Scottish architect (1776-1855)
Graham's
Blythswood House , Glasgow. Home of the
Lords Blythswood ; it was demolished in 1935.
James Gillespie Graham's Edinburgh townhouse, at 34 Albany Street
James Gillespie Graham (11 June 1776 – 21 March 1855) was a Scottish
architect , prominent in the early 19th century.
Life
Graham was born in
Dunblane on 11 June 1776. He was the son of Malcolm Gillespie, a solicitor. He was christened as James Gillespie.
[1]
In 1810, under the name James Gillespie, he was living in a flat at 10 Union Street at the head of
Leith Walk in Edinburgh. By 1820 he had moved to a far more luxurious house at 34 Albany Street, not far from his earlier flat.
[2]
He is most notable for his work in the
Scottish baronial style, as at
Ayton Castle , and he also worked in the
Gothic Revival style, in which he was heavily influenced by the work of
Augustus Pugin . However, he also worked successfully in the
neoclassical style as exemplified in his design of
Blythswood House at Renfrew seven miles down the River Clyde from
Glasgow .
Graham designed principally
country houses and
churches . He is also well known for his
interior design , his most noted work in this respect being that at
Taymouth Castle and
Hopetoun House .
Some of his principal churches include
St Andrew's Cathedral in Glasgow, and
St Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral and the Highland Tolbooth Church (now
The Hub ) in Edinburgh. His houses include
Cambusnethan House in Lanarkshire.
He was responsible for laying out the
Moray Estate of
Edinburgh's New Town , and for the design of
Hamilton Square and adjoining streets in the New Town of
Birkenhead , England, for William Laird, brother-in-law of
William Harley , major developer of the New Town upon
Blythswood Hill in Glasgow. According to the writer
Frank Arneil Walker he may have been responsible for the remodelling of
Johnstone Castle , Renfrewshire.
[3]
He designed and built a house at 34 Albany Street in Edinburgh's New Town for himself and his wife and lived there from 1817 to 1833.
[4]
He died in Edinburgh on 21 March 1855 after a four-year illness.
He is buried in the sealed south-west section of
Greyfriars Kirkyard generally called the
Covenanter's Prison together with his wife and other family members.
Family
In 1815 he married Margaret Ann Graham, daughter of a wealthy landowner, William Graham of Orchill (d.1825) in
Perthshire .
[1] Together they had two daughters. In 1825, on the death of his wife's father, the couple inherited his large country estate, and James thereafter became known as James Gillespie Graham.
[1]
His wife died in 1826, and he married again, to Elizabeth Campbell, daughter of Major John Campbell of the 76th Regiment of Foot.
Principal works
see
[1]
Tolbooth Kirk Edinburgh
The west front of Crawford Priory as it is today
Torrisdale Castle
Cambusnethan Priory
Duns Castle
19–34 Hamilton Square, Birkenhead
Ayton Castle
High Kirk ,
Dunoon
Snizort Parish Church and manse (1800/1802)
Achnacarry House,
Inverness-shire (1800) (completed by
William Burn )
Alterations in the Gothic style,
Lanrick Castle (1803)
New Kilpatrick Parish Church,
Bearsden (1807)
A grand crescent of townhouses, Warriston Crescent,
Edinburgh (1807, resumed 1817)
Arisaig Church (1809)
Cupar County Buildings (1810)
Drumtochty Castle (1810)
Falkirk Parish Church (1810)
Culdees Castle ,
Muthill (1810)
Sleat Manse,
Skye (1810)
Fife County Prison,
Cupar (1811)
Crawford Priory (1811)
Steeple of
Monimail Church (1811)
Enlargement of Cameron House,
Loch Lomond (1812)
Candleford House (1812)
Completion of
Eredine House (1812)
Monument to
Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville ,
Comrie (1812)
Auchtertool Parish Church (1812)
Bowland House,
Stow of Wedale (1813)
Clackmannan Parish Church (1815)
Gray's Hospital,
Elgin (1815)
Liberton Parish Church (1815)
Edmonstone Castle near
Biggar (1815)
Enlargement of
Glenbarr Abbey (1815)
Torrisdale Castle (1815)
Glenfinnan Monument (1815)
Cambusnethan Priory (1816)
Inverary Courthouse (1816)
St Andrew's Cathedral, Glasgow (1816)
High Kirk ,
Dunoon (1816)
Keith Parish Church (1816)
The Market House,
Duns (1816)
Channelkirk Church (1816)
Remodelling of
Dunblane Cathedral (1817)
St Mungo's Parish Church,
Alloa (1817)
Blythswood House ,
Renfrew , (1818) demolished, for the owners of the Lands of Blythswood, Glasgow
Drimsynie House, Lochgoilhead (1818) for the Campbells of Blythswood
Restoration of the Church of the Holy Rude, Stirling (1818)
Dunbar Parish Church (1818)
Remodelling of
Duns Castle (1818)
Logie Easter Parish Church (1818)
George Street Independent Church,
Glasgow (1819)
Nicolson Street Church ,
Edinburgh (1819) interior and roof lost to a fire in 1930s
Mar and Kellie mausoleum
Alloa (1819)
Layout of
Blythswood Square in
Glasgow (1820) for William Harley
Hamilton Square, Birkenhead for the Laird family from Greenock (1820s)
Manse at
Kinloss (1820)
Lee Castle ,
Carnwath (1820)
Mountquhanie, Kilmany,
Fife (1820)
Kirkwall School (1820)
Enlargement of
Allanton Castle ,
Cambusnethan (1820)
Kilmaron Castle (1820)
Terrace of large townhouses, 1-11 Albyn Place,
Edinburgh (1822)
Terrace of large townhouses, 1-11 St Colme Street,
Edinburgh (1822)
Huge crescent of terraced houses, 1-36 Moray Place,
Edinburgh (1822)
Crescent of houses and flats, 1-8 Randolph Crescent (1822)
Kersfield,
Berwickshire (1822)
Kilmadock Parish Church,
Doune (1822)
Mausoleum, Springwood Park,
Kelso (1822)
Dormont near
Dalton, Dumfriesshire (1823)
Dunninald Castle (1823)
Terraces houses, Alva Street,
Edinburgh (1823)
Hamilton Square,
Birkenhead (1824)
Leith Tolbooth, Tolbooth Wynd,
Edinburgh (1824) demolished to build Council housing
St John's Kirk , Perth (1825; reduction of north
transept )
[5]
Layout of Blacket Place,
Edinburgh (1825)
Enlargement of
Wishaw House (1825)
Layout of Melville Street and Walker Street,
Edinburgh (1825)
Rafford Parish Church (1825)
Dunino Parish Church (1826)
Enlargement of
Inverkeithing Parish Church (1826)
Morham Manse,
Haddington (1826)
Muthill Church (1826)
Commercial Bank,
Inverness (1827)
Quality Street, Mutton Hole, now called
Davidsons Mains ,
Edinburgh (1827)
Manse,
Douglas, Lanarkshire (1828)
Murthly House near
Dunkeld (1829)
18 to 20 Queensferry Street,
Edinburgh (1830)
Ardhmor House,
Dalgety Bay (1830)
Dalgety Kirk,
Dalgety Bay (1830)
Spire on
Haddington Town House ,
Haddington (1830)
Errol Parish Church (1830)
Steeple on
Montrose Old Church (1831)
Chapel at St Margarets Convent, Whitehouse Loan,
Edinburgh (1834)
Bolfracks near
Aberfeldy (1835)
Commercial Bank,
Aberdeen (1836)
Greenside Parish Church,
Edinburgh (1836)
Ardmaddy Castle (designed 1837, executed after death)
Chapel interior,
George Heriot's School (1837)
Remodelling of
Taymouth Castle (1838)
Remodelling of
Kinglassie Parish Church (1839)
Tolbooth Church,
Castlehill ,
Edinburgh (1839) now known as The Hub
Remodelling of
Brodick Castle (1844)
Episcopal Chapel,
Gask (1845)
Ayton Castle (1846)
Wester Bogie House, Abbotshall,
Fife (1850)
See also
Media related to
James Gillespie Graham at Wikimedia Commons
References
External sources
International Artists People