Alexander Thomson

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Alexander Thomson bigraphy, stories - British architect

Alexander Thomson : biography

9 April 1817 – 22 March 1875

Alexander "Greek" Thomson (9 April 1817 – 22 March 1875) was an eminent Scottish architect and architectural theorist who was a pioneer in sustainable building. Although his work was published in the architectural press of his day, it was little appreciated outwith Glasgow during his lifetime. It has only been since the 1950s and 1960s that his critical reputation has revived—not least of all in connection with his probable influence on Frank Lloyd Wright.Andrew MacMillan in "Greek" Thomson, Stamp et al., p.207

Henry-Russell Hitchcock wrote of Thomson in 1966: “Glasgow in the last 150 years has had two of the greatest architects of the Western world. C.R.Mackintosh was not highly productive but his influence in central Europe was comparable to such American architects as Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. An even greater and happily more productive architect, though one whose influence can only occasionally be traced in America in Milwaukee and in New York and not at all as far as I know in Europe, was Alexander Thomson.”Letter by Hitchcock published in the Glasgow Herald, 4 March 1966, on the occasion of the proposed demolition by the City council of the Caledonia Road Church

Writings

Thomson’s published writings include the Haldane lectures on the history of architecture (1874) and the Inquiry as to the Appropriateness of the Gothic Style for the Proposed building for the University of Glasgow (1866) which attempted to refute Ruskin and Pugin’s claims for the superiority of Gothic.

Legacy

The Glasgow Institute of Architects set up The Alexander Thomson Memorial immediately following his death. A marble bust of the architect by John Mossman was presented to the Corporation Galleries, Sauchiehall Street, and is now displayed in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. The Alexander Thomson Travelling Studentship, of which the second winner was Charles Rennie Mackintosh, was established in his honor, "for the purpose of providing a travelling studentship for the furtherance of the study of ancient classic architecture, with special reference to the principles illustrated in Mr. Thomson’s works".

Thomson was the pre-eminent architect of his era in Glasgow, yet until recently, his buildings and his reputation have been largely neglected in the city graced by his works.

Holmwood House is generally considered to be Thomson’s finest and most original residential subject. Under the ownership of the National Trust for Scotland, Holmwood has been restored to its original condition and opened to the general public. During the renovation, nineteen panels of a classical frieze depicting scenes from Homer’s Iliad were discovered under layers of paint and wallpaper, rendering Thomson’s nickname all the more apt.

In 1999, a retrospective entitled Alexander Thomson: The Unknown Genius was held at the The Lighthouse, reminding Glaswegians of the need to preserve the remaining examples of this unique architect’s contribution to their city.

The British emigre architect George Ashdown Audsley closely followed Thomson’s ornamentation for several of his secular buildings. The most notable surviving example is his Bowling Green Offices (completed 1896) in New York City. The highly carved granite base of this tall office building is in the Thomson manner with brick Chicago School style floors above.

Career

Alexander was eventually apprenticed to Glasgow architect Robert Foote, ultimately gaining a place in the office of John Baird as a draughtsman. In 1848 Thomson set up his own practice, Baird & Thomson, with John Baird II, who became his brother-in-law, and this firm lasted nine years. In 1857, as "the rising architectural star of Glasgow,"Stamp, Gavin. "At Once Classic and Picturesque…": Alexander Thomson’s Holmwood. The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 57.1 (1998):46-58. he entered into practice with his brother George where he was to enjoy the most productive years of his life. He served as president of both the Glasgow Architectural Society and the Glasgow Institute of Architects. Thomson was an elder of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and his deep religious convictions informed his work. There is a strong suggestion that he closely identified Solomon’s temple with the raised basilica of the same form of his three major churches.J. Stevens Curl, "St Vincent Street Church as a mnemonic of the Temple of Solomon", p.6 ff, The Alexander Thomson Society Newsletter, No. 12 Jan. 1995. He produced a diverse range of structures including villas, a castle, urbane terraces, commercial warehouses, tenements, and three extraordinary churches. Of these, Caledonia Road Free Church (1856–57 – now a ruin), Queen’s Park United Presbyterian Church (1869 – destroyed in WWII), and St Vincent Street Church (1859), the last is the only intact survivor. Hitchcock once stated, “[Thomson has built] three of the finest Romantic Classical churches in the world”.H. R. Hitchcock, Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 1963, p.63 Thomson developed his own highly idiosyncratic style from Greek, Egyptian and Levantine sources and freely adapted them to the needs of the modern city. At the age of 34, Thomson designed his first and only castle, Craigrownie Castle, which stands at the tip of the Rosneath Peninsula in Cove, overlooking Loch Long. The six-storey structure is Scots Baronial in style, featuring a central tower with battlements, steep gables and oriel windows, in addition to a chapel and a mews cottage.