgh and Dublin and London from 1845. They maintained a prodigious output of books, atlases and maps.
Allan Fullarton may be the same Allan Fullarton who along with James McHardy [Sheriff Clerk Depute of Lanarkshire] bought 4 Woodside Place in 1829. His house was listed as Woodside Cottage but by 1839 in the directory there was Allan Fullarton listed commissioner for four courts of Ireland, 76 St Vincent St, ho 4 Woodside Terrace. Later moving to 19 Woodside Place by 1866. A Butterbiggins Cottage is captured on OS maps of 1857 & 1914 south west of the Southern Necropolis. In the directory of 1843 a Mrs Robert Watt, Butterbiggins, mid cathcart rd is captured whilst in the same year a Robert Watt of customs house, 92 West Regent Street. Butterbiggins would later be consumed by Larkfield Bus depot:
Fig.52: OS Map 1914 & 1857 Butterbiggins Cottage
Conclusion Robert Scott was obviously versatile and could respond sensitively to the locale when required as evidenced by the Virginia Buildings. So successfully there as it happens that it has confused many as to the true build chronology with the Jacobean Corsetry. Scott I suspect cleverly introduced both the balustrade to tie in with the Virginia Mansion to the north and introduced the blind relieving arch to mirror the adamitic tenement on Wilson Street. The success of these not only enabled the Corsetry to blend in with the existing urban realm but crucially hid the Corsetry’s true residential origins. But he didn’t always produce the most elegant work, although there are signs in West Regent Street that he attempted to enhance the approach to Blythswood Square with understated neo-classical grandeur. His style restrained; pragmatic does not win plaudits. And that is where his reputation possibly lost ground. Without fully appreciating that he was a keystone of architecture teaching for over a quarter of a century, fulfilling simply two from a three of ‘Firmitas, Utilitas, Venustas’ has proven not enough, especially, in a city that was so blessed with excellence in all three spheres. However, his impact should not be underestimated. Teaching successfully necessitates a generosity of spirit. Regardless of the lack of specificity surrounding his provenance or who he taught or who was ‘articled’ to him those thirty years cannot be ignored. He was surveyor for the Trades House and called upon by the Merchants House. He was one of the trustees of the Haldane Academy Trust a precursor of the Glasgow School of Art. One gets the sense he did not have the ego or ambition of a David Hamilton or Peter Nicholson but neither did he have their eye. However, due to the solid technical foundations he laid, his legacy to the built environment of Glasgow, ‘owing something to the influence of Soane’ ought to be remembered.
Only in Glasgow can you in the space of a courtyard transition from Kipling to the bard himself, Robert Burns. The tenement in Virginia Street having been home to one of Burns’s Mauchline Belles for twenty-five years. ↩︎
Born Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz on 19 May 1744, she was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Princess Elizabeth Albertina of Saxe-Hildburghausen. When King George III of Britain succeeded to the throne in 1760, he was 22 and unmarried and the 17 year old Princess Charlotte was an obvious choice for a wife… and, an obvious choice for the name of a street in Hanovarian Glasgow. But first the land needed to be acquired.
The area identified was known as ‘Merkdaily Yard’ which sat on a flood plain of the river Clyde just south of the Gallowgate. Robert Reid, ‘Senex‘ tells us it apparently got the moniker due to the old annual rental being ‘365 marks Scots’, however, Renwick sets us straight, the name had appeared in a will as early as 1726, that of John Luke ‘Bristol John’ a goldsmith. [It should be no surprise that Glasgow a mercantile city is linked with Bristol, a major (slave) trading port of the 18th Century. The transatlantic traffic in enslaved Africans had an enormous effect on Bristol. Between 1698 and 1807, a known 2,108 ships left Bristol for Africa to exchange goods for enslaved Africans and take them to the Caribbean.] The merk daily area was identified for development around 1773 (denoted on Charles Ross’s map of the same year) with initially a square called ‘St. James’ envisaged.
Figs.1 & 2: 1776 Map of Glasgow with St James’s Sq. (After Barrie) Source: Reproduced with the permission of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery Print Room.
Fig.3 prior to the development (of St Andrew’s Street, the Square and Charlotte Street), ’Merkdaily Yard’ sat due east of St Andrew’s just north of the city wash-house. Merkdaily Street was one of several approaches to the wash-house from the Gallowgate and Cross; the approach would be leveraged to ultimately become Charlotte Street. (Some artistic license has been taken by Paul in the above view. The square building to the left, ‘the wash-house’ b1732, sat directly behind the Church from this line of sight. It has been moved to bring it into view.)
It is probably no accident that this angle has been chosen, excluding the English (Episcopalian) Church b1752 to the south west just out of view.
Fig.5: McArthur’s map of 1778 v Fleming’s map of 1807 – Projection of Charlotte Street. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland
Between 1777 & 1780 the land was advertised for sale at least twice, before being purchased by Archibald Paterson who laid off the grounds for building purposes. The sale of the Merkdaily Yard to Paterson was good business, with the Gallowgate Green to the south and Allan Dregorn’s St Andrew’s directly to the west it captured a prime building site next to the area that had been earmarked for development, backed, by an Act of Parliament. In addition, it was within easy reach of the Town Hall and the coffee room of the future Tontine at the Cross. An almost perfect location for building. Almost, as the green and banks of the Clyde had not yet been raised nor the weir installed. As such it was prone to flooding on occasion.
One of the earliest glimpses of fashionable Charlotte Street is in the Glasgow Looking Glass, of 23 July 1825, during Glasgow fair, where the rooftops of the houses at the south end of the street can be glimpsed over the trees growing in the verdant rear garden of David Dale:
Fig.6: ‘The Glasgow Fair’, from The Glasgow Looking Glass, 1825 Source: Glasgow University Library, Special Collections – Sp Coll Bh14-x.8
Our knowledge of the prestigious addresses with their mainly large 5 & 7 bay townhouses on Buchanan, Miller, Virginia, Queen & Buchanan Streets suggest numerous architects & masons were contracted by the numerous residents. Though, it should be noted that Miller Street was the first in the city to specify height, style (Palladian) and form in the Deeds of Title there was still room for individuality on each plot.
Charlotte Street appears to be unique for its strong cohesive design, suggestive of the same hand. A regimented presentation of detached villas with auxiliary outbuildings to their north. The only outlier appearing to be David Dales much larger house (& garden) on the west side, directly off the green.
Charlotte Street, drawn by David Small in the late 19th century, was the only time in the city that a residential view of the merchant & tobacco lord houses was captured whilst still solely domestic. It shows the uniform nature of the façades that are confirmed by later photography.
Fig.7: Charlotte Street looking north, drawn by David Small c1850. Fig.8: Foot of Charlotte Street, west by Joseph Swan 1829 Source: http://www.theGlasgowstory.com
The original plan was for 14 plots, David Dale purchasing plot #8. However, he subsequently purchased a further two plots in 1784 to secure a larger garden for himself. Thus the number of plots was reduced to 12. This might explain why David Dale occupies the prime position in the street and not his business partner, and developer, Paterson who took the plot directly north at no.47.
The plots were 78ft wide & 70ft deep, with a main façade of 45ft north to south; a 24ft & 9ft boundary gap north & south. The larger north gap accommodated a wing 15ft in breadth. Garden walls were stipulated to be between 7-9ft in height.
The size of gardens varied, ranging in length from on average 130ft on the west side to 155-180ft on the east.
Dale’s house & garden the exception, both being much larger than his neighbours due to his purchase of two additional plots enabling him to extend his garden 440ft west and also north to Charlotte Lane from the rear of his property. On the south the street was protected by an entry gate for exclusivity and residents’ security.
Fig.9: Charlotte Street, 1807, close up. (Fleming) Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland
From Fleming’s map of 1807 one thing immediately jumps out apart form the uniform footprints; the large (in)formal gardens. Of this period, I see no other street arrangement like this in the city. There are individual plots/houses with landscaped gardens but no other street as regular nor impressively captured. Remarkably every owner seems to have imprinted a design creating an informal tapestry; a collective effort in social compliance/climbing.
David Dale’s House, no.76 Charlotte Street:
Plot #8 price £223 16d on 23 vi 1780. (fl1783-1954)
Figs.10-16 : No.76 Charlotte Street with Fluting detail of c1916 Source: Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning. Photographer Unknown
Fluting whilst an ancient form of decoration, pierced fluting as seen here is unusual for Glasgow. Fluting appears to be a motif in the street that is carried from the façade into the interiors as seen on Dale’s fireplace and on the door case of no.52 (still extant). But the intricacy of Dale’s design appears to be unique with the piercing. The design is echoed on the iron work to the rear of the building on the balcony.
Fig.17 :(Arkwright) Spinning Machine Arkwright’s Invention: The mechanised water frame, with the columns of creels… a machine, that later would be central to Dale’s success. The frieze detail, which is amplified at no.76. predates Arkwright’s invention but curiously shares similarities in form.
Figs.18-20: Main Door / Fireplace / Upper staircase to 2nd floor. Source: Regality vIV. Drawings most likely attributed to A N Paterson, architect. Prior to demolition he allegedly appropriated, for his home, ‘Longcroft’ Helensburgh, one of the decorative urns from the property .
Fig.21: Floor Plan of no.76 Source: Regality Club, vIV p.119
“The south wing contained the laundry and servants’ bedrooms, the north wing the kitchen, the sculleries, bakehouse and wine-cellar. The principal rooms show (Robert Adam’s) characteristics of elegant design and ornamentation, and the wood-carvings of the fireplace framings are highly artistic. The library, with its domed ceiling and glass doors leading to a balcony, must have been a charming room.”
Mr. A. N. Paterson, architect, has been good enough to favour me with the following detailed description : “From the irrefragable evidence of the buildings themselves as they exist to this day (those on the west side of the street are little changed externally at least), Mr. Paterson must have done more than merely provide stringent regulations as to the size of the houses in Charlotte Street and their external ornament, for, in the matter of design there can be no doubt that all the buildings from end to end of the street (the flatted tenements between the Gallowgate and Great Hamilton Street not less than the mansions in the more southern portion of it) are the work of one man.”
“With almost equal assurance it may asseverated that this was Robert Adam, the most celebrated architect of his day.… It is therefore extremely likely that Mr. Paterson, from all contemporary accounts a man who cared little for the financial return of his project, compared with its being carried out in the most worthy and complete manner, should have secured the best talent obtainable at the time, particularly when, as already stated, the work was of the magnitude involved in laying out and designing a whole street.”
“The internal evidence is equally strong. In every detail, both of the exterior, and still more notably of the internal finishings, David Dale’s house is eminently characteristic of the refined and thoughtful architecture of the master in question”…”A special characteristic of Adam’s work was the care he bestowed upon, and the grace with which he invested, the internal finishings of his work — the chimney pieces, wainscoting, plaster ceilings, and even the door handles and shutter knobs, and of this an excellent example is furnished in the two chimney pieces and the staircase ceiling of David Dale’s house. Of the house itself, the plan and the general view give a good idea of its general disposition, except that the one of story wing to the south, which previously balanced that to the north, has been partially removed to make way for the addition carried out some years since by the Glasgow Eye Infirmary. While to the street front only two stories are shown, to the back there are four, a basement containing a large kitchen and other offices at the lower level of a half sunk area between the house and garden, and a complete attic with bedrooms and a delightful octagonal private room (Dale’s study) being added to the two principal floors. On these last, and facing the street, are four large rooms, each about 24 feet by 16, which would probably serve as dining-room, library or parlour, and two drawing-rooms, with smaller rooms occupied as bedrooms (in addition to those in the attic) behind. In the centre to the back is a charmingly designed and beautifully executed wheeling stone stair, over which, on the upper floor, is the ceiling already referred to. On either side of the main building are the one-story wings previously mentioned with separate entrances (through little forecourts) from the street, and communicating at once with the main house on the same level, and by separate stair with the basement. Of these, one of the main rooms — it is impossible now to determine the exact distinction in the days of its original occupant, but one, for such an extraordinarily busy man as was its owner — may well have served as a sort of business adjunct to the dwelling house, the other as a continuation of the servants’ offices and apartments to the ground floor and the street. Of the two chimney pieces illustrated, one is from the principal room (drawing room ?) in the south east angle of the first floor, the other from the octagonal room in the top floor.”
David Dale (1739-1806)
Fig.22:David Dale, 1791 by James Tassie. Source: National Portrait Gallery, Scotland.
Born in Stewarton, Ayrshire. He was apprenticed as a weaver in Paisley and then worked as a weaver’s agent, travelling the country delivering yarn and collecting finished cloth. At the age of 24, Dale set up his own business in Glasgow importing linen yarn from France and Belgium, later expanding into production he would capitalise on Richard Arkwright’s (1732–92) invention of the 1780s; his patented water-frame. Although New Lanark b1785 was not the first, it became one of the largest and most important cotton mills of its period employing over 1,300. He was also an agent for the Royal Bank of Scotland. Dale’s investment was substantial in New Lanark, when Dale’s son-in-law Owen and his partners bought New Lanark in 1799 they paid £60,000, said to be cheap at the price.
It is instructive to note that by 1780 Dale was rich enough to build his mansion on Charlotte Street prior to the New Lanark acquisition.
A religious man, Dale was a founder member of the Old Scotch Independents in 1768. His Christian beliefs were translated into practice at New Lanark where he built a model village for his workers. The workforce included displaced Highlanders and hundreds of (cheap) pauper children from the workhouses of Edinburgh and Glasgow. He married Anne Carolina Campbell, the daughter of John Campbell, an Edinburgh Director of the Royal Bank of Scotland.
In 1799 Dale’s daughter Caroline married Robert Owen. Dale sold New Lanark to his son-in-law that same year and moved to Cambuslang. He bought Rosebank House in Cambuslang from ex Lord Provost of Glasgow John Dunlop (the ‘killing provost’ a true but rather unfair moniker. The ‘mercy killing provost’ doesn’t quite have the same ring). He was the last person to engage Robert Adam prior to his death, his last known drawings being for Rosebank.
His son-in-law would move into no.76 after his marriage.
Robert Owen (1771-1858)
Fig.23: Ann Caroline Dale, artist unknown (1778-1831) Source: New Lanark Trust Fig.24: Robert Owen, Henry William Pickersgill (1782–1875) Source: New Lanark World Heritage Site.
Although Owen’s period of ownership lasted only 10 years longer than that of his father-in-law, David Dale, Owen instituted a wide range of workplace, social, and educational reforms that led to the idea of New Lanark as an ‘ideal’ community and of Owen himself as a Socialist. Owen described his work at New Lanark as
“the most important experiment for the happiness of the human race that has yet been instituted in any part of the world”.
In 1807 he is still listed in the directory as residing at 43 Charlotte Street (later to become no.76 after 1826.)
Robert Blair’s House, 52 Charlotte Street, the survivor.
(Note the scalloped doorway which it is thought links Glasgow architecture of this period with the eastern seaboard of the USA. More research required.)
No.52 gives a potential clue for one of the sources of inspiration; St Andrew’s, Gunton, Norfolk in the landscaped park of Gunton Hall. It is Robert Adam’s only complete (temple) church in England, executed 1767-68. Given its significance for Adam, given the reference to St Andrew was the architect inspired to pay homage here in Charlotte Street, part of a church complex dedicated to Scotland’s patron saint? The Adam design as executed at Gunton was altered. It is in the original plan that a possible influence for the fluted frieze above the doorway at no.52 can be seen. The architect now able to resolve an earlier vision. See below (SM Adam volume 43/11) https://collections.soane.org/prints/item-print?id=THES100751
Fig.28: St. Andrew’s, Gunton (relatively plain frieze with rosettes minus fluting). Source: unknown Figs.29 & 30: Original elevation complete with fluting and enclosed rosettes. (SM Adam volume 43/11) possibly by hand of William Hamilton. Courtesy of http://www.soane.org
The Street (East Side)
Fig. 31: St Andrew’s Free Church Source: Canmore 1098719
In this shot we essentially see what remains on the eastern side after the projection of London Street. William Urquhart’s house removed, the only original house missing (but still extant) is no.40 of Dr Rev John Lockhart at the foot of the street. It would later become St Aloysius College.
From LHS (1807 Nos.): no.27 J McKenzie of Garnkirk no.30 William Taylor (drapery warehouse owner) no.33 James Jackson (St Andrew’s (later Trinity) Free Church) no.37 David Black Tobacco Merchant (later St Alphonsus School)
The Street (West Side):
Fig.32: From NE looking SW. Capturing the 5 remaining original houses. Source: Virtual Mitchell
From LHS (1807 Nos.): no.43 David Dale of Rosebank (Eye Dispensary, Salvation Army, 1955 Our Lady and St Francis Secondary School) no.47 Archibald Paterson, mill owner (c1892 Free Gospel Church, 1923 Our Lady and St Francis Secondary School) no.49 William McNeil (1846 Franciscan Convent & later Our Lady and St Francis Secondary School) no.52 John Craig of Auchinairn (1846 Franciscan Convent) no.55 Robert Blair (Now known as no.52 ‘the survivor’)
’30’ Charlotte Street
Fig.33: 30 Charlotte Street with fireplace inset (later home of ‘Camp Coffee’ c1898.) Source: Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Museums.
This technically falls outside the southern end of the original street as evidenced by the gate. The numbering has changed due to the multiple changes on the eastern side. It’s curious that the flutting detail on the fireplace appears to mirror what we see on David Dale’s house and indeed still extant at no.52. Was this salvaged from an earlier house or reproduced?
John Stuart Blackie FRSE (28 July 1809 – 2 March 1895) was a Scottish scholar and man of letters. He was a keen Scottish nationalist, who raised most of the money to endow a chair of Celtic at the University of Edinburgh, and was an outspoken advocate of the reform of the education system.
He was born in the above house, at 30 Charlotte Street, the son of Kelso-born banker Alexander Blackie (d.1846) and Helen Stodart. He was educated at the New Academy and afterwards at the Marischal College, in Aberdeen, where his father was manager of the Commercial Bank.
After attending classes at Edinburgh University (1825–1826), Blackie spent three years at Aberdeen as a student of theology. In 1829 he went to Germany, and after studying at Göttingen and Berlin (where he came under the influence of Heeren, Müller, Schleiermacher, Neander and Böckh) he accompanied Bunsen to Italy and Rome. The years spent abroad extinguished his former wish to enter the Church, and at his father’s desire he gave himself up to the study of law.
Blackie married Elizabeth (known as Eliza) Wyld in 1842. They had no children. She is buried with him. He was the uncle of Sir Alexander Kennedy.
The Volunteer Bar
Figs.35 & 36: The Volunteer Bar at the corner of Charlotte Street and East Charlotte Lane, Calton. Source: Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Museums
This bar sat on the north east of the junction with Charlotte Lane, technically on old Merkdaily Street, not Charlotte Street. The Lane was necessary as it marked the southern limit of the old ‘Merkdaily’ street boundaries already extant in 1778. This would merge with the newly projected street to form Charlotte Street. The 3 stories and two windows on gable end match the format seen in St Andrew’s Street, the quoin stones the only departure from that seen in St Andrew’s Street.
This is possibly 21 Charlotte Street: No.21 was the townhouse of merchant Walter Ewing Maclae of Cathkin and also for a few years a girls’ boarding school of a certain Mrs Candlish. Her original school location is still extant on Virginia Street which she ran for almost thirty years. She was Robert Burns’s Mauchline Belle, ‘the one with wit’. Her son, Robert Smith Candlish, a moderator of the Free Church, was an educationalist like his mother and is commemorated in the stained glass window of Charles Wilson’s old Trinity College, Lynedoch Street. His championing of the Schools Act of 1872 and handing over some 500 schools to their local parishes does not get enough credit for helping drive Scottish education forward in the late 19th Century.
Figs.39 & 40: St Andrews Street looking east c1790. Source: ‘Glasgow Delineated’ John Scott
Both engravings appear to reference the same source. The Left hand image capturing the auxiliary outbuildings seen in Charlotte Street. The three stories matching the elevation seen in the Square. Most likely attributable to William Hamilton.
It is somewhat fitting that the main central archway from the façade of Adams’ New Assembly Rooms on Ingram Street (b1796) should have survived and found its way to the foot of Charlotte Street, if only for a short period (fl1922-1991). As the architect of Charlotte Street was none other than William Hamilton, ‘architect from London’, who had been a senior draughtsman in their London office for a decade (fl.1765-1774). It explains the persistent rumours of the Adams having played a role in the street, and in some ways they did. Their legacy living on through the neo-classical architecture of one William Hamilton(c1730-c1795).1
Decline:the Irish question
Why was Charlotte Street so badly conserved to the extent that only one house now remains? Here we had the finest residential street scape of early Georgian Glasgow. Combined with the St Andrew’s Square precinct an architectural jewel. As the city developed west and with it the old calvanist money, London Street struck the first blow taking with it the two north most plots. Later the influx of Irish and other poor immigrants settling in the vicinity around the east end mills, potteries and factories struck the next blow. They would have encircled Charlotte Street, cutting it off, and gradually as the last of the old money moved out, moved in. We don’t need to look far for the evidence. The old Free Church fell into disrepair due to lack of a congregation, whilst several Catholic institutions, which some of the history books rather indignantly refer, sprang up. These newcomers had no attachment (a cultural memory) with the street. Couple this with a dismissive and sometimes hostile attitude to the Irish and as time passed the city may have become somewhat indifferent to the locale by the mere presence of the Irish Catholic population. A recipe for decline. However, in the 1950s when David Dale’s house came under threat thankfully there was an outcry, some people had finally realised the importance of what remained. But not enough voices were heard to save it for posterity.
Hopefully the sad and isolated no.52, does not succumb to the same indifference. With a major development proposed to its south it will be interesting to see what safeguards are put in place by authorities to protect its fabric (Virginia Galleries springs to mind). The new development yet another box fresh, oven ready homogeneous design. Devoid of any redeeming features, it will age quicker than a deep fried mars bar. One can only hope it has the same life expectancy. Utilitas, at the expense of firmitas & venustas is not architecture; well not one that Adam nor William Hamilton would recognise.
Postscript: slavery
This piece has been about the architecture and not a social commentary. More able are qualified to discuss. However, I cannot help but acknowledge that whilst researching the article and reviewing tax records with respect to house servants in the 1780s more than once would you see an entry against Charlotte street, for example ‘negro’ or ‘a negro George’. A reminder that Glasgow was most certainly not immune from trafficking in enslaved persons. And that for someone like David Dale who advocated against slavery he was living beside neighbours who obviously had no qualms with the exploitation and barbarity at its root.
Attribution revealing the name ‘William Hamilton’ with thanks to George Fairfull-Smith, ‘Wealth of a City’, 2010. ↩︎
Fig.1: The Tontine Hotel, Trongate c1868 by Thomas Annan (1829–1887) Photogravure, plate 19 from the book “The Old Closes & Streets of Glasgow” (1900). Remodelled Town Hall from 1782 William Hamilton, architect. Source: Getty.com
Until the eighteenth century there was no public meeting place in the city meaning the Town Council had held its deliberations in the Tolbooth. There had been several iterations that we are aware of:
Fig.2: Painting of Trongate with Tolbooth of 1626, foreground, RHS. Unattributed this painting closely matches elevation and perspective of a later engraving by William Buchanan of 1770 said to be taken from “a drawing by Robert Paul” of Foulis Academy. The original engraving by Paul does indeed suggest they are linked.
1st Tolbooth c1400
2nd Tolbooth c1560
3rd Tolbooth 1626 seen above Fig.2 , of which only the steeple remains. It served as prison, Town Clerks Office and meeting-place of the Town Council for over a century.
By the early 1700s the Town Council was in need of more spacious accommodation. Accordingly the foundation stone of the first Glasgow Town Hall was laid by Provost Coulter in 1736 on the site adjoining the Tolbooth. The image below would appear to be pre 1736. If accurate it shows the dutch gabled building that was removed to make way for the first Town Hall. Note the loggia already in situ, around the cross dating from c1652, emulating Inigo Jones Covent Garden of 1630. (A photograph c1890s showing construction of Glasgow Cross Station confirm the dutch gabled building on the High Street which seem to infer a certain level of accuracy for the engraving.)
Fig.3: Glasgow Tolbooth pre 1736 Source: Engraving Illustration for The Scots Worthies (Blackie, 1879)
The description concerning the build of the Town Hall from Renwick is problematic for me. He talks of six arches, with four added later in 1781. That would suggest irregular plot widths OR 3 or equal size of approx 33ft
Scots rod, 6 ells, or 5.648m 2x = 11.3m or 37ft.
From an architecture perspective given the design of the window pediments alternating segmented & triangular, then, in order to maintain balance you must have an odd number of bays/arches. I do not think Allan Dreghorn(1706-1764) would have designed something unbalanced from the outset with six bays. He would have started with five, However, as soon as they decide to expand they are constrained to ten bays which results in the finished unbalanced design as seen in Fig.1. I do not think William Hamilton would have introduced this irregularity if given the choice or ability to correct.
About the extension to ten bays:
“By March, 1781, the committee were busy over the plans of their buildings and alterations. The first architect employed was Mr. James Craig, but he was soon discarded for “a Mr. Hamilton, an Architect from London.” After some delay the plans were adjusted, but it was not till the beginning of 1782 that the work on the main building was set agoing. John Adam, a well-known builder, whose name survives in Adam’s Court, Argyle Street, was the mason, and a stiff-necked mason he was, for there were repeated appeals to the arbiter in his contract to say what should be done. William Craig was the wright.”
It would appear that the Tontine Committee might have felt some responsibility toward architect James Craig as they hire him c1786 (in consolation?) to complete their operations:
“In August, 1786, they advertised for tenders for its (sugar rooms) erection, but the contract was not made till July, 1789, when John Brown and Matthew Clelland contracted to finish the whole building for ,£1,814. The architect was James Craig.”
Fig.4: The Sugar Sample Rooms by Muirhead Bone, built c1789. I suspect these were just off Princes Street, site of the old Sugar House on King Street. Another later drawing by Muirhead Bone after their demolition seems to support a location south of the Trongate.
Matthew Cleland (mason) and John Brown (master of works). Little is known of Matthew Cleland, uncle of Glasgow’s greatest clerk of works James Cleland(1770-1840) accept that he married the daughter of one of Glasgow’s greatest known masons of the period, Mungo Naismith(1730-1770). John Brown would later be instrumental in delivering Robert Adam’s vision for the Trades Hall b1794 as it was he in capacity as builder delivered Adam’s design. He must have been very successful in his practice as we find him residing in Virginia Street between 1794-1800 in the prior townhouse of Alexander Spiers which he had purchased from Glasgow’s Lord Provost John Dunlop of Rosebank for £2,000 in 1794. On his death his trustees would sell to James Dennistoun of Colgrain who like his brothers it is thought employed Sir John Soane to design his city townhouse at number 23 Virginia Street, still extant (no.53), much mutilated, but still as Gomme & Walker state ‘owing something to the influence of Soane’.
As for the number of bays built being initially, six or five, the Scottish Architecture Dictionary notes similarities to Webb’s Gallery at Somerset House of 1662 (with its regal links to James VI of Scotland). That was only five bays for the reasons already outlined.
Somerset House b1662 by architect John Webb(1611-1672) throws up more questions than answers. Below, Fig.5 is a plate from Colen Cambell’s (1676-1729) Vitruvius Britannicus vI, plate 16, 1715. Note that its five bays, outer bays with triangular consoled architrave & balustraded windows on all five of the first floor windows.
Above Fig.6, is a pen and ink wash by William Chambers c1775 of Webb’s old Somerset House prior to his remodel. It would appear that Allan Dreghorn’s Tontine if it took its inspiration from Somerset House then it wasn’t from Vitruvius Britannicus but from life. The confusion is cleared up by RIBA which holds in their archive the drawing below which was supplied to Colen Campbell in 1710. It would appear he has been given an interim design and not the final version that was signed off for Somerset.
The painting by Sandby shows old Somerset House ‘in the flesh’ c1772 just prior to being demolished after years of deterioration. By this point the House had become home of the Royal Academy (of Arts) and as such a view that would have previously been out of reach for the vast majority became more accessible to a chosen few. The building fronted the Thames but given it was set back behind high walls it would have not been a view seen by many except from a distance. In 1736 that would have included Dreghorn. More likely its merely coincidental that parallels can be drawn. Lets not forget Glasgow already had loggia in situ from c1652 and wouldn’t have needed to emulate per se. Glasgow was merely retaining in its design what it had already become accustomed. Although style cues would have been sought to project status for the new build.
Another building in London of this time was similar in style. It was street-side and accessible (to view) by all. In terms of influencing perceptions it held a greater capacity simply in terms of its visibility.
The taverns and coffee houses, like Lloyd’s Coffee House were a favourite haunt of merchants and sailors for up to date shipping news amongst other things. It was essential for trade & important to brokers for pricing insurance of both ship & cargo. Lloyd’s was situated near East India House fl1729-86 designed by architect Theodore Jacobsen. This building would have been known to Glasgow’s merchants of the plain stains. Indeed the East India Company would later have an ‘East India Association Office’ located in Virginia Buildings on Virginia Street. It would have been relatively new having been built in 1729 when in 1736 Dreghorn was possibly looking south for inspiration as he had done previously with St Martin’s in the Field. The statue of King William of Orange that stood outside the Tontine was gifted to the city by a Scottish East India Merchant by the name of James Macrae(1677-1744). His estate in Ayrshire called ‘Orange Field’.
East India House, Leadenhall Street was the London headquarters of the East India Company, from which much of British India was occupied until the British government took control of the company’s possessions in 1858. It is no surprise that this design would resonate as projecting power with the mercantile and trading class. (Macrae had been govenor of Madras for five years.) The architectural cues of the Tontine, sourced primarily via London would have been well known to Glasgow’s mercantile & landed class. Used to project sagacity, power & confidence. One suspects they also desired some of London’s mercantile success.
And with this success came the need, in 1781, to expand the old Town Hall with the William Hamilton commission. The expansion of the Tontine from five bays to ten, limited by plot width, has resulted in the imbalance of the segmented arches we see in the finished exterior. Internally we have very few descriptions, although, its grandeur was captured By Alexander Hay in his Modern Builders Guide.1
Fig.12: Sectional Plan from west of the 1781 design by William Hamilton Source: The Modern Builders Guide by Alexander Hay, pub. Glasgow c1841.Fig.13: Map view showing 1778 v 1807 Footprint with exploded city view. Source: Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.
Constrained on three sides, the success of the remodel is all the more remarkable given how well the new building was received, a showpiece for the city. The last thing regarding Hamilton’s work here that’s not often considered was the combined scale of the Assembly Room, Coffee House and Exchange. Its footprint was impressive. Industrial complexes like the local Phoenix Foundry aside, only ecclesiastical buildings like the Cathedral and St Andrews Church, or scholastic like the University, or the new Royal Infirmary can compete. David Hamilton’s later Royal Theatre on Queen Street thought to be the largest provincial theatre of its time in Europe stands out too. To be confident enough to take on such a massive undertaking in a new city takes skill, experience, and self confidence. William Hamilton would appear to have had all three.
Fig.14: ‘Trongate’ 1872, attributed to artist William Gawin Herdman. Source: Courtesy of Lyon & Turnbull
A relatively unknown image of the Trongate only recently re-discovered, (sold 2015 for a record price for the artist) showing the Tontine Hotel behind Macrae’s statue that he gifted to the city.
In September of 1911 a fire broke out causing damage of £60,000. Four firemen were badly injured in the blaze whilst trying to contain the spread and protect the historic building and surroundings. After 125 years at the Cross it was sadly replaced in 1912 by the building we see today.
With thanks to George Fairfull-Smith; ‘Wealth of a City’ 2010. ↩︎
Fig.1: John Spreull (1657-1722). The original painting was by Sir Godfrey Kneller. Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning
He was an apothecary and merchant who dealt in pearls and cured red herring and known for being tough in both body & mind. A man of affairs, Spreull was a merchant who fought on the side of the Covenanters at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679 and was imprisoned for several years on Bass Rock by the victorious Royalists. He was twice tortured in front of the Duke of York and the Committee of the Privy Council of Scotland. The Duke said that “Mr Spreull was more dangerous than five hundred common people”. One suspects judging by the world weary countenance this image was post those ordeals. Being known as ‘Bass John’ could not have been easy; to be reminded of your defeat & torture at every turn.
On his release he continued to trade and must have held and/or acquired land & property. One of those properties was adjoining the original Hutcheson’s Hospital. Despite his ordeals by 18 October 1700 a child Margarit Spreule was borne to John Spreule and Margarit Wingat.
Fig.2: Hutchesons hospital as seen from the rear courtyard. Source:theGlasgowStoryFig.3: McArthur’s map of 1778, ‘The Trongate’ with location of Spreull’s Land. Source: Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland
His daughter Margaret never married and was the last of her line. Knowing this, when she and her cousin Bailie John Shortridge were both in old age, she told him that when making provision for his family she wished him “to take care of Will and leave Jamie to me.”
True to her word, she bequeathed her house to her nephew James Shortridge, with an entail stipulating that if he wished to inherit he must change his name to Spreull. This he did on her death in 1784. We are told he immediately pulled down the old property that had belonged to covenanter John Spreull and engaged an architect to build. Given its prominent location in town, one suspects James would have wanted a building worthy of the Shawfield Mansion to its west.
The drawing above shows the characteristic design of arcaded ground floor seen in Robert Adams plans for Glasgow’s new town. This approach for the tenements of the new town was adopted around Wilson Street, Ingram Street, John Street to name but a few.
James had a villa at Linthouse, as such Spreull’s Land as it became known was a ‘buy-to-let’, it commanded a good rent and was for half a century one of the smartest addresses in town. But it wasn’t simply its prominent location or architect who made it memorable. That feature was hidden inside.
Spreull’s Land contained an architectural feature that up until then was only available to a select few, owing to its construction costs, it had mainly been the preserve of Kings & Queens, Lords & Ladies, state & public buildings: the cantilevered stair. Thought to have made its first appearance in the UK at the Queen’s House, Greenwich c1629-35. Other early examples can be seen at Chatsworth House 1688-91.
Cantilevered stairs had already made it to Scotland as can been seen at Dalquharran Castle by Robert Adam 1777-1792. But here at Spreull’s Land the intent is more ambitious than at Dalquharran, elliptical rather than spiral, its scale grander more in keeping with what had been produced earlier south of the border.
Spreull’s Land with its ‘hanging’ staircase wasn’t then unique in terms of its construction, but it was unique in terms of breaking a social barrier by being introduced in a lowly tenement. This wasn’t a building that had been a palace or some prestigious public address that had fallen on hard times, subdivided for the hoi polloi to inhabit. No, here was something designed from scratch (for the wealthy) but a tenement nonetheless. It would have set a new benchmark for what a residential tenement could be. It also points to the growing affluence and aspirations of Glasgow merchants and traders of this time.
Spreull’s staircase (Fig.9) just prior to demolition in August of 1978. The iron rod supports are not thought original and were a later addition as the structure aged.
(David Allan’s shadow work is best ignored. But what are the chances today of someone sitting for a formal portrait whilst they knit a pair of stockings! The house in the background does not appear to be Linthouse b1791 captured by Annan 1870, but Charing Cross has been given as a possible location. Is this an earlier iteration of the villa?)
From Post office directories entry to Spreull’s Land was not directly off Trongate but as the custom at the time from the rear, via an entry from newly projected Glassford Street. It might explain why up until at least 1978, unusually for the Merchant City, only a single story building existed at this point. You can see from Fig.3 of McCarthur’s map that removal of the Shawfield Mansion 1793 would have facilitated this entry point as it was constrained by Hutcheson’s hospital to the east which was not demolished until a year later. The mansion lost out but its offices directly on Trongate survived, temporarily.
In terms fixture and fittings it would appear to have been leveraging the local foundries such as Carron to furnish its fire places.
How do we know Spreull’s Land was the first? Because we are told it attracted visitors from far and wide to admire its engineering for many years. However, with its plain façade (see Fig.10) , engineering innovation was not enough to preserve it for posterity. However, thankfully, at least one of the architect’s buildings does survive in Glasgow. A lone testament of his legacy to the city. (That too has went unattributed until relatively recently.) The architect for Spreull’s Land was William Hamilton (c1730-c1795).1
Postscript: The Linthouse Villa & Portico
Fig.15: Linthouse, photographed in 1870 by Thomas Annan. fl(c1791-1921) Glasgow University Library, Special Collections
The portico (believed to be of Adam design) was preserved and re-erected in Elder Park, where it remains. Ionic portico, pair curved flights of steps, segmental-arched doorway, fanlight, parts of flank walls.
Commissioned by Robert Findlay jnr of Easterhill (1784-1862) for Findlay, Duff & Co. c1816.
From feu & map records there were at least three plots involved.
The centre 8 bays of the Virginia Buildings take up the entire plot that was detailed as ‘875 square yards of ground’ in the original feu of 1754 from George Buchanan of Drumpelier (2nd son of Andrew Buchanan of Mount Vernon) to John Bowman of Ashgrove (1701-1797). Bowman like his father before him was made Lord Provost in 1764-65. He was a merchant don of the elite class. A partner in Speirs, Bowman & Co. among other concerns.
Built primarily on the original 875 square yard plot of Glasgow Lord Provost John Bowman of Ashgrove. The centre 8 bays match stylistically the interior courtyard. The wings, possibly a later addition, appear to reference the Jacobean Corsetry to the north with the incised detail on the first floor windows. Indeed Fleming’s map of 1807 confirms the Jacobean Corsetry was already in situ prior to the Virginia Buildings.
No37 and No49 Virginia Street form wings to complete the ten bays of the Virginia Buildings. They utilise both the southern gateway of Alexander Speirs’ of Elderslie (c1714-1782) plot to the north and what would appear to be the corresponding north most gateway of John Coats Campbell of Clathick (1721-1804) plot to the south. Coates-Campbell was a founder partner of the Thistle Bank, (Maxwell, Ritchie & Co.) located across the street at No9 Virginia Street. Like Bowman he was made a Lord Provost of Glasgow in 1788.
Contrary to popular belief whilst the Jacobean Corsetry was assimilated into the Virginia Buildings on their later purchase by Findlay, Duff & Co. it did not form part of the build commissioned by Robert Findlay jnr. However, there is reason to assume that on acquiring this property the height was raised to match the elevation of the Virginia Buildings to the south.
Later feu records of 1800 & 1836 make the distinction between the Virginia Buildings at 875 square yards and a property to the north (the Jacobean Corsetry).
It is only much later that this distinction is lost and the incorrect assumption made that the Jacobean Corsetry was built after the Virginia Buildings based solely, I believe, on the later purchases by Robert Findlay of Findlay, Duff & Co. (in 1808 & 1816) that were transposed by Senex. The architecture would show that there are stylistic differences between the two. A cursory look at the map evidence would reflect a footprint ten years in advance of the assumed timeline.
A Glasgow Goad Insurance Map of 1889-1946 clearly shows the stairwell of 49 Virginia Street giving access both north and south acting as a ‘bridge’ between the older Jacobean Corsetry at No53 and the new Virginia Buildings. Whereas today the same stairwell only services access north into the Jacobean Corsetry. This probably explains why HES/Canmore lump 49 & 53 Virginia Street together when the correct pairing should be 37-49 & 53 Virginia Street in terms of build timeline and architect(s).
Architect
In an old text I’d read that a ‘Robert Scott’ was responsible for building extensively in Virginia Street. However, with no specific buildings named or in what capacity eg Developer/Builder/Mason/Architect there was little to go on. Indeed, the Thistle Bank that lay opposite had as one of its partners Robert Scot, merchant.
In the local Tait Directory a Robert Scott(1770-1839), architect, was listed who ran a Drawing Academy nearby. This was located at various locations on Argyle Street and Candleriggs. Again, with nothing to tie this Robert to Virginia Buildings I could only ‘park’ the info.
1807: 109 Candleriggs ‘Architectural Academy’
1808: –
1809: 626 Argyle Street ‘Architec. Academy’ 1810/1811/1812/
1813: 101 Candleriggs ‘Arcitec. Academy’ 1814/
1815: 2 Argyle Street ‘Architectural Academy’ 1816/1817/1818/1819
1820: 4 South Hanover St ‘Architect. Academy’*
1821: 6 South Hanover St ‘Architect. Academy’* 1822/1823/1824/
1825: 25 South Hanover St ‘Architectural Academy’
1826: 6** South Hanover St ‘Architectural Academy’*
1833: 23 South Hanover St. ‘Scott & Wilson’ architects, surveyors etc
1834: 23 South Hanover St. ‘Scott, Stephen & Gale’ architects, surveyors, later from 1838 civil engineers. 1835/1836/1837/1838/1839/1840/1841.
1836: Robert Scott of ‘Scott, Stephen & Gale’ house 72 Norfolk St. 1837/
*Possibly same address. Street renumbering changed 1826. More research required.
** Possible misprint should read ’25’.
(According to Colvin, the Academy was situated in George Street and he ran it in conjunction with a James Watt.)
Recently I was reviewing some documents of 1822 relating to the lease of the Virginia Buildings for Findlay, Connal & Co. the later name for Findlay, Duff & Co. and sure enough the architect was listed as ‘Robt. Scott’. I believe it is Robert Scott (1770-1839) of the Drawing Academy mentioned earlier.
Reading the ScottishArchitects website they list Robert Scott’s known work. What lends weight that he is responsible for the Virginia Buildings is his commission to build St Mary’s in Renfield Street 1824. This was an Episcopalian Church.
Examining the early feuers of Virginia Street was like looking at a congregation of Episcopalians. Indeed, Alexander Oswald and David Dayell were on the management committee for Scotland’s first Episcopalian Church St Andrew’s on the Green. A committee that Alexander Speirs would later join. These ‘Virginia Dons’ were not just joined by business and family they were joined by belief too… and liked a wee sing song judging by the St Andrew’s alternative name the ‘Whistling Kirk’.
The first meeting of the original subscribers and contributors, called by advertisement in the Glasgow Journal was held on the 15th of March, 1750, in the house of Robert Tennent, vintner and the names of the first directors are as follows, viz. : Alexander Oswald, merchant ; Casper Claussen, sugar baker ; James Dennistoune, merchant ; Robert Parr, dyer David Dalyell, merchant; David Cochran, merchant; George Sangster, tobacconist ; Robert Tennent, vintner ; and Andrew Stalker, bookseller. William Paul and Andrew Hunter masons and Thomas Thomson, wright.
” Excerpts from the Sederunt Book Glasgow, 15th May, 1751. Which day it was reported to this meeting that Messrs. Richard Oswald & Company merchants in London (who had been solicited to procure supply for the chapel in London) had, by a letter of the 4th current directed to Messrs. Oswald of Glasgow, informed that in order to obtain a “Brief” in favour of the chapel, it would be necessary to employ a solicitor ; and that in answer to this, Mr. Alexander Oswald, in name of the managers, to the said Richard Oswald & Co., of London, being laid before this meeting, whereby they are empowered to employ a solicitor for the above purpose, on the expense of the managers, in case it was found proper. The managers now present unanimously approve of the said answer in their name, and agree to pay the expense debursed in prosecuting the same.—James Dennistoune ; John Buchanan, jun.’
“‘Glasgow, 26th September, 1751. Which day, in consequence of an advertisement in the Glasgow Journal for a general meeting, this time and place, of all concerned in the English chapel, sundry of them being now met accordingly in the house of John Burns, vintner in Glasgow, and David Dalyell, merchant in Glasgow, was elected preses of the meeting, in the absence of Mr. Alex. Oswald ; and it is agreed, that Dr. John Brisbane, physician in Glasgow, and Alex. Spiers, merchant there, should be added to the number of the present directors, and to continue in office till next general election.
Old Glasgow and its Environs p226
With regard to the original directors of the St. Andrew’s Episcopal Chapel, Alexander Oswald, the first in the list of directors, died at Scotstown, 27th January 1763. Casper Claussen was a Dutchman brought from Holland by the Western or Stockwell Sugar House Company, to improve and superintend the manufacture of their sugar-refining process. James Dennistoun belonged to the Colgrain family, and was probably the father of the James Dennistoun who married Miss Mary Ramsay Oswald, fifth daughter of George Oswald of Scots- town Andrew Stalker was a bookseller, and also the Editor of the Glasgow Journal. He lived in a house which stood across the Molendinar Burn, near the Gallowgate Bridge on the south, which house is shown on the Plan annexed to these jottings As for the other directors, I have found no particulars regard- ing them.
Old Glasgow and its Environs p244
In 1781, Patrick Colquhoun, merchant, was elected treasurer of the English Chapel as it was known “…requested by James Dennistoun Esq. and several of the Principal managers of the Licensed Episcopal Church…” Colquhoun’s bookkeeping was meticulous, as one would expect.
Included in a subscription list were Lord Blantyre who owed /3 3s., James Dennistoun who owed 4 1 5s., Peter Speirs who owed 1 1 5s., James Alston junior who owed1 5s., and Mrs. McDowall who owed li 5s. All apart from Lord Blantyre and Mrs. McDowall (probably the wife of William McDowall, merchant, who was a manager of the Episcopal Chapel in 1781) were members of the merchant elite. (source thesis of Carolyn Peters 1990)
Mungo Naismith’s story passed down, whilst working on his magnificent St Andrew’s in the Square, of seeing the ‘devil himself’ working on St Andrews on the Green is of legend. Shockingly, Andrew Hunter, one of the masons on St Andrews on The Green otherwise known as the English Chapel was ex-communicated when it was discovered he had worked on the build.
Would this have informed future decisions by Episcopalians to keep certain work within the faith so to speak? Could that have influenced the street architecture away from the solid baronial style of Mungo Naismith toward a ‘lighter’ more refined European style that we see develop later around the New Town.
We are told merchant dons of old greeted each other ‘in the continental style'(a kiss on each cheek). When you compare Colin Dunlop & John Murdochs houses to John Craig’s of Miller Street the architecture is more refined in the latter.
Craig a man of taste was fairly unique in Glasgow of the time with his ability to speak Italian having possibly travelled on the continent. He was married to Sarah Stark, the sister of William Stark architect of the Huntarian Museum. She died in Barcelona on her way to Italy for health reasons. No lightweight himself, Craig designed Glasgow’s Surgeon’s Hall & the Grammar school in the manner of Robert Adam.
The Palladio effect coupled with, some have argued, the influence of the American East and their scalloped entrances found their way back to Glasgow as seen at 42 Miller Street. Both these influences would inform the direction that Glasgow architecture would take in the late 1700s. Robert Scott, architect, played his part too; the Virginia Buildings a lasting legacy.
Entrance at no.41: Note the execution of the spiral coiled volutes. Compare these with 118 Blytheswood Square which is a known build by Robert Scott along with 172-188 West Regent Street. (184)
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