Alexander Thomson was born at Balfron in Stirlingshire in 1817.
He spent his working life as an architect in and around Glasgow until his death
in 1875.
Caledonia Road Church, Gorbals
Caledonia Road Church, Gorbals, was Alexander Thomson's first
church in the city, built in 1857. It has an unconventional asymmetric layout
which follows the edges of the surrounding roads. It is built in an unusual
combination of styles with ancient Greek and provincial Italian elements placed
side by side.
The church & hall were built for a local congregation of
the United Presbyterian Church, previously based at Wellington Place Academy,
Commercial Road.
The church fronted Caledonia Road, flanked either side by
tenements in Cathcart Road and Hospital Street, designed by Thomson as part of a
new development beside Southside railway terminus. The banded masonry of the
church tower was extended into the adjoining tenement blocks to give an eye
catching horizontality to the completed design scheme.
At the very top level, right, the tower features some intricate
carvings around the space that was intended for the clock which was never
installed.
Caledonia Road Church and adjacent tenements viewed from fringes of Southside Railway Station
Thomson's tenements at the rear of the Caledonia Road Church
were demolished in the early 1970's, leaving the ruin standing in perfect
isolation which persists to the present time with no redevelopment having taken
place over a period of over 30 years.
Sketch of newly opened Caledonia Road Church, 1857
This sketch of the newly opened Caledonia Road United Presbyterian Church dates from 1857 when the original congregation were gathering for a Sabbath service, dressed in their genteel “Sunday best” clothes.
A ceremony to celebrate the "turning of the first sod" for the foundations of the Thomson designed St Vincent Street United Presbyterian Church had taken place a week before the opening of Caledonia Road Church. On the morning of 16th March 1857, the Rev. Dr.Alexander O. Beattie of Gordon Street U.P. Church and other members of his congregation took a share in carrying out the symbolic task. Dr Beattie would have been the new church's first minister had he not died in 1858, the year before its completion.
St Vincent Street United Presbyterian Church, 1859
St Vincent Street Church
St Vincent Street Church, to the west of the city centre, opened in February 1859 with its first minister being Rev. George M. Middleton who had been an assistant pastor at Gordon Street U.P. Church prior to the death of Dr Beattie. At the time when the Caledonia Road Church was destroyed by
fire in the 1960's, Glasgow Association of Spiritualists were occupying the St
Vincent Street Church, keeping it from falling into dereliction.
The Council rented St Vincent Street Church to a congregation
of the Free Church of Scotland in October 1971, who still occupy it. There were
proposals in the mid-1980's to terminate the lease to the Free Church and use
the building as a tourist attraction in a similar way to Thomson's Holmwood
House and Rennie Mackintosh's Scotland Street School. This never happened and
the building still fulfils its intended function as a place of worship.
In August 2007 a £1.85million renovation project was announced
by the church’s owners, Glasgow City Council.
Cast-iron column, crowned with outsized capital decorated with
Thomson's trademark motifs, supporting the gallery of St Vincent Street church
The tower of St Vincent Street Church is much more decorative
than the tower of Caledonia Road Church. Its extravagant ornamentation appears
to be a culmination of all Thomson's mysterious perceptions.
Pencil sketch of St Vincent Street Church, 1926
Chalmers Free Church was constructed in Ballater Street (then known as Govan Street), Gorbals in 1859. It was designed in a style more reminiscent of Thomson's domestic work, sharing similar features to some of his villas and terraces.
The congregation of Chalmers Free Church only remained in this church for a mere 12 years before moving out in 1871, relocating to a new church in Salisbury Street. The building had a number of commercial uses before it had to be demolished following a mysterious fire in 1971.
Queen's Park UP Church
Thomson's final Glasgow church was Queen's Park United
Presbyterian Church in Langside Road which was completed in 1869.
The Glasgow Herald of 26th March 1943 briefly mentioned
the incident but because of wartime reporting restrictions gave no information
which would help identify the church which had been attacked. The caption reads
"This church was destroyed by incendiaries during yesterday morning's raid on a
town in Central Scotland".
Engraving of Queen's Park UP Church
3D model of Queen's Park UP Church on display at the Lighthouse, August 2017
Sketch by Alexander Thomson of unexecuted design of St Mary's Free Church, Edinburgh
The Knowe
The Knowe is a large rambling villa situated at the corner of
Albert Drive and Shields Road in Pollokshields. It was built in 1853 and
extended in 1858.
Drawing of stair tower at the Knowe, Pollokshields, featuring rounded arches
Maria Villa, Langside
Alexander Thomson's double villa in Mansionhouse Road,
Langside was built in 1857. It features a couple of semi-detached houses with a
most unusual layout.
Perspective view of Maria Villa, Langside
Side elevation of Maria Villa, Langside
Holmwood House
Holmwood House in Cathcart was built in 1858 for James Couper
who, with his brother Robert, owned and operated paper mills by the side of the
White Cart Water.
Engraving of Holmwood House, Cathcart
Busby House, which was built in 1796, was extended and remodelled by Alexander Thomson in 1856-1857 for local landowner, Durham Kippen, who rented it to Messrs. Inglis & Wakefield, the proprietors of the nearby calico printing works. The extensions, including a bay window reminiscent of Holmwood, were built with locally quarried Giffnock sandstone which provided a contrast to the harled walls of the original house.
Alexander Thomson's additions to Busby House
If you wish to see some historic photographs of this old house please visit the Busby page of this website.
No. 1 Moray Place
Thomson's own house in Strathbungo was part of a Grecian
terrace completed in 1861.
Drawing of Alexander Thomson's home at Moray Place, Glasgow, by Gerald Blaikie
Ellisland, Pollokshields
Ellisland, in Nithsdale Road, Pollokshields, was built in 1871,
a decade after Thomson's best known domestic works. This symmetrically fronted
villa has much less depth and shadow than his earlier examples. It is a striking
design for what is fundamentally a rather simple square house.
Thomson's best known structure in Glasgow's west end is Great
Western Terrace, designed in 1869, but not completed until after his death in
1875.
Drawing of entrance and porch at Alexander Thomson's Great
Western Terrace, Glasgow
The evolution of Thomson's complex commercial buildings began
with a small office block at West Nile Street, built in 1858, which is still
standing.
Grosvenor Building
The Grosvenor Building in Gordon Street, facing the main
entrance to Central Station, was one of Thomson's earliest commercial works,
built in 1861 and then hastily rebuilt behind the façade following a fire in
1864.
Such was the demand for office space in the city-centre at the
turn of the century that an incongruous Baroque extension was allowed to be
added to the roof in 1907. No effort was made to match the style of the original
building built half a century earlier. This strange structure, like the fancy
top layers of a wedding cake, may have been very nice as a free standing
building in a different setting, but does nothing to enhance the tiers below.
The new levels housed the Grosvenor Restaurant from which the whole block
derives its current title.
Grecian Chambers
Grecian Chambers on the north side of Sauchiehall Street, close
to Thomson's St Vincent Street Church, was completed in 1865 and has survived
the ravages of time particularly well. It is a building of total symmetry with a
central entrance leading to the commercial space on the upper floors. At ground
level there are 8 retail units with glazed frontages of varying sizes, but the
overall symmetry of the block is still maintained.
Decoration at door of Grecian Chambers
Engraving of Grecian Chambers
Architect's detailing for Grecian Chambers, Sauchiehall Street
Egyptian Halls
The design and construction of the Egyptian Halls, on the
eastern side of Union Street, kept Thomson busy from 1870 until its completion
in 1873. The four-storey warehouse was built around a large central staircase
with large open areas of floor space. These floors were supported by a iron
framework integrated into the masonry. Because the structural loads were shared by the cast-iron
frame, Thomson was able to create continuous highly original designs around the
many windows at each level. He was also able to indulge in some heavy stonework
in the upper levels of the façade.
The third floor windows are deeply inset from the squat
Egyptian styled colonnade, seeming to run endlessly along the frontage.
Sandwiched between horizontal bands of exotic Thomson motifs,
the second floor of Egyptian Halls features a repetitive row of slender double
pilasters. The windows at this level are not as deeply recessed as at the top
floor, as the ornamental masonry is not as massive.
Above the shop fascias, the first floor of Egyptian Halls
features highly decorative projecting pilasters either side of the windows. The
masonry at this level, which can be closely examined from the street, displays
typical Thomson stellar and botanical ornamentation.
Contemporary photograph of newly-built Egyptian Halls
I obtained access to the upper floors of Egyptian Halls in September 2012 to
produce an interesting selection of photographs inside of the Egyptian Halls, showing the current
dereliction which has exposed the structural elements for close inspection.
There is a persistent urban myth that Alexander Thomson had a professional involvement in the co-ordinated civil engineering works of 1869 / 1870 for the construction of the first Queen Margaret Bridge and associated retaining wall and staircase. The advocates of the "Greek Thomson Sixty Steps" fable
have gone as far as to attach a plaque
with an invented year of 1872 onto the retaining wall.
The North Kelvinside page of this website gives a substantiated account of the origins of the suburb including press cuttings from 1869 & 1870, when the structural work was being undertaken. The only designer mentioned in these articles is the engineer Ritchie Rodger Esq C.E., 37 West George Street, Glasgow.
Alexander Thomson was vice-president of the Glasgow Institute of Architects in the years 1869 & 1870 rather than being an active Civil Engineer. There has never been any evidence to suggest that he took on complicated civil engineering projects in the closing years of his life.
Bath Street Offices
Thomson's final commercial commission, which he never lived to
see completed, was situated in Bath Street in Glasgow's office district. This
little known block was demolished in 1970, before Thomson's reputation had been
revived and his modern following had been established.
Top of Buck's Head Building
The Buck's Head building at the corner of Argyle Street and
Dunlop Street was a bold experiment with the modern materials of its time. The
novel design incorporates cast iron both in the internal structure and in the
façade, giving it a feel quite unlike Thomson's other commercial works. There
is, however, typical Thomson detailing in the stonework on the upper layers
which are topped with a sculpture of a buck by John Mossman. The building derives its name from a hotel and tavern which had
previously occupied the site. The hotel had been formed from the mansion-house
of George Murdoch who was Provost of Glasgow for two periods in the mid-1700's.
It had also been occupied by the Hopkirks of Dalbeth, who had been Glasgow
"Tobacco Lords".
A selection of my architectural drawings of the buildings of Alexander Thomson was displayed at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow during the summer of 2007.
Alexander "Greek" Thomson Architecture Exhibition by Gerald Blaikie, 2007
The drawing below of Thomson's ornamental masonry by Gerald Blaikie features in the Alexander Thomson Society's Takes on Thomson web page, which was conceived as a way of arousing contemporary interest and artistic angles on the works of Thomson. There are some fabulous images to be appreciated in this specially created 2017 resource.
The drawing featured in the "Lines of Thought" exhibition at the Lighthouse in 2017, celebrating the bicentenary of Thomson's birth.
Bust of Alexander Thomson by John Mossman
This memorial bust of Alexander Thomson was completed in 1877,
two years after his death. The Glasgow Institute of Architects, of which Thomson
was a founder member, commissioned the celebrated sculptor, John Mossman, to
produce this lasting memorial. It was presented to Glasgow Corporation and
passed on to their various cultural successors.
Monument over grave of Alexander Thomson at Southern Necropolis,
Glasgow
Also in 2006, a replacement monument for the grave of Alexander
Thomson was erected in the Southern Necropolis. This graveyard is entered from
Caledonia Road, where the ruins of his 1857 church still stands. As with the
church, vandals had wrecked the original gravestone.
Alexander Thomson's Death Certificate
The Glasgow Herald of 23rd March 1875 published an
intimation of Alexander Thomson's death the previous day, (above).
In the Victorian era Thomson created some of Scotland's most unique
secular and ecclesiastical buildings. His structures are still instantly
recognisable, blending archetypical Greek styling with Egyptian and other exotic
themes.
The tower of the church is completely original, following no
historical precedents. The classical Greek style did not feature towers and it
is unlikely that Thomson would have found any examples from antiquity to guide
him in his design.
The depopulation of the Gorbals left the church without a
congregation by 1962, after which it was purchased by Glasgow Corporation for a
mere £3700 in 1963. The church was severely damaged by fire on the night of 30th
October 1965. The arson attack took place shortly after consultants had
estimated the cost of restoration of the empty building at around £90,000. The
shell of the church still survives and is now floodlit at night to become one of
Glasgow's architectural attractions.
The only other building still standing
in the vicinity is the Brazen Head pub, formerly known as the Granite City,
which sits alongside the abandonded railway track from St Enoch to Barrhead
where it crosses over Cumberland Street and Cathcart Road.
The church opened for public worship on Sunday 22nd March 1857 with a service led by Rev. Dr. Robert T. Jeffrey, who served as a pastor to the congregation until his death on 1st August 1895.
The constituent parts of the building display different styles, with a
typical Thomson Greek temple placed alongside an exotic clock tower which shows
more oriental influences. The windows on the four sides of the tower each
feature paired sculptured faces looking in on one another.
Glasgow
City Council acquired the building in December 1970 and carried out repairs and
maintenance to keep the church as much as possible in its original state.
Historic Scotland offered to
provide a £350,000 grant to go towards a full restoration of the
building.
The refurbishment involved structural consolidation work to the
main roof trusses, internal replastering and repairs to the crumbling stonework.
The symmetry of the composition was ruined by the construction of a huge railway viaduct to the immediate west of the church which required the removal of the side entrance, shown to the left of the above drawing. A new hall designed by Thomson had previously been added at the eastern end of the block.
A history of the various premises occupied by the congregation can be found in the Laurieston, Gorbals page of this website.
The church
was destroyed during the Second World War when it was struck by a German
incendiary bomb in March 1943. The lavish interior furnishings and paintwork
would only have served as kindling to speed up the destruction of this
outstanding landmark.
It was built in Thomson's unique style, combining
various elements of antiquity, from the Semitic to the Greek.
The Knowe was designed in 1850 while Thomson was in
partnership with his brother-in-law John Baird. This was before he had fully
developed his now familiar neo-Greek style, which he perfected while working
with his brother George from 1856 onwards. The villa's Italianate styling is
still very original and when looked at in comparison with some of Thomson's
later houses, illustrates the evolution of his idiosyncratic domestic
architecture.
Surprisingly, the Knowe features arches in its design, a
feature which Thomson would later claim as having "strewn Europe with ruins"!
The design follows the standard arrangement of houses
placed side by side but the back of each house is placed against the front of
the other, so that they not only share identical layouts but also identical
elevations to the east and west.
It is perhaps surprising that the most
innovative of Thomson's house arrangements never became a fashionable style to
be copied. The houses look much grander than other houses of similar size which
were built to the conventional pattern.
Holmwood shows a novel adaptation of Classical Greek styling to
fit in with mid-19th Century Scottish taste.
The house is now owned by the
National Trust for Scotland, who are carrying out its restoration. The original
stenciled decoration by C.T. Bowie was left intact under layers of wallpaper
during the period when the house was used as a primary school by an order of
religious sisters.
Holmwood is open to the public on afternoons during the
summer months, when the surrounding gardens are also at their best.
The house was allowed to fall into a state of dereliction before being demolished in 1969.
The upper windows of the houses are deeply inset
into the façade behind the regular stone mullions which have oriental motifs
inscribed into the stonework. The end bays, at No.1 and No.10, have grand
pediments which are adorned with exotic carvings.
There were later terraces
added to Moray Place, but they are lacking Thomson's design genius.
The entrance
hall led to a central hallway which was designed as a skylit atrium with lots of
natural light. An attic studio was later added within the roofspace over this
hallway. Efforts have been made over the years to restore the interior closer to
the architect's initial design intentions.
The dwellings are contained within a very long terrace with projecting
porches supported by Ionic columns.
The building features the deeply recessed masonry which would
become his trademark, with the windows at the top level contained within a
typical Thomson colonnade.
The view above demonstrates Thomson's original design intentions, with
repetitive horizontal layers featuring his now familiar Greek motifs. The top
floor is slightly inset to create some additional depth to the frontage.
Unfortunately, the visual effect was totally lost some 45 years later when new
storeys were placed on top of Thomson's fine composition.
The highly original frontage has a
row of shops at ground level, which remained in occupation years after the upper
floors were abandoned. The upper levels are currently unoccupied, although plans
for a major refurbishment are currently being considered. Failing this, this
unique innovative structure will have to be demolished.
The place of this
building in the fascinating development of Victorian Glasgow's
commercial architecture is explored fully in a dedicated page of this
site, which looks at the use of new materials and construction methods in 19th
century Glasgow.
The bridge, wall and staircase were commissioned by local businessman, John Ewing Walker, who, in preference to Alexander Thomson, used the architectural partnership of Haig & Low, West Regent Street, as agents to deal with the development of villas, terraces and tenements in what was then described as "Kelvinside New Suburb".
The building had more
in common with the surrounding office blocks, lacking the originality of the
works created earlier in his career. The external detailing, however shows
typical touches of the master.
It was was completed in 1876, built on the
site of the Thomson designed Scottish Exhibition Rooms of 1855. It has been
suggested that parts of the earlier structure where incorporated into the new
offices. The Exhibition Rooms were the venue for the Glasgow Architectural
Society's first meetings. This organisation survives today as the Glasgow
Institute of Architects.
After Thomson's' offices were demolished the site
was used for the erection of Hellenic House, which despite the title's Greek
associations was a typical concrete panelled multi-storey block of the 1970's.
In June 2003
extensive renovation at a cost of £650,000 was completed. Internal
non-structural elements were removed to make way for escalators and a new lift
in order to provide the type of retail space which modern shoppers require.
The frontage at the upper levels was restored as much as possible to its "as
new" 1868 condition. The old paint layers were carefully examined to provide a
colour scheme for the ironwork which is a close as possible to the original.
The bust came out of storage
following the refurbishment of the magnificent Kelvingrove Art Gallery in late
2006 and can now be viewed from the balcony facing the main hall.
The only inscription on
the new monument is the single word “Thomson”. This reflects the uncertainty as
to which members of the Thomson family were interred in the lair. Precise
details of their dates of birth and death were also in doubt.
The same
edition published a glowing obituary to the man, mentioning the origins of his
"Greek" nickname which survives to today, (below).
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All original artwork, photography and text © Gerald Blaikie
Unauthorised reproduction of any image on this website is not permitted.